Revisiting Definitions: What is Sustainability?

“Since you and I have been communicating regularly again, all of sudden ASPA has been publishing a lot on this subject and soliciting for articles on it too.” Nancy Foye-Cox, Member, National Council, American Society for Public Administration (ASPA)

Nancy and I go way back to the mid-seventies when we served together on the ASPA Committee on Women in Public Administration. Over the last few months, and since I moved but an hour away from her, we have been emailing more frequently. And, yes, ASPA like other professional associations are increasingly turning their attention to sustainability resulting in more opportunities to increase awareness and answer one of the first questions often asked, What is Sustainability? Over 60,000 searchers a month ask a variation of this question on Google and even more on the term, sustainable as in sustainable business. This out of the 1.2M overall searches per month on sustainability, thirty-seven percent from the United States.

Dr. Stuart Hart

Complicating matters is the issue of there being the opportunity to customize an answer based on individual interests and world views. Stuart Hart the Samuel C. Johnson Chair in Sustainable Global Enterprise at Cornell University’s Johnson School, observes “Sustainability is tribal to some degree. There are many different factions. People come from different directions that all use the same term.” In other words, there is no one strict definition (video quote 1:37). This is particularly nettlesome as some folks use this lack of precision “as an easy way to set sustainability aside.” It is for this reason that I am revisiting some definitions and also citing a recently posted video from the folks at Eastman Chemical Company. You may find these quotes by sustainability leaders helpful to reference in conversations. Link to the their videos in email and in your blog posts. Most importantly, craft your own definition of sustainability and be passionate about it.

“Defining sustainability also means you have to admit what you are not yet doing that you ought to be doing. And so that gap between aspirations and reality is what you want to cross.” Christoph Lueneburger of Egon Zehnder International (video 3:02)

Karl-Henrik Robèrt

The first of four operational principles for sustainability is “in a sustainable society mined materials such as carbon dioxide from fossil fuels and heavy elements are no longer systematically increased in concentration in natural systems.” Karl-Henrik Robèrt, M.D., Ph.D. and founder of The Natural Step. (video 8:29) ”

My vision for sustainability at Eastman is that it is embedded in everything we do, it is part of our DNA, part of our daily life…it is an attitude, a state of mind, its not something you choose to do one day and not the other.” Godefroy Motte, SVP, Regional and Sustainability Officer, Eastman Chemical and

“What sustainability comes down to is balance. It’s about having to make hard choices every single day. To do things that are right for business, right for the planet, and ultimately right for you.” Matt Acarino, Chef ( (video 2:49)

“Look and listen for the welfare of the whole people and have always in view not only the present but also the coming generations, even those whose faces are yet beneath the surface of the ground — the unborn of the future Nation.” The Constitution of the Iroquois Nations: The Great Binding Law, Gayanashagowa.

There are many more of our leaders addressing sustainability and several animated videos in our special collection, What is Sustainability on EarthSayers.tv, voices of sustainability to help with the conversations around sustainability at home, in the office, and in our communities.

Ruth Ann Barrett, Sustainability Advocate, Cleveland, Ohio, June 28, 2013

Video Spotlight on Three Sustainability Leaders

The ongoing story of the Coalition for Immokalee Workers is a model of place-based community action (grassroots) working through coalition, collaboration, and agreement rather than separation, disagreement and opposition. It’s about CSR, business human rights, and leadership.

It’s how Mary Robinson, the first woman President of Ireland and former UN High Commissioner of Human Rights, moved beyond “declarations” and used her leadership position and power to bring support to the co-founders Lucas Benitez and Gerardo Reyes-Chavez of the Coalition of Immokalee Workers.

We have added three videos today to EarthSayers.tv, Farming and Food Production special collection, to share our respect for and advance the work of Lucas Benitez, Co-Director, Coalition of Immokalee Workers (CIW) and that of the workers, friends, members, and colleagues of the Coalition.

The first video is a speech by Mr. Benitez back in 2002 at the Mary Robinson Speaker Series in which he honors Mary Robinson for joining their cause and talks about the Coalition and the Code of Conduct they are successfully enlisting Corporations and growers to sign and adopt.

The second video is a news report from Democracy Now for today, May 20th on the hundreds of farm workers and their supporters who are in New York City ahead of Wendy’s shareholder meeting to ask for improved working conditions for those who pick its tomatoes in the Fair Food campaign organized by the Coalition of Immokalee Workers. CIW farmworker and a co-founder with Lucas of the CIW, Gerardo Reyes-Chavez talks about this social responsibility campaign. So far McDonald’s, Subway, Burger King and Taco Bell have all joined the White House-recognized Social Responsibility Program, agreeing to pay an extra penny per pound of tomatoes to raise wages and only buy from fields where workers’ rights are respected.

The third is a video record of the fifteen-day, 200-mile March for Rights, Respect, and Fair Food which came to a “loud, colorful, and jubilant end” on Sunday, March 17th outside Publix corporate headquarters in Lakeland, Florida.

Ruth Ann Barrett, Sustainability Advocate, Earthsayers.tv, May 20, 2013, Cleveland, Ohio.

Making Video Work Again and Again for Your Cause

Get on-board with Creative Commons License

It will be in the best interest of the sustainability community to adopt the practice of using a Creative Commons license to increase not only the sharing of content, but the mixing of content to seed the Web with messages to educate, inspire and motivate our citizens. Seeding increases page rankings, advances the visibility of sustainability leaders, and is critical to educating the majority of our citizens who use the Web to find information on topics of interest including the 2.1M on sustainability, 1.8M on climate change, 2.2M on Global Warming and 246,000 on pure water.

Re-purposing content and seeding the Web

Incorporating video from a download or screen capture, in whole or part, depending on the length and message, is relatively easy and can be thought of as a video quote or clip. Another way to express it: one producer’s video may be another producer’s B–roll, the supplemental or alternate footage inter-cut into another interview or documentary.Just this last week I received an email from AmazonWatch about their recently uploaded video on YouTube that is part of a petition campaign to oust the CEO of Chevron and to “Please tell the board of directors to FIRE John Watson.” This video was edited by the Amazon Watch folks and re-purposed from a January 2010 video, Message from Ecuador to Chevron CEO John Watson, part of another petition campaign.

Obtaining permission is highly recommended and nearly always granted for non-commercial purposes. However, producers are encouraged to use Creative Commons licensing to encourage and speed the process.

EXAMPLES

Here is an example of how I incorporated clips from a documentary, Screams of the Amazon, produced by Siegmund Thies and Joke Baert of Pachamama Ecuador into a radio interview, Oil over Water: Ecuador’s Indigenous Peoples Threatened by Barry Heidt. I converted the “radio” to a video having added clips and images and then posted to YouTube and here on our site, EarthSayers.tv.

This is an example of a ‘video quote’ from the same documentary that stands on its own and is posted on YouTube and Earthsayers.tv, voices of sustainability, titled as Easy Money in the Amazon – At what cost? by Patricia Gualinga.

A bit more on the Creative Commons License I used in connection with the above videos:

Selecting a License

Creative Commons offers six different content licenses. The first step to sharing your work is to select the license that’s right for you. The Creative Commons license chooser helps you select a CC license that matches the conditions you want. It also provides you with a snippet of code for your website to signal which license you’ve chosen.
Example of using Creative Commons
License work and encourage the seeding of your message:

For our work in connection with EarthSayers.tv, Voices of Sustainability, we use Creative Commons licenses. If you wish to incorporate our video work into your work, we encourage it, but only for non-commercial use. We ask you attribute the work to Ruth Ann Barrett, EarthSayers.tv and send a URL so we may see your work. For permission issues around modifications of our work, call 415-377-1385 or email ruthann@earthsayers.tv.

Ruth Ann Barrett, Sustainability Advocate, May 16, 2013, Cleveland, Ohio.

Alberta Canada Tar Sands: See for Yourself

It’s a place in Indigenous territories and rich in forests, wetlands and huge deposits of bitumen, a tar-like substance that’s turned into oil through complex and energy-intensive processes. You might have heard about the Tar Sands in connection with expanding the Keystone XL pipeline connecting Alberta, Canada with communities throughout the States of Montana, South Dakota, Nebraska, Kansas, Oklahoma, and Texas. A decision on it is not expected until 2015.

No matter your opinion of the proposal at this point in time, it’s important you know about the place and what is happening to the indigenous peoples, rich forests and wetlands and why sustainability principles and practices need to be fully engaged now.

Last Friday on NBC Nightly News (view here) the scale of extraction was brought home to a large audience. For our part, we started a special collection on EarthSayers.tv entitled Alberta Canada Tar Sands, and organized it not as an environmental or social or economic sustainability category but more simply as a place. A place to begin a journey of education and, ultimately, action that results in consideration of the 3BL of planet, people, and prosperity.

The collection will grow over time, but is now seeded with an array of video programs to include news programs from five years ago to this April, a TEDx talk by photographer Garth Lenz on the True Cost of Oil, blogger MrEnergyCzar, and more…

In a radio interview, The Scale of It All, renowned Canadian photographer Edward Burtynsky specifically addresses his own “oil epiphany” and why having children changed his perspective on what is sustainable. It isn’t just about the environment, he does not see himself as an environmentalist, but “as an advocate for sustainability.”

A journey to a place often starts with pictures and I highly recommend listening to Edward Burtynski and seeing some of his large format photographs from his recent exhibit on oil then watch Garth Lenz’ TEDx Talk and see for yourself the Tar Sands in Alberta, Canada.

Ruth Ann Barrett, Sustainability Advocate, April 30, 2013, Cleveland, Ohio

Clean Drinking Water: SolarBag’s Ambassador in Ecuador

Ambassador Programs

Technological advancements need ambassadors who literally put the technology in the hands of those who would benefit significantly from its use – technology transfer at the one-to-one level. Over the last few years, Brand Ambassador Programs have been formalized and integrated into other PR, marketing, and social media initiatives. This post is about ambassadors as part of content creation and marketing campaigns in the service of sustainability.

Barry

Barry Heidt, Ambassador

Oregonian Barry Heidt, videographer and sustainability advocate, became an ambassador for Puralytics’ SolarBag when he carried one with him on his recent journey to the Achuar Terrritory deep within the Amazon forest of Ecuador.

He was on his way to Ecuador as part of an online video campaign, Ecuadorian Wisdom Keepers, co-sponsored by Barry’s organization, Sustainability Action Media (SAM) with EarthSayers.tv, voices of sustainability and with the help of the Fundacion Pachamama folks in Ecuador.

Oil Over Water

Barry knew of Ecuador’s reliance on bottled water and the negative impact on water supplies from the releasing of toxins from oil drilling into local rivers and the contamination of underground water from oil spills. It was part of the reason he was going to Ecuador to interview indigenous community leaders around the Rights of Nature movement. Shortly before he left, he heard about the SolarBag and called George Jendrzejewski, VP of Sales for Puralytics.

The Technology

The SolarBag is a purification, transport, and storage system for use with unclean water. Without using chemicals, consumables, or power, the SolarBag is able to remove microorganisms, organic contaminants, and heavy metals from water making it safe to drink. It can be used over and over again. It purifies 3 liters at a time, and can be used several times per day, on sunny or cloudy days.

SolarBag in Ecuador

A photograph of community leader Domingo Peas captures the result of Barry’s efforts – a demonstration of the SolarBag.

Domingo Peas

Didier

Barry also introduced the SolarBag to Didier Lacaze while interviewing him. Since 2000 Didier has been collaborating in Ecuador alongside official health organizations to design and execute different health related programs for indigenous peoples and has developed with his wife, Rosa Canelos, The Sacha Warmi Center, an educational resource. Didier can help Domingo and other interested community leaders take the product from interest to implementation with the help of NGO’s.

Sustainability and NGO Programs

Barry at the same time he is advancing the indigenous voices of sustainability also leverages Puralytics’ commitment to sustainability and programs they already have in place for the SolarBag 3L which is part of their NGO program to provide “clean water for the developing world.” For one such program with Good Samaritan Ministries, which like Puralytics is headquartered in Beaverton, Oregon, the SolarBag is making a big difference in four Malawi, African communities (view video) where Good Samaritan has a field presence, a key to implementation. This is but one example of Puralytics’ NGO programs.

More Sustainability Ambassadors Programs

We see Barry’s experience as an ambassador a good model for what we would like to do in the future when SAM and EarthSayers.tv team up to create online video content around the indigenous voices of sustainability. It compliments NGO programs already in place and can be used to increase awareness of important technologies in the developing world. We use social media to seed the Web with our content of wisdom keepers and encourage sustainability-related organizations to partner with us to increase the visibility of indigineous peoples and the technology that will work for their communities.

Ruth Ann Barrett, Sustainability Advocate, April 1, 2013, Portland, Oregon.

Oil Over Water in Ecuador

My interview of Barry Heidt of Sustainability Action Media (SAM) about his trip to Ecuador’s Achuar Territory occurred on March 22nd so with a nod to World Water Day we talked about water. You can’t talk about water in Ecuador without talking about oil.

It will take a few minutes to read this blog post and less than an hour to take action. It will be time well spent in the service of sustainability.

Here we go.

1. Give five minutes to listen to Barry’s interview for background and motivation. He saved you the trip of going there on your own to verify that oil and water do not mix and to choose oil over water is to choose short term profits over the rights of Mother Earth and our communities.

2. Barry references a recently released documentary by the folks in Quito associated with Fundancio Pachamama entitled, Screams of the Amazon. This too is educational and in a much more dramatic way. Ecuador’s government is moving forward with the next phase of the 11th Oil Round, opening up 10 million acres of pristine rainforest to petroleum companies. It’s 11 minutes short.

We excerpted Patricia Gualinga’s interview from the video, Screams of the Amazon, and published it here as a short, short (53 seconds) entitled, “Easy Money in the Amazon, At What Cost?”

3. Raise her question by citing this short video on your LinkedIn groups to raise a frank discussion among groups with sustainability leanings ranging from climate to community engagement, to greenbiz. It really goes to the heart of sustainability and sustainable development. Help with seeding the Web by raising the question (link to the video) with your friends on Facebook and Twitter. (1/2 hour)

4. Sign a petition here to tell Ecuador’s President Correa You Stand with Indigenous Peoples for an Oil-free Amazon. (3 minutes)

5. Talk about it. Most if not all of the last of our non-renewable energy resources are in the territories of indigenous peoples.

Indigenous Voices of Sustainability

Domingo Peas

Shortly Barry will be publishing his two interviews with community leaders, Domingo Peas, Sharamentsa and Hilario Saant, Kapawi of the Achuar Territory in Ecuador. These indigenous voices of sustainability will give you the ground level perspective as the very existence of communities in the Southeast region of Ecuador are threatened.

Hope and Heart

Erick Gonzales

My motivation to call for action on this issue stems from the question raised by Erick Gonzalez of Earth Peoples United, “What gives us hope and heart to keep working on what is best for our Earth in the face of difficult changes?”

Engaging my readers in the issues around oil and water, spurred on by my colleague Barry’s strong personal commitment to the Rights of Nature movement and his journey to Ecuador, gives me hope and heart. I hope it does the same for you.

Ruth Ann Barrett, Sustainability Advocate, March 25, 2013, Portland, Oregon.

*Screams of the Amazon produced by Pacha Producciones, Quito, Ecuador, 2013 and published on the FPachamama YouTube channel, March 12, 2013 is also found on EarthSayers.tv, Voices of Sustainability here.

Sustainability and Educating Women and Girls

Before becoming a sustainability advocate, I spent most of my career working with technology beginning with a Fire and Emergency Information Reporting System project for the City of Toledo (1975) moving in the early 80’s to technology companies. I first used an email system and a PC at Computerland (1983), having moved off mini-computers, and in 1999 began to market high tech products and services developing on the Web seminars (now called webinars), database-driven landing pages, and micro environments.

So the eye-catching graphics with heady statistics by Allison Morris of OnlineClasses.org, which I am sharing with you to encourage them being passed on, reminded me of the progress women have made and of the roads still unpaved for women and girls when it comes to the access I have been taking for granted.

The importance of online access, especially from Ms. Morris’ interest in free e-learning sites, should be addressed in all initiatives, products, and programs that have education of women and girls as their focus especially in developing countries. But is this so?

In a blog supporting the University of Waterloo course MSci 442, The Impact of Information Systems on Organisations and Society (1) Peter Carr addresses information technology in the context of economic development, education and in the article I link to, the digital divide. A practicing online learning professor, Dr. Carr cites more stats and notes, “If we accept that the internet has a significant contribution to make to development then there would be an urgent need to tackle this issue.”

Is there urgency when it comes to educating women and girls? Do we accept the internet as a significant contribution? If not, why not?

Could it be that the big picture of information technology and the issue of the digital divide come into play only when addressing commercial applications and not in terms of educating women and girls? Is it likely that out-dated stereotypes of women, girls, and of the Web itself are the cause and ignorance the driver?

If so, then it’s important to illustrate related facts and spread them far and wide especially among folks like myself who take Internet access for granted and yet understand the importance of educating women and girls to sustainability awareness and adoption.

Source: OnlineClasses.org

For those of my readers who are communicators and have a need for text, Allison provided this text and like the graphics, use freely, but provide attribution to OnlineClasses.org. Thank you.

Across the globe, there are an estimated 2.4 billion Internet users. And in Western society, women actually have a stronger web presence than men, according to the infographic “Women & the Web,” posted by OnlineClasses.org. However, this is not the case everywhere. In areas such as Sub-Saharan Africa, the Middle East & North Africa, and South Asia, women’s access to the Internet is significantly lower than for males. In fact, according to statistics, there are 23% fewer women online than men in developing countries across the world.

Considering the benefits women and their families can obtain through Internet access, this is an important topic of discussion. In a survey of women from developing nations who used the web, 50% reported using it to find and apply for a job, and 30% used it to earn additional income for their families. On average, women reinvested 90% of their income into their family. This figure was only 30-40% for men.

In addition, free e-learning opportunities also contributed to the liberating influence of the Internet. Approximately 8 in 10 women with web access in developing nations reported using the Internet to educate themselves. Sites like Coursera and Udacity are particularly popular.

The economic benefits of increasing women’s access to the internet across the world is undeniable. It’s estimated that $13 to $18 billion would be contributed to the annual GDP in 144 developing nations as women improved their ability to generate income and further their education. So, it’s not surprising that 90% of women surveyed said that Internet access should be a basic human right.

Ruth Ann Barrett, Sustainability Advocate, February 26, 2013, San Francisco, California.

(1) The blog posts are content for the course which considers the impact of IT in a number of areas including the digital divide and education. Peter Carr is a professor in the Department of Managements Sciences . His research has focused on online collaboration in business and on collaboration in online learning. Peter lives in Toronto, Canada.

One Billion Rising and Three Voices of Sustainability

This is nearly the same title of a blog post I wrote in the last week of December. What I am writing here, however, updates you on the One Billion Rising, February 14, 2013 campaign and gives you three fresh faces of sustainability, a small sampling of those speaking on behalf of women and this campaign.

First, a reminder of what One Billion Rising is all about.

On 14 February 2013, V-Day is inviting ONE BILLION women and those who love them to WALK OUT, DANCE, RISE UP, and DEMAND an end to violence against women and girls.

Secondly, why this campaign is a model of cause marketing as outlined recently in an article by Cone Communications which cites three attributes of how this campaign manages “to shine a spotlight on an age-old issue.” They are: (1) it offers a simple, unifying message; (2) it provides an easy way for people to get involved; and (3) it uses a beloved holiday as a unifying touchpoint.

I would elaborate slightly on the three to include people or social issue, multiple ways for people to get involved, and it uses a related, beloved holiday.

One of the easy ways for people to get involved is the use of online video where individuals from all walks of life can express their support by appealing to viewers to participate in the February 14 events. Because they are on YouTube, we were able to create a special collection on EarthSayers.tv, voices of sustainability around the campaign thereby increasing the reach and longevity of the message as well as increasing the visibility of these sustainability thought leaders.

Here is a small sampling of the videos we included in the special collection. There is a conspicuous absence of business leaders even those who count women and girls among their best customers from among the over 200 individuals highlighted on the V-Day YouTube channel.

Congresswomen Jan Schakowsky

Congresswoman Jan Schakowsky asks you join in on February 14, 2013 in One Billion Rising event in Chicago and she addresses her experience in the East Congo and understanding “rape as the low cost weapon of war.” The event is at noon at Daly Plaza, February 14, 2013. Here is her video.

In this video she references the United Nation. This is an excellent site to get more information on the United Nation’s ongoing role to end violence against women visit this site: endviolence.un.org

Herman Van Rompuy, President of the European Council

Herman Van Rompuy, President of the European Council, is RISING with V-Day on 14 February 2013. He talks about non-discrimination and gender equality in a union of values and references the statistic that one in three women will be raped, beaten or otherwise abused in her lifetime. Here is his video.

For more information on the statistic cited by Mr. Van Rompuy, visit this site, oneinthreewomen.com.

Eve Ensler, Founder of V-Day

Eve Ensler is the founder of V-Day the sponsor of the One Billion Rising campaign. In this video she extends her gratitude to all of you who are practicing and preparing, organizing, singing, dancing, and writing for an end to violence against women with one week left until we rise! Here is her video.

Ms. Ensler’s experience performing THE VAGINA MONOLOGUES inspired her to create V-Day, a global movement to stop violence against women and girls. She has devoted her life to stopping violence, envisioning a planet in which women and girls will be free to thrive, rather than merely survive.

The path to sustainability from One Billion Rising is easily understood in light of the sustainability taxonomy we use everyday in archiving hundreds of sustainability videos:

One Billion Rising>women’s rights and role>human rights (social justice)>People (Social)>Sustainability and

Violence Against Women and Girls> Violence, Structural> Peace, War, Violence, Security>People (social)>Sustainability.

To find a location of the One Billion Rising event nearest you, click here.

Ruth Ann Barrett, Sustainability Advocate, February 12, 2013, Portland, Oregon and at the One Billion Rising Event, February 14th at 3PM, PST, at Director’s Park, Downtown Portland, Oregon.

Investors Eye Long-term Sustainability

You should have read it in the Financial Times, but in case you didn’t bonds in the eurozone that scored well on environmental, social, and governance issues (ESG) “…tended to OUTPERFORM those that scored poorly.”

It appears that in the aftermath of an economic collapse ESG factors are quite helpful or “useful.”

Here’s the link to the Financial Times complete article.

http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/9eabca74-71f8-11e2-886e-00144feab49a.html#ixzz2KTWtihKk

Indigenous Voices of Sustainability – Ecuador Trip

When your videographer colleague announces in March he is going to Ecuador in February you swing into action to get the word out and hopefully raise some money for his trip. This is no vacation, rather with the help of the Pachamama Alliance folks in Ecuador, a dive deep into the interior to interview shaman and get their views on the status of our Mother Earth.

Barry Heidt left on February 2, 2013 and will be returning with the voices of these indigenous leaders of sustainability in late February. The exposure by Barry to the Global Alliance and the Universal Declaration of the Rights of Mother Earth coupled with his experience from Awakening the Dreamer, the Pachamama Alliance’s symposium series and his most recent work with Sustainability Action Media (SAM) inspires his journey to Ecuador.

The personal history behind this trip started with Barry’s participation in an Awakening the Dreamer workshop. Later, at the Bioneers 2010 Conference Barry documented the panel on the Rights of Nature at which Mari Margil, an associate director of CELDF announced the launch of The Global Alliance for the Rights of Nature and formally made public their Tungurahua Volcano Declaration. His interview of Mari is here.

The Global Alliance then began a campaign for the signing of the Universal Declaration of Rights of Mother Earth introduced at the World People’s Conference on Climate Change and the Rights of Mother Earth in Cochabamba, Bolivia, on the 22nd April – Earth Day 2010.

I interviewed Barry about his upcoming trip. Give a listen here.

Barry’s work with the Sustainability Action Media (SAM) coalition this last year also reflects a focus by the SAM coalition members – EarthSayers.tv, SustainableTV, and Sustainable Today – on increasing the indigenous voices of sustainability to include the live streaming of the Wisdom from the Origins conference in September 2012 and the documenting of the EarthDay 2012 conference sponsored by the Earth & Spirit Council. At both events Barry added to the content mix by interviewing indigenous leaders from the United States, Guatamala, and Mexico. All of this valuable content is highlighted on EarthSayers as will be the Ecuadorian shaman in special collection on Ecuadorian Wisdom Keepers.

If you are interested in contributing to Barry’s trip and post production expenses, SAM can accept tax deductible contributions made to our coalition member, The Center for a Sustainable Today, a tax exempt organization. Contact me for details at ruthann@earthsayers.tv or call me at 415-377-1835. Sponsorships by organizations of SAM content is also an opportunity to support increasing the visibility of indigenous voices of sustainability.

Ruth Ann Barrett, Sustainability Advocate, February 4, 2013, Portland, Oregon.