More Thought Leadership from Tom Crompton

http://www.identitycampaigning.org

Tom at WWF (many blog readers will have seen & hotly debated Weathercocks and Signposts) has a whole new thoughtpiece, direction, book and web forum all about the need to engage with identity campaigning. the blog features lots of my other favourite thinkers on transition culture including julespeck

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HERE'S TOM'S OWN BLURB

Identitycampaigning.org aims to promote debate on whether it will be
possible to meet today’s global challenges without engaging the ways
in which human identity and social values are shaped. A large part of
the mainstream environment movement – and civil society more generally
– seems to have been persuaded that to engage aspects of identity or
social values is a futile effort, that these things are essentially
immutable, and that the best that can be hoped for is to achieve
incremental change by appealing to existing aspects of identity. This is
a self-reinforcing and defeatist perspective that should change. No
successful political programme would work under this self-imposed
constraint, and nor should civil society.

Identitycampaigning explores the ways in which identity and values can be engaged. These include:

(1) An understanding of the way in which people's EXPERIENCE of
government policy shapes values (afterall, Margaret Thatcher famously
said: "it isn’t that I set out on economic policies; it’s that I set
out really to change the approach, and changing the economics is the
means of changing that approach. If you change the approach you really
are after the heart and soul of the nation. Economics are the method;
the object is to change the heart and soul.").

(2) Closely related to this, the way in which certain policies have a
profound impact on our identities as a result of their 'material'
effects (for example, the way we decide, collectively, to regulate
commercial marketing (for example, Sweden has banned commercial
advertising to children under 12 and this may have an impact on the
prevalence of a set of materialistic values).

(3) Exploring routes to identity change amongst individuals (for
example, through the 'heart and soul' work that Transition does). This
doesn't represent a panacea (we need social and political structures
that legitimise and support changes in values at an individual level):
but it is important - perhaps necessary? - if we are to create space for
such contextual changes.

If these are issues that matter to you - either because you share the
frustration outlined above, or profoundly disagree, please visit
identitycampaigning.org and join the debate. Occasional visitors can
post their thoughts as comments - those who feel more committed to
engaging this debate might want to be listed as contributors (in which
case, please contact Tom Crompton, at tcrompton@wwf.org.uk).

Inspired on all counts

I actually really love one of the comments made following Leonora's report on Treehugger so I'll just repeat it here

"Congratulations Michael, not so much for demolishing Lomborg's skeptical arguments so eloquently, but for focusing even more on the opportunities arising from the very threats we face. How much more satisfying to invest time and energy in seeking solutions, for people to live happy and healthy lives within the carrying capacity of the Earth, than to scavenge opportunistically in the market of media counter-point, looking for reasons to do nothing." (Paul King)

Supporting Green Independent Natural Thinking

Met with Dr Nicola Thomas today aka The GIN Lady. (GIN = Green Independent Natural: a lovely ethical lifestyle magazine & blog if you dont know it do check it out). And I got a copy of her PhD to read (not the following sentence most often associated with encounters with the media) which is partly about the potential to communicate ecosystems science to change behaviour. Anyway I can already see that it's packed with really clever insights and models, but was also reminded of the power of a simple framing fact - as demonstrated by this cute ad for Save the Shark (via Treehugger).

Tweehive

The 'let's all role play being a bee colony on Twitter for a day' project I've been working on with a whole bunch of fellow sustainability/new media/bee-interested folks went live today. Do come and join the fun http://www.tweehive.com and the tweehive FB group It's part of http://pestival.org an insect arts ecology event at London's South Bank

Shame on Boots

A few years ago I was trying to get an event together about the ethical and environmental impact of private equity. On the positive side are groups like Generation who plan to use this mechanism to go further than any shareholder would allow in retrofitting major corporations for a low carbon economy. But on the negative side are the greedy bastards, pushing management to do anything to hype maximum short term growth so that their returns on equity (leveraged by bank debt) go sky high. The groups who I approached to host this event worried that since private equity firms are the dictatorships of business, no-one would dare speak out against them, certainly not as insider, but probably not in the media and consultancy realms either.

All of which is context for the announcement that Boots, a former quaker family business and always a benevolent presence on the high street, but now under private equity ownership has quit the Ethical Trading Initiative; a scheme set up after the wave of sweatshop and worker exploitation scandals in the 1990s, whereby most of the major UK retailers for instance guaranteed to only work with suppliers that pay at least the minimum wage.

Dan Rees, director of the ETI, said to The Guardian: "We are deeply disappointed that Boots have taken this decision, particularly at such a crucial time for the world's most vulnerable workers, who are bearing the brunt of the global downturn. The days when high-profile businesses could consider ethical trade as an optional extra are now gone. In our view, it is not the right time for major brands to be rolling back their commitments on labour standards, nor does it make good business sense."

Draft Article for Mediacat (Turkey)

Nokia: The Power Of We

When recently researching what brands have been up to in the two years since I wrote The Green Marketing Manifesto, I was particularly impressed with Nokia.

Firstly, being green is not just a marketing matter. Either a company is committed to it and leading the way, or it is not. One of the reasons I chose to look into Nokia is I already knew about their “Power of We” programme that started with internal change, as a judge at last year’s Green Awards, where Nokia won the overall Grand Prix.

Here’s what their CEO Olli-Pekka Kallasvio says on the subject of sustainability:
“Thousands of Nokia people have made sustainable, environmentally sensitive practices an integral part of our day to day business. With more than a billion people using Nokia phones globally, we feel we have a responsibility to make a difference. Even in these tough economic times, environmental sustainability is not just the right thing to do, it is the only thing to do and makes good business sense.”

If you look into what Nokia are doing as a company you will find all the usual good stuff; like dramatically reducing their energy and waste. The company set targets for CO2 emissions since 2006 and they report publicly how they are doing on reducing their footprint. Their phones are certified as free of conflict metals, such as tantalum from the Congo (whereas with some other phones you are basically paying to arm soldiers or rebels). Nokia has consistently been named the number one electronics brand in Greenpeace’s Greener Electronics Guide. And it has won the phone industry (GSMA) first CEO Award for Outstanding Environmental Contribution.

Given all of this it’s pretty impressive that Nokia have not been shouting about their green credentials in advertising. Rather than claiming green they have been doing green. For instance in basic initiatives like encouraging people to unplug their charger (in some popular models Nokia also fitted a ‘finished charging’ alert) and putting recycling collection points into retail, including a major new push in India this year.

Sustainability isn’t only about energy and carbon. Mobile phones have been playing a leading role in African development projects. And Nokia have been in there since 2005 working with Grameen, founded by Nobel Prize winner Mohammed Yunus, helping to ensure they can build an accessible mobile network in countries like Rwanda.

Mobile applications have been big news in the last few years and Nokia has been behind some nice green apps. Green Explorer hives you green travel tips and helps you locate local green services. Freecycle is a 6.5 million member web phenomenon whereby if you are about to through something away, you can give it to someone else instead. Nokia just helped them provide the same service on mobile. They have also introduced a home management system (currently being trialled) using the mobile to monitor and control your home energy along with a host of other smart home functions.

We also live in the age of the social network. Nokia have for some time operated a partnership with the WWF and IUCN in the connect2earth community site, on the web as well as mobile. Here you can learn about environmental issues, exchange ideas and content like video and ask experts about key themes and actions.

Like many of the smartest corporations, Nokia has been embracing open innovation where instead of assuming they have all the answers they brief ‘the world’ to come up with solutions too. They held a $150,000 prize challenge for phone apps which could ‘improve life on this planet’. Just one example of what came out of this was an Green Phone app to manage all the settings on your phone to minimize its power use.

As far as green phones go, the Nokia Evolve is one of the best around, in energy, materials and so on. But Nokia have also been experimenting with some more advanced concepts, which are also highly appealing if you are a bit of a tree hugger. Like the Remade concept (made out of old tin cans and all sorts of other waste material) Or another concept phone where the case is made from reclaimed wood.

Nokia recently gave a glimpse as well of some of the innovation programmes they are working on: ways to make chargers use zero power except when the phone needs it; and developing ways for people to upgrade phones digitally rather than buying new devices. The most fascinating and high tech was that their researchers may have found a way to do away with the phone charger already. Instead the phones can draw waste power from ambient electromagnetic radiation (like Wifi and TV signals) – a trickle but enough to keep a phone topped up. It’s a good example of a green benefit, which is also just a great consumer proposition; you will never need to remember to charge a phone again.

Why I like Nokia’s efforts is that firstly they have got the basics right. Despite being the biggest they are also by far the greenest. And they have got this good by helping every employee see this as a central part of their job, not an add on. Their focus externally is on innovation, education, community and great green utilities. And they are not too proud to partner, getting many of their best ideas from outside inventors, NGOs and consumers. Of course they are not perfect, they are still a big business with a huge impact and still a little too addicted to the business model where we treat phones as throwaway fashion. But given where we are starting from they are making big steps in the right direction.

(Declaration of Interest: I don’t currently work for Nokia – I think the last time they paid me for any advice was 2001 – I just think they are doing a pretty good job without me).

All the news that's fit to print

A christmas future we'd all wish for, from the Yes Men and Greenpeace
Via 350.org

United We Serve (launched yesterday)

Thanks to Obama for simply 'doing it again' and @planetheart for tweeting it on :J

History Repeats Itself?

Rumours of an early economic rebound are everywhere. In several meetings with business leaders this week I have heard a consensus view along the lines of "recession - past tense" and "now that we are into the next phase". They could be right. But Martin Wolf at the FT points to the charts published by professor's Eichengreen (Berkeley) and O'Rourke (Trinity Dublin) comparing key economic indicators today with those following the 1929 crash on the Vox blog which are doing the rounds. Here are a few examples:







The recession is a real mixed blessing in sustainability terms. It has been welcomed as an opportunity to force a much deeper re-evaluation of the whole capitalist model and in particular find postgrowth economic policies which support wellbeing without planet destruction. World Changing just picked up the Kennedy line on this (cautiously touted around by Obama and his team) which is that GDP has little to do with real prosperity or wellbeing so why focus on it in the first place?

On the other hand it takes everyone's eyes (and potentially budgets) away from the REAL global crises. It's an excuse to put things off is one result of that. And also the moral foundation of sustainability (for instance; Stern's argument rested on intergenerational equity in the case of climate change) is ultimately a case of acting in a way that avoids inflicting avoidable suffering on other human beings, whether now or for future generations. Sustained recessions really hurt and they tend to hurt the most economically vulnerable first; for instance all of those relying on remittances from relatives working in the west and sending money home. Yes it could be a tough medicine which helps drive real change. And no we wouldnt wish it on any of our fellow human beings whose children are hungry tonight.

My suspicion looking at the graphs is that you could map any previous (eg early 90s recession) onto the 1929 curve and early in a recovery it would look exactly as shown. The illusion is that the graphs show that things might follow the same course. A picture of someone lying down and a dead person would look the same, it's what happens over the medium term that differs. Or we could really be into the so called "dead cat bounce' where fluctuations (due to rallies in an almost entirely speculative and/or confidence based market system) are being mistaken for real world economic change. What's really valuable in these charts though is putting all the 'rebound' claims in context. You couldnt honestly look at these graphs and say quite so confidently that we are out of the woods (whether or not as a treehugger you even quite like it in the woods).

It's been tricky writing about these issues through the last few months (in my new book) and I have ended up having to take a line which is current recession neutral. After all the credit crunch had nothing to do with climate change or resource crises. It was an internal matter and while it affects everything it's probably a little early to learn from it let alone plan around it?

I heard an FT journalist comment a few weeks ago that the recession was over for sure because Martin Wolf had written an unusually upbeat column, and - she argued - since he was at the most pessimistic end of the spectrum it surely meant things must be truning around. Very drole. But then surely on that basis (the Martin Wolf negativity index or MNWI), sorry but er... presumably the recession might be back on?

What will Climate Change Mean in My Local Area?

Yesterday the US government released a comprehensive report on the predicted localised impacts of climate change within the USA. This afternoon the Guardian is publishing maps of the predicted impacts within the UK. There is quite a bit of merit in bringing it home to people; so for instance in the US report the prediction of flooding and disruption in parts of New York would certainly question the assumption many have that "it will never really affect life around here too much" (vs all the talk of polar bears and poor farmers). In economic terms, the notion of some of the more favoured spots in terms of climate change intensity of impact (the UK is one) might miss for instance the worst effects of drought and famine is rather a simplistic illusion; you can well imagine that quality of life in New York would be disrupted even sooner by the financial meltdown associated with significant global climate, energy and food disruption?


Meanwhile an engaging and educational grassroots approach to discussing local climate and sustainability has been taken recently by Loenora of Elio Studio (and Treehugger) who produced the first of a planned series of Creative Data events, in Norwich where (using data and mapping from the Tyndall Centre and working with social scientists from UEA) local people could interact with a massive map on the floor of the Norfolk Broads - a key question being where are your priorities for this area (between conservation, agriculture and tourism); something people had to indicate by placing stickers - so effectively interacting with other people's choices. For me this goes further than reports about the flood risk in your postcode, because it draws on a community engaged with planning their area; is more in the direction of Transition Towns than (the also much needed) top down cleantech master plans and transnational agreements. If we want to bring it home to people we need creative ways to get them to interact with the very real trade offs ahead.

Green Dam Girl

The FT reports "outcry over the national government’s attempt to ensure that every new personal computer sold in China is equipped with web filtering software. The ministry of industry and information technology notified computer makers last month that they would be required from July 1 to include Green Dam/Youth Escort – a programme developed under commission by the government – with every new PC.... Bloggers have taken a creative approach in their mockery of the censors. They have created “Green Dam Girl”, a woman drawn in the style of Japanese porn manga, wearing a police cap emblazoned with a crab, a pun on the Chinese word for “harmonious”, the government’s euphemism for a society without unrest, controversy or opposition.|

World Climate Community

It's here! http://www.worldclimatecommunity.com

I heard about this when I was over in Denmark last year and met with the city council. Basically it is their gift to the global community of concerned citizens who would like their voice to be heard for COP15 talks in december. Of course we all have to join up for that to be the case so roll up & sign up :J

Introducing YouGen

Great looking resource, do check it out & blog/tweet it around :J

EcoAmerica Report: "Climate Energy Truths"

(Note this is an old 2006 magazine cover - used with irony as reflecting what presumably the researchers would describe as 'how not to do it' - and not the actual EcoAmerica report in this post)

New report on how to communicate climate change, energy and related policies: download report here

I've just skimmed through it and my initial reactions are:
- it's very true that we need to explore with fresh thinking how to get through to people
- I agree the language, visual images and framing of concepts are critical
(I'd add that the key thing though is satisfying, coherent narratives that draw these together and make sense of it all)
- and it looks like a thought provoking discussion
but...
- "proposition testing" assumes that a different way of phrasing/framing things is sufficient
- vs what if we actually need to teach people what scientists and (most) politicians know: that our current economy and society is deeply unsustainable (in every sense including climate change), that we face an unimaginable global crisis if we dont change course; hence the game is up for keeping things as they are
- and evidence from studies in how people learn to change deeply held mental models points not to snappy top down messaging but democratic open forums for questioning, deliberation and discussion (and I've seen this in action doing research groups on the subject)

In other words - as this is a Washington report aimed largely at the Obama administration and their attempt to win the hearts and minds of America (vs the 'clean coal' and other dirty energy lobbies) - I'd stay stick to your guns, work with people the way you did with the election campaign and dont default to a political 'advertising sell' that attempts to put the radical changes we need to make into acceptable 'language' like (the recommended substitute for climate change) "deteriorating atmosphere". Cant we actually just give people clear information? Help them grasp the seriousness and urgency of the problem? Help them see for instance that 20% of all US emissions come from cars and driving - so it's not just about energy grid sized policies.

It's not the words that need to change, it's our worldview.

But well worth a read, I'm only reacting to a first pass and there looked to be some interesting insights and analysis in there too, and I'll be going through it in more detail.

Also I do agree with the problem they set out to solve and clearly we are on the same side arguing about 'how'. From their blog: "Now is the time for progress. We need to maximize the opportunity for climate and energy solutions, and this requires public support. The good news is that Americans support solutions, particularly when they can visualize them and when they are connected to benefits in their daily lives."

Some book recommendations

Am 85% of the way through editing Co-opportunity (my new book). And busy on a couple of projects. So not much time to blog. But thought I would post some of the books I've been enjoying as sources of info/ideas/inspiration lately.





Also wanted to point to Conversations with Green Gurus. Declaration of interest, I am featured as one of the interviewees. But it's otherwise full of the people I admire chatting in an informal and often quite revelatory way about the thinking behind what they have been up to.