Posts from — October 2008

Recently Ian Chapman published a great new article on Facebook notes. He initially described a story about a group of people camping in a river bed, not heeding the warnings of a flash flood.

The moral of the story is: “The wise heed the warnings, analyze the situation, and take proper action. like moving their tents to higher ground – all others follow the crowd, make decisions based on convenience, and then complain when their belongings get washed away by the sudden flash flood.”

Reading Ian’s article triggered a lot of thoughts and made me recognize a lot of parallels to the work I’m doing to figure out a how we can put into action a new eco-conscious approach to life and business.

I have set off on a personal mission to contribute to the shift in thinking which is now essential for us to create an environment so people live better, more healthy lives. It’s a cause where companies create profits both because they have the best products and services, but also because they care about nature and preserving the environment.

They have leaders and managers who join this cause and want to be role models in ecological business practices. And it is a cause that changes the mindset of everybody in a way that allows us to be proud of the environment we leave behind for our children and the future generations to come after us.

In the bigger scheme of the current financial crisis the question becomes:
“Are we just chess pieces that get moved around as the ones with power want to, or do we actually play an active role, taking independent action following our convictions?”

I strongly believe that most people look and almost crave for leadership. This leadership is not just to be provided in a form where someone tells a follower what to do and when to do it, as we were used to in the 20th century. The new leadership our society is craving is one that is helping us to shape our awareness, our comprehension, and most of all, our attitude towards our surroundings.

Ian Chapman, in his recent article writes:

“An Environmental Perspective

Reality can sometimes be hard to face and from an environmental perspective any country that consumes most of the world resources and blatantly pollutes the atmosphere in order to maintain a high standard of living for its privileged citizens is going to face some kind of checking mechanism at some point.”

“Faith In Our Leaders?
I have little faith in our global leaders to handle these problems, they are like bickering children who never listen to each other and organized like street gangs that defend their own neighborhoods using fear and violence; killing each other to have control of the black liquid drug that keeps them from going cold turkey.”

I agree with Ian and find that we really need to find and apply alternatives. The immediate crisis will be managed by pumping more money into all the areas that are hurting, thereby rewarding and bailing out those who overextended or violated basic rules. No system can sustain this kind of behavior and problem resolution in the long run.

We can’t remain to be innocent bystanders, angry about our responsible actions of the past. We can’t get the super expensive house we couldn’t afford now that the government would bail us out, instead of the one we have been paying our mortgage for month after month while its values has been declining.

We can’t remain innocent bystanders when the largest, most powerful companies put products on the shelves that are toxic, cause illnesses, pollute the environment with trash and by- products, and push real solutions towards the next generation.

We can’t remain innocent bystanders when we all acknowledge that our transportation system is completely controlled by petroleum interests, preventing new technologies to get proper funding and support. We know that oil is the one commodity that causes wars, gives away our ability to make independent decisions, and adds to an ever deteriorating climate situation.

If you wonder what the solution to this mess is, you are not alone. We need leadership that wants to let all members of society participate and provides ratings for performance. A new service, called Good Guide has taken a first step. At their website you can find thousands of products all rated for their environmental, as well as social impact.

It’s not just a matter of price and organic ingredients, but also a matter of sound labor practices that don’t enslave workers, pay decent wages, and applies all around measures to avoid waste, that make a product rank high on the Good Guide Scale.

My vision is an “army” of eco-pioneers who mass together via the social networks, who will make noise about the bad decisions and bad practices in the world. An Army that will change the way we work, improve the products we produce to make them healthy, environmentally friendly and sustainable in the long run.

An Army of Pioneers, who passionately take advantage of every opportunity to build a sustainable economy, using all existing technologies to free us from the dependencies of commodity barons, and create a future our children will crave to live in. An Army of Eco-Pioneers that is consciously looking for opportunities to learn from other cultures, their experience, history, and knowledge, not to throw our own convictions overboard, but to integrate them into a better overall system that benefits everybody.

It’s a tall order but the public are ready for this cause. Isn’t it also about time the huge changes in the way millions of us communicate via social networks like this one start to use these channels to create real social impact?

More than 70% of people in the US want this kind of approach, leadership, and solutions. They want to buy green, live greener, healthier lives, and be proud of how our economy generates products and wealth for it members.

My first and small contribution to this is to create an “Eco-Friendly Action Plan” initially to be shared amongst our community here on Facebook

WHAT YOU CAN DO TO HELP TODAY:
1. Leave a comment below
2. Share this article with your friends by hitting the “share” button
3. Email me at AM@Meierhoefer.net if you’d like to get more involved
4. Take a few minutes to complete the “eco-awareness” survey.

This will help me develop the “Eco-Friendly Action Plan”.
http://www.surveymonkey.com/s.aspx?sm=j_2bO8uvVB_2bnCseto0VHSSvA_3d_3d

Axel Meierhoefer