Sustainable Development Is Our Business

1. EcoPlan International presents: Sustainable DevelopmentIs Our Business 21st Turtle Media Consultants And it should be yours.

2. 16 April 2006 Note: This presentation was created in the summer of 1998 in an attempt to provide a lively 15 minute brainstorm introduction to our best thoughts on the relationship between this awkwardly named concept “sustainable development”, and its broader relationship to decision making in the new century. We reproduce it here with only a couple of minor editorial changes. In our view it still holds. Eric Britton, Paris. 16 April 2006

3. BUT BEFORE WE START

4. 21st Turtle is... a 100% specialized, high powered, research-supported, 21st century media thinktank!

5. Sustainability is... the emerging operational framework for activity organization in the 21st Century

6. Who, what, how • We are aiming these words and several images at several entirely different kinds of groups (industry, business, government, media, etc), each with very different levels of information on this topic, extremely varied abilities to comes to grips with any kind of new thinking, and of course entirely different basic interests and drives. For some of you this may prove puzzling or a bore. But not to all of you. • Some readers may find the whole topic of sustainable development, unfamiliar, perhaps a bit puzzling, and quite possibly unconvincing. It is after all a very new, complex and still quite muddy topic. The jury is still out in many ways. • Furthermore, the particular angle which we insist on here -- namely, sustainability as an opportunity that can and will yield to leading edge technology and management... when applied with equal doses of wisdom and energy -- is not one that is particularly well known or documented. For now, therefore, you will be left largely to your wits and the few miserable clues provided here to guide you. In the cases that count most here, we are confident that will suffice very nicely.

7. Presentation & the notebook metaphor • Since we presume to know something about media, and since the following risks to take at least a half hour of your valuable time, let us share with you a few quick thoughts on the uses and abuses of this particular tool, PowerPoint et al. • When used as anything beyond simple bullet-point visual help for presentations, it can begin to be made into a sort of poor man’s film. For better or worse. • Alternatively, you may think of it as a sort of high-tech comic book: discontinuous panels in which the reader’s active mind provides the missing continuity. • You may also be aware that the level of virtuosity it offers is fast evolving, so if used with the right touch it can achieve a creation number of “film-like’ effects. • The following however is intended to be read by a single person who is comfortably installed before a computer with a first rate monitor. And who has a real interest in our topic. Which is why we have chosen the notebook metaphor.

8. Navigation note You will hopefully have few problems in getting around within this presentation, but here nonetheless are some pointers which may be handy for those with limited PowerPoint exposure. • We have left it up to you to decide the timing of the progression of the various panels, rather than lock you into some pre-fixed schedule. Gives you a bit more choice and time to ponder, if you wish. • Clicking your left mouse button will advance you one slide. • A right click will pop up a menu which then offers quite a few navigational choices. • If you find anything that doesn’t seem to work or make any sense, the place to go to lodge your complaint or suggestions is right here at: • webmaster@ecoplan.org

9. NOW YOU KNOW. SOPROCEED AT YOUR OWN RISK!

10. You’re off... 21st Turtle Media

11. 21st Turtle Presentation Roadmap 1. The business concept in brief 2. Introduction & a few definitions 3. Rethinking sustainability 4. Sustainability at work 5. Your 21st Century Sustainability Agenda 6. 21st Turtle at work • Along with a few very short Think Breaks

12. Henry Ford in his highly original "My Philosophy of Industry" published in 1929 wrote that of all the kinds of work he could imagine the hardest work of all was thinking. And that's probably why most people do so little of it.

13. The Business Concept in Brief I.

14. 21st Turtle Media Consultants 1. A flexible international network of creative independent people and associate groups who stand ready to ... 2. Put their exceptional backgrounds, verve, technical competence, imaginations & energies to work... 3. On the single important task – that of getting the challenging message of sustainable developmentacross to... 4. Companies, communities, schools, and governments around the world -- and of course people who want to know and need to act in light of that knowledge.

15. 21st Turtle has one job: Sustainable Development

16. But lots of tools to do it 2nd Opinions * Awards Programs * Beta Tests * Books * Briefings * Cartoons * Collaborative supporting research * Competitions * Conferences * Content providers to the Web * Creative confrontations * Curriculum counsel * Debates * Demonstrations * Distance presentations * Exhibits * Fund raising * * Futures Studies * Happenings * Idea mongering * Illustrative graphics * Interviews * Kit building * Media campaigns * Museum programs * Music & Sustainability * Panels * Partner Searches * Photographs * Play projects * Polls * Projects focusing on children * Public interest representation * Public meetings * Public recognition * Radio programs * Rapporteurs * Roundtables * Scenarios * School programs * Seminars * Speakers bureau * Special events * Special issues of magazines * Speech Writing * Surveys * Sustainability & the arts * Talent scouts * Team builders * Television specials * Tours * Videoconferences * Videos * Virtual Conferences * Working The Web *

17. We work with &serve: • Businesses seeking to place themselves in this uncharted, fast-paced new market and production environment • Public sector institutions in search of new policies and practices to move them toward sustainability • Leading-edge innovators needing new levels of support & visibility for their sustainability ideas • Media groups seeking intriguing new content Four very different sets of needs; requiring very different approaches and partnerships.

18. 21st TurtleNot quite like the rest . . . • Deep background & experience in sustainability issues • International coverage and competence • Fully geared to inter-cultural work • Cross-disciplinary by profound, ingrained habit • Accustomed to working across public/private interface • Hands-on project level implementation experience • People skills • Communications oriented • And you won’t be bored.

19. Our philosophy of work & life • Tackle socially significant assignments • Work hard (when you want to) • Work smart (all the time) • Make a good living • Find strong partners & enjoy great company • Have a good time • Use best technology to get all this done • And try to be sustainable in our own lives.

20. All of which adds up to... • A rather unusual work mandate & capability • In a powerful new area of action & business • Which is worth zero if the quality is not there • The success of which hinges on... • - Ability to comprehend the underlying issues and trade-offs • - The integrity & effectiveness of the advisory relationship • - Capability to work closely & efficiently with client • - Capacity to understand, surprise, then shift gears, & still hold interest • But only for those who are ready for change.

21. But are you really ready for change? Professor Peter Schickele, holder of the Red Guard Chair in Musicolology at the University of North and South Dakota in America, and discoverer of the heretofore deservedly forgotten works of P.D.Q. Bach, found that Bach (1807-1742) had already addressed this matter directly in his powerful choral cantata, “Knock, Knock”. • In the opening recitative the countertenor soloist plaintively asks: “How may psychiatrists does it take to change a light bulb?” • To which the chorus beautifully responds: “Just one. But only if the light bulb really, really wants to change.” • Refrain taken up and repeated gloriously and endlessly by soloist, choir, and full symphonic orchestra till audience quits hall.

22. 21st TurtleOrganization & further information • Individual & team assignments. • Associates network developed through decades of successful international cooperation & execution • Track record & full international references. • Directed by Eric Britton & Dieter Hagenbach • Open to discussion & the coffee’s on us. • Review WWW site and extensions at http://www.ecoplan.org/21t • Principals’ Vitae available(contact postmaster@ecoplan.org) • Pick up the phone, email or write • Want to visit 21st Turtlein Paris or Basle (see maps at www.ecoplan.org) FOR MORE INFO...

23. II. Introduction & a few definitions

24. 21st Turtle • Media • Consultant • Sustainability

25. Why 21st Turtle Media?

26. Nobody knows.

27. Media = the plural of medium medium:n [L. medium, the middle, neut. of medius, middle] • A means of expression as determined by the materials or the creative methods involved. • An agency by which something is accomplished or conveyed. Or…what you absolutely must have control of to get anything accomplished. And at 21st Turtle the word is most definitely plural.

28. Consultant consult, v,t.[L. consultare, freq. of consulere. to deliberate, consider, ask advice.] 1. to ask advice of; to seek the opinion of, as a guide to one's own judgement. 2. to seek information or facts from. 3. to consider; to show regard for; to have reference or respect to in judging or acting. 4. (a) to confer about; (b) to plan for. This is what we do, and it’s teamwork

29. Sustainability = the opposite of profligacy (our definition) profligate, a, [L. profligatus, pp, of profligare, to rout, to ruin; pro, forward, and fligare, to drive or dash.] • lost to principle, virtue, or decency. • abandoned to vice. • extremely wasteful. • recklessly extravagant. Hmmm?

30. Right enough of course. But, you must admit, a bit negative. And a rather hard sell? Let’s see if we can do a bit better.

31. III. Rethinking Sustainability

32. Sustainability • Forget whatever it is you have heard about it in the past. We have a better definition to propose: • Sustainability is the emerging operational framework for activity organization in the 21st Century. • It applies leading edge technology, operations expertise & flexibility to achieve its huge performance edge. • It attacks the soft underbelly of today’s prevalent management paradigm: resource waste and associated externalities. • One can choose to be earlier or later, but the cost of late entry risks to be considerable. Also see our extensive bibliography on this topic

33. Sustainability -- Why bother? • Probably the best way to make money in the long term in the emerging competitive environment • Early entry can bring multiple advantages • Many interesting things already going on (so some useful “templates” are emerging) • Imparts a positive (and deserved) public image for those who can achieve it • In a phrase, a business for its time. And, of course, it is environmentally and socially responsible.

34. Sustainability - Why bother? A half-dozen eight-year-olds line up to view the moon through the 18 inch telescope. As I watch each teeter on the top of the little stepladder and peer into the eyepiece, something remarkable happens: by the cold moonlight -- a sort of spotlight, painting an ill-focused portrait of the moon on the eye, eye sockets, and a bit of brow and cheek -- each child seems transformed into an adult. Nina, red hair and freckles, becomes a woman in her 40s, the prime of her considerable athleticism now past but her effervescent spirit unsubdued. Nion, a shy and appealing boy, is suddenly a tall and elegantly commanding adult who might be director of a foundation. My son looks only a bit under my present age. Poised and serious, he offers a vision of a time when I myself have become a memory. I am reminded that everything we see in the sky belongs to the past, and that children in their similarities to us and their differences from us embody our concept of the future. We elders fall away into the past, like leaves from trees in autumn, but the young fall from us, too, their shouts of the glee and apprehension echoing back as they dive the toward the depths of the future. - Notes from Rocky Hill Observatory Log Timothy Ferris March 23, 1994

35. Sustainability -A terrific business maybe, but... • The basic concept from the outset (1987) for many people had a negative ring (a la Club of Rome, or go put on a sweater) • Those best placed to make the point (i.e.,the scientific community) have consistently demonstrated poor communications & people skills • Most sustainability statements and propositions still have an unrealistic, hand-ringing quality • Requires a radically different mind set and work organization for all directly involved • An unfamiliar sell (which can also be a real advantage) • Control freaks hate it (and fear it)

36. Sustainability -Several quick examples • The tire industry gets “sustainable” • Car sharing works - Believe it or not! • The end of kilowatt hours • Even elevators do it. Our topic is so sprawling and varied that it resists compression. But here are a handful of quick examples to get us going. Perhaps more important than the individual details is the overall story that emerges.

37. Sustainability - Example 1The Tire Business • Heavy truck tires & aircraft tires now being increasingly provided by "tire service companies" • Instead of selling physical products (tires or retreads), they sell tire services: monitoring tire wear & use, replacing tires as required. • Works thus far with vehicle fleets (anyone say “carsharing”) • These tires get better mileage, permit more rational retreading and repair (thus saving resources), offer cost savings for client. • And puts any tire group that has refused to spot this pattern in an increasingly difficult competitive situation. • PS. This pattern was clear by 1980 (and our clients got it!) Here is an excellent example of where you really don’t want to be last.

38. Sustainability - Example 2Carsharing • 1000 households in a place get together & decide that, • By working with a consortium of local planning authorities, transport operators, cab firms, car rental agencies, • They can get by with 70 technology-linked shared cars instead of 700 individually owned vehicles (as before), • In combination with improved public transport, cycle lanes, and back-up services, • And save $2-5,000 each per year. • THAT is sustainable! After years of marginal performance, this template has now been sorted out & is about to begin to bite.

39. Sustainability Examples 3, 4, 5... • Southern California Edison was among the first energy firms to sell energy services to their clients, and not kilowatts. This meant that they had to rethink and revise their products and delivery patterns radically. They have made money doing it, and the pattern has spread fast. • Dow Chemical early on began to “rent” some toxic chemicals to clients rather than selling them, thus closing the ecological loop, staying clear of regulators & law suits, & making money in the process. • Some elevator manufacturers now offer "elevator services" (long term contracts for maintenance & operation) in place of old strategy of just selling elevators & leaving the service to whoever. Again, there are dozens of examples, but are we seeing a pattern yet?

40. What does it take to succeed in theSustainability Business? • Radically different mental maps • And internal organization • Ability to balance production & today's cash flow with entirely different products & productive environments that are sure to follow (& very quickly) • Information & feedback intensive (so best to be very good at it) • Brainpower & creativity are critical • As is an unslakeable thirst for innovation And a willingness to try.

41. A Sustainable Enterprise • Is consistently on the lookout for hugeimprovements in resource efficiency at every step along value chain • With parallel, anticipated reductions in pollution & external costs (which anyway are increasingly going to be penalized) • Targets service delivery(with higher profit margins), instead of the old physical product (Dawkin’s “lumbering robot”) • Incessantlyworks to redefine itself • Works up, down and across the supply & distribution chain • Is an expert battlefield leader, communicator and negotiator • Puts the premium on brainpower (intellectual capital) • Uses that, and leading edge technology and management science, to achieve its ambitious objectives

42. Succeeding in theSustainabilityBusiness • Brainpower & innovation in adequate variety & quantities needed to prosper in this new hot-house environment do not flow from top down • But you may have it already, without being aware of it. • You may however need to learn to unleash self-organizing systems • Which means constant, meta-controlled experimentation (i.e., removing all fear of (early!) failure) • And far-reaching dialog & communications: in-house, along full value chain, customers/users, & well beyond Which is exactly where 21st Turtle come in.

43. The Prodigal Son Thesis THINKBREAK Have you given any thought to this? • The world will never start to become sustainable until you start to do so. Yes, that’s right! YOU! • Is that true? If so, where does one start? • Well, what about this? Maybe someone out there can come up with a “Personal Sustainability Calorie Counter” which at least you and I could begin to apply for ourselves. • We need some sort of handy metric, so that each of us can begin to get a better feel of how we are doing, sustainably or otherwise. Some sort of measure of, say, our Sustainability Quotient (SQ) • Maybe our PSCC could start with a base year, for example 1997, and help us to tally our score for that year. • But what sort of things might go into it?

44. Typical self-administered questions might be: • How many cars in my household? (look in front of my house) • How many kms did I drive last year? (check odometer) • What % of the time am I alone in my car? (quick calculation) • Approximate air mileage logged in last full year? • # hours I spent in an air-conditioned environment? • % I calculate that I am overweight? • Am I careful to check the point of origin of the food I buy? • How many hours per year do I carry out volunteer or unpaid work for others? • How many people did I fire or lay off? Did I give work to? • Credit card debt? What % of my average monthly income? • What about sorting my garbage? (a little, a lot, none at all?) • Etc. (But not a lot more, otherwise we lose too many people. We are, after all, prodigal daughters and sons, not ready to ascend saints.)

45. Prodigal Son, 3rd and last • The objective: Not to be perfect today, nor to get perfect overnight. But to see if we -- you & I -- can perhaps do a bit better this year. • Of course it must be easy to do, otherwise we never will get around to it. It also should be, somehow, interesting and compelling. • Surely it must not moralize or demean. Most of us are a bit too fragile for that. • Some may want to compare & compete, others not. That’s a personal choice. • If you and I can begin to make a bit of progress ourselves, maybe we then could share this idea with those closest to us. • Might it make a difference? Start something that might? • Might it give some of us -- as thinkers, innovators, decision makers, policy types, and role models -- a few new ideas as well? • And, while we’re at it, why not a SCC for cities, with government figuring out some ways to reward strong performers, & help & encourage the rest? Steal this idea!

46. V. Setting aSustainability Agenda

47. So... IF sustainability is the future, • or even if it only might be the future, • then it becomes relevant to ask . . . Is your Sustainability Agenda ready to go?

48. Your Sustainability AgendaIt’s soon 2000 & are you doing this ? • Level3 • and this? • and this? • Level2 • and this? • and this? • and this? • and this? • and this? • and this? • Level 1 • and this? • and this? • and this? • and this? • and this? • and this? Opportunities here • and this? • and this? • and this? • and this? • and this? • and this? • and this?

49. Because if not, you can be sure The world’s just gonna pass you by. Sustainability is our business. And it should be yours!

50. Of course you can always wait. Hmm?