The dialogue has continued, leaving us with more questions than answers. We renewed our commitment to vegetarianism – something that had slipped while I was pregnant due to carnivorous cravings, and continued to slide once our son was born because I was just too exhausted to put in the effort. Raised on meat and potatoes, vegetarianism – not just eating pasta and processed soy products, but proper vegetarian eating where you get all of the nutrients your body needs – is not second nature and takes much more effort for me. The first few days of the week went well, but by Friday night I found myself already sweeping this internal dialogue under the carpet, reaching for the emergency frozen pizza stash, and heading back to my comfort zone to engage in another of our favorite Friday night activities – watching TED Talks.

First on the agenda was Bill Gates’ vision for the world’s energy future, describing the need for an all out effort to create “miracles” to reach zero carbon emissions globally by 2050 – the goal he says is necessary to avoid planetary catastrophe. WHAM! – no room for complacency (let alone packaged, processed frozen pizza) in our generation. How are we going to achieve this monumental goal, and how can I, as a non-scientist, even begin to make a contribution that matters? Furthermore, with such huge shifts needed, aren’t my minor changes in eating habits insignificant?

Next on the agenda, Jamie Oliver’s passionate speech about the obesity-related health epidemic in North America and Europe. Double WHAM! My pizza stuck in my throat. Just to be clear, my husband and I are nowhere near obese and eat quite healthfully overall. This talk, however, brought back all of the information that I have – the stuff that I bury when I want to have pizza and coke – on just how damaging it is not only to our bodies but to our environment to eat “mindlessly” from the highly-processed, highly-transported, and highly-chemical-infused products that are now standard in most people’s diets.

Then on Saturday morning I opened my e-mail to read the latest post from a good friend of mine, Laura Mack, on honesty as a core issue in parenting her teenage son. She provided some very sobering statistics about the state of honesty – or lack thereof – with our youth. The thing that was perhaps the most troubling, was that despite the fact that they admit to a high degree of dishonesty the youth in the survey still saw themselves as being ethical and more honest than a majority of their peers.

It would be easy to be shocked at “today’s youth”, but I had to question how different I really am. While I do not lie, cheat and steal in some of the obvious ways these surveys are asking about, like a majority of our society, I lie to myself. While this might seem far less harmful, I am struggling with the dawning realization that this type of lying is perhaps the most harmful of all. It is harmful because the lies I tell myself – or the information I conveniently choose not to see or understand – are what keep me doing what is easy, what is comfortable, what I have always done, and what everyone else is doing. But it is clear from the sources above and many many more that we need to change – that I need to change. Like the woman in The Age of Stupid, (who, after winning the fight AGAINST having wind turbines put in her rural British community because they would ruin the view, enthusiastically proclaimed,  ”of course we must do all we can to reduce global warming!”) I am often unwilling to see my own hypocrisy. She wants to avoid global warming, but not if it ruins her view. I want to help preserve our planet for future generations, but not if it means I have to put more effort into what I cook for dinner.

Perhaps the biggest lie I tell myself is that I don’t know what to do. This is an easy one for abdicating responsibility. I see it in my coaching clients all of the time. When they say “I don’t know”, it is a flag that somewhere, underneath their denial, and buried deep within their fears of change and their desire to stay in their comfort zone, there is a dawning awareness of what they do want and what they do need to do. Saying they don’t know keeps them safe because it gives them an excuse not to act. If they are busy trying to figure out what they want or what they “should” do, they can preserve the illusion of productive action without really engaging in any. So despite my internal voice screaming loudly that I don’t know what to do, that my non-scientist talents are not really going to make a difference, and that the actions of my non-famous self can have nowhere near the impact of Jamie and Bill, I cannot hide beneath the “I don’t know” comfort blanket and still feel good about myself.

So what can I do? One thing I can do is write about it. This, at least, is a start. Maybe, in the same way that this information has inspired me to question myself and renew my commitment to being part of the solution, it will inspire others to do the same. We can’t all be Bill Gates or Jamie Oliver, but we can all do our part. Maybe your part is to find that solution that can take us to zero carbon emissions by 2055. Maybe you will send this link to someone you know and it will give them that little extra bit of insight they needed for the breakthrough. While I am not going to be personally responsible for solving the energy crisis, I can take responsibility for solving my own energy crisis. I can start having the courage to stop burying the truth beneath my comfort zone. I can plug the energy leaks that occur when my actions are not in integrity with who I want to be and what I know I need to do.

This kind of honesty can be hard and sometimes painful on all sides, but what I do know from experience, is that when I have faced the truth, spoken my truth, and been willing to look openly at the truths others are presenting to me, it has paved the way for increased energy, aliveness, creativity, and abundance for everyone involved. I also know that seemingly insignificant actions can spark massive change. Just as Rosa Parks’ refusal to give up her seat to a white passenger on the bus became an important symbol of the modern Civil Rights Movement, everything that I say and do, no matter how small, has the power to provide the spark or the tipping point for massive change. As Margaret Mead is famous for saying, ”Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful committed citizens can change the world. Indeed, it is the only thing that ever has.”

I would love to have you join me in my quest to live with eyes wide open and head out of the sand and, ultimately to create the “miracles” we need to build a world where we all can thrive. I hope that in sharing our stories – both the challenges and the triumphs – that we will give each other the strength, hope and the inspiration to continue doing our part.

Old equipment is kept running as long as possible and broken machines are scavenged for parts and recycled back into the market. Every part of an animal is used for food. While some of the things they ate challenged my western palate, I certainly admired their ability to follow the principle of “waste not, want not” to its utmost degree.

I contrast this with the five years I spent in Japan where regular dai gomi or “big garbage” days saw some streets near my home piled two feet high for a full block with ‘fridges, stoves, stereos, televisions, dishes, desks, kitchen tables, chairs and even computer equipment that was in perfect working condition.

While my other gaijin (or western) friends and I did our best to liberate as much of this merchandise from the landfill as we could, by giving select pieces a new home in our apartments, we barely made a dent in the piles. In this process we discovered an important idea that mainstream businesses are finally beginning to embrace: that recycling (and energy conservation) can, and does, have a positive effect on the bottom line. We saved money, while diverting some of the “garbage” from the landfill.

Although the population density of Japan made the wastefulness of an industrialized society painfully evident, I was aware that back in Canada our per capita waste was likely equal, or not far behind.

It was the juxtaposition of these images of affluence and wastefulness in Japan that led me to enroll in graduate courses in sustainable business and economic development that first exposed me to a different way of thinking about the fundamentals of doing business.

While I recognize that new technology can benefit us in our lives and work, the “planned obsolescence” that is a central part of the profit models of many businesses today, is no longer sustainable.

The following statistics on cell phones and computers – two now indispensable but seemingly infinitely disposable business tools – gives reason for concern.

• Between 1997 and 2004, 315 million computers worldwide are expected to be ready for disposal, potentially ejecting 550 million kilograms of lead, 900,000 kilograms of cadmium and 180,000 kilograms of mercury into the environment.

• Producing the average PC uses 10 times its weight in materials, chemicals and fossil fuels before it even leaves the factory (BAN 2004).

• An estimated 130 million cell phones will be discarded in the United States by the year 2005, resulting in 65,000 tonnes of cell-phone waste.

In studying how to build a truly restorative economy, I have discovered that there are many alternatives to our traditional thinking – ways we can create profit without wreaking havoc on our health and our planet.

Models such as ‘product stewardship’ and ‘closed-loop manufacturing’ are two core concepts that are shifting the thinking of leading businesses today.

Product stewardship calls for all parties involved in designing, manufacturing, selling and using a product to take responsibility for environmental impacts at every stage of that product’s life.

Closed-loop manufacturing refers to reengineering the manufacturing process so that it eliminates all forms of waste in the manufacturing cycle. This might involve using different chemicals that do not give off toxins, or looking at the waste products generated and finding ways to use those waste products in further production.

Recycling is a part of both of these models, but it is no longer seen solely as the mandate of the end user. If companies learn to manufacture their products in ways that consider how they will be re-used or recycled most efficiently from the outset, it makes the end-user’s role more effective and also generates possibilities for the company to profit from such redesign. These models involve organizations taking responsibility for eliminating waste and dramatically reducing environmental impacts throughout the life cycle of their product.

A traditional bottom-line view sees this process as an added cost in the manufacturing process. There are many companies today, however, who are turning this outdated perspective on its head: where creativity in reducing waste and using non-toxic materials is actually generating profits.

Interface, an Atlanta-based company that is the largest commercial carpet manufacturer in the world, applied the principles of product stewardship and closed-loop manufacturing to create Solenium, a carpet that lasts four times longer than conventional ones, uses 40 percent less material than ordinary carpets, is free of toxic materials, virtually stainproof, and easily cleaned with water. This product is so superior for endusers that the company doesn’t even bother to market it specifically as an environmental product. This and similar waste elimination activities have resulted in a cumulative global savings of over $231 million since 1995.

Taking this thinking one step further, Interface has also shifted its business model from selling and installing carpets to providing floor covering services. They launched this product as the Evergreen Lease which provides a floor-covering service for a monthly fee, complete with monthly inspections to detect and replace worn carpet tiles. As 20 percent of the carpet area gets 80 percent of the wear, this method minimizes waste as well as the disruption necessary to replace whole carpets, and provides the tax benefits of leasing versus owning.

No matter what industry you are in, you can tap into your creativity and rethink your organization, both for increased profits and for the common good, by being willing to question the assumptions you make in your everyday endeavours.

Andrea Jacques (aka. kyoseigirl)

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