Archive for February, 2009

I spent this past weekend with a group of MSLS alumni that had travelled from all over Ontario to spend time together and start creating our network in this little part of the world. It was a fantastic experience that left me feeling profoundly humble. Humble at being included in this group of great intelligence, passion and talent. Humble in the face of the job that we have to do. Humble in the face of the network and movement that we are building.

I’ve been struggling a lot recently with the scope of the problems that we face. There are small reminders in the headlines every day and there are giant glaring ones like what our friends in Australia are watching and experiencing right now. And yet we seem to be rooted in place, unable to properly mobilize ourselves to be the ‘clear voice in the commotion’ that The Natural Step has been called in the past. We are individual people working on individual projects and struggles. We are sitting around waiting for someone to take charge, to declare that our problems are both real and solvable with our frail tools. And what I see is that we need a new model for leadership. One that doesn’t rely on individuals to solve problems, but on our respect for collective wisdom and honesty. And that is what I saw this weekend. This group leads through inclusion and respect. It honors various voices. It is keen to ‘slow down to speed up’.

As part of the weekend, we had the opportunity to screen Sylvie Van Brabant’s film, The Last Planet which chronicles a young man, a former activist, who travels the world looking for real solutions that will help him solve issues of sustainability in his hometown in Quebec. He learns from people around the world, including Kalle, that share the years of experience that they have gained. One of the most striking lines in the film was that “action occurs in a place between hope and dissatisfaction”. Too much dissatisfaction without hope and you have no will to change. Too much hope without dissatisfaction and you have no reason to change.

We are at a time where the growing tide of social, economic and environmental devastation is giving rise to an unprecedented level of dissatisfaction. What we, as a collection of leaders, as a group that cares deeply and widely for each other have to contribute to the public is hope. A new world is possible. And looking around the physical table in Ottawa and the virtual table around the world, this is the group that is helping to build it. It’s humbling, inspiring and downright terrifying to be part of it.

Hållbarhet Ottawa included:

Mike Purcell, 05, Canada

Alexandre Magnin, 07, France

Antoine Belaieff, 07, Switzerland/Canada

Luke Raftis, 08, Canada

Tim Nash, 08, Canada

Theo Van Brabant, 08, Canada

Anouk Bertner, MSLS groupie, Canada

By Lisa Chacón

[Note: The morning included two events, neither of which I attended. I heard great things about both events secondhand, but perhaps those who attended the Ziptrek tour and the sustainably retail tour led by Lululemon could share their experience with the rest of us!]

Conversation about TNSF/FSSD & the TNS relationship with the alumni network

Pong Leung led us through some dialogues about our challenges and successes working with the framework. A few things that emerged were:

• The value of the Five Level Framework for keeping group discussion at the right level and covering all of the bases. Some groups tend to get stuck at the strategy and/or actions levels and miss sight of the bigger definition of success, and others never leave the higher level vision and success/goals level and get down to action. Most people rarely consider an explicit principles level. Sharing this model early in a group discussion can help the group self-orient and be more productive.
• The importance of language in general was a common theme, with several facets:
• Our common language of sustainability was something that we all valued.
• However, the wording of the principles was sometimes challenging to communicate to others. (For example, I was ‘forced’ by some non-TNS collaborators to reword the principles to make them more user-friendly and easily comprehensible for our client!).
• Using language provocatively: Dave Waldron shared a phrase that he likes to substitute for the word sustainability: “life on earth.” This reframe gets to the heart of the matter, and may even cause the listener to question whether life on earth is potentially at risk.

TNS and the SSD network

Pong led a session on the relationship between TNS the organization and the SSD network of alumni. He sees the future of the organization including more outreach to support the network of alumni practitioners, but this is beyond its current scope as an advisory and consulting services provider. Further, the current scenario potentially pits the TNS organization and MSLS alumni as competitors in the marketplace. We all seek massive change in society, and there is an urgent need for SSD knowledge and skills in society, and a growing number of SSD-trained practitioners each year, so how best can we work to achieve this together. 

The group dialogue that ensued was healthy and constructive, and an opportunity to air any tensions around the relationship with TNS. Since the gathering, this conversation has already evolved, precipitated by an email to the MSLS listserv posted by Neil Pegram ‘08. Miriam ‘06 shared a lovely metaphor about learning to sit with the tension long enough for the inherent wisdom to emerge. Perhaps holding the tension and seeking creative ways to align with the desires of both the alumni and the organization will result in some fruitful and synergistic solutions. While it will take some time to sort these matters out, other voices pointed out that the network needs to self-organize and solidify on its own, regardless of how and when the TNS organization determines that it wants to engage with the network.

This was a perfect segue to our next activity, a conversation about “Who we are as a network,” led by Rachelle ‘06. Of the many highlights of our time together in Whistler, this dialogue about our network stood out to me as a major turning point. It marked a significant moment - a dawning self-awareness of our identity as a larger group that transcended our primary identification with each individual class. As we all contributed words and images to describe our larger collective group, I reflected that this conference was really the first opportunity that most of us have had to meet groups of people from other classes. This gathering gave us a chance to meet face to face, share space and time, and get a sense of the broader network that extends beyond the smaller networks that we forged each year in Karlskrona. The simultaneous gatherings around the world reinforced this awareness and brought us all closer together, despite the technological barriers that enabled us to hear only every other word, half of the time! It was great to be able to see each other at least.

I’d like to digress for a moment to make a somewhat academic point, so bear with me. In human development, there is a natural progression towards a point in time when a child becomes self-aware as distinct from her surroundings. Further development requires that the subject of one stage becomes the object of the next, higher stage of development. This happens when the self, or the “I” is examined from an external perspective - through a process of self-introspection, or engaging in a dialogue with the self. Group development seems to parallel individual development - at a certain stage a group gains self-awareness and can begin to view its collective identity from an external perspective. It is important to recognize that it required a certain passage of time, and a critical mass of alumni in order to reach this turning point.

Through our questions and dialogue, it was exciting to notice that we had spontaneously arrived at this process of collective self-introspection:

• Who are we as a group?
• What makes us “attractive” to each other?
• What values and aspirations do we have in common?
• How did we self-select to become a part of this group?
• What do “outsiders” see when they look at our group?
• What does this group want to be when it grows up?

This sense of self-realization was reinforced by the legacy document that was recently published by the fourth class. What a beautiful and moving expression of the ongoing project that we have all participated in, and a reminder of the transformative experience of our time in Karlskrona. It was wonderful to see how organized things have become! The earlier classes had to essentially bootstrap everything, and many of the activities and programs seem to have been refined, improved upon and the scope expanded by later classes. In other words, the first class crawled so the second class could walk, enabling the third class to run, which in turn allowed the fourth class to fly. And the fifth class? I expect them to go stratospheric.

At the close of our time together in Whistler, I reflected that we had found our answer to the question of how to increase our impact. The answer will emerge from our ongoing inquiry, experimentation and self-organization as we come to know and fully leverage the depth and breadth of skills, talents and passion that we collectively possess as a network of SSD practitioners. This may take the form of more organized virtual spaces and collaborative activities, as well as more frequent physical gatherings. We can also increase our impact by co-creatively leveraging our relationship with the TNS organization, when the best way to do that becomes clear.

So let us move forward in the world, innovating and engaging in meaningful work, and creating safe places to practice and learn together. Let’s never forget that we are all facing the same challenges - we are on the leading edge of this evolving field, and what we’re doing is hard and has never been done before. There is comfort in knowing that we are all in the same boat. This gathering was an opportunity to meet, share and learn, and ultimately to inspire and reinvigorate each other.

Many heartfelt thanks to the organizers of this event for their leadership and initiative, and for creating a deeply meaningful, learningful and purposeful experience for the rest of us: Laura MacKay and Mitch Rhodes (‘05), Magdalena Szpala, Rachelle McElroy and Melanie Dubin (‘06), Katie Pease (‘07) and Jennifer Nichols, Neil Pegram and Renate Sitch (‘08), and last but not least, Pong Leung. And to all of the participants - thank you for bringing yourselves and contributing to the richness of our gathering.

The presentations and notes from the dialogues and working sessions are being uploaded to a wiki page on the Stratleade site on WiserEarth. Check it out and if you have something to add, please feel free to do so!

By Lisa Chacón

On Saturday morning the Whistler regional gathering kicked off with 34 people in attendance, at the beautiful public library, a LEED Gold building. Magda, Rachelle and Heather welcomed us, set the context of our gathering as one of many - in Australia, London, Karlskrona and Boston - all exploring the theme of “how to increase our impact by ten-fold.” After a round of introductions, we broke into small World Café groups to explore the following questions, led by Katie Pease ‘07:

• Improve the Human Condition
  What are the leverage points for turning the current economic crisis into an opportunity to elevate & empower those people typically excluded from mainstream economy?
• Market Individual Consultancies / Professional Development
  How can we leverage the extraordinary energy and experience of our network and bring this collaborative spirit to our work?
• Re-conceive Corporate Culture

What’s the best way to achieve a cultural shift in corporations? What strategies work best and what hasn’t worked when implementing sustainability in corporations? 

• Communicate Sustainability
  How can we harness human energy by inviting people to something meaningful and begin seeing the world with new eyes? How can we tell better stories about sustainability? When communicating climate change, what’s the right balance of conveying threat and opportunity?
• The Power of One
  What’s the best way for one person to have the most impact? How can we feed the soul of our community while nurturing our own?
• Permeate School Curriculum
  How can visioning, backcasting, and a systems-perspective be incorporated into the classroom?

After these rich discussions and a subsequent report-out session, we enjoyed a zero waste lunch (see the final report on the Zero Waste Challenge by Jen Nichols ‘08), and an excellent  presentation by the current MSLS class in Karlskrona on the Sustainability Toolbox.

Laura MacKay ‘05 emceed the Saturday afternoon program, which included a series of presentations from local sustainability leaders and some “power users” of the TNS framework:

• Anne Duffy, the Corporate Sustainability Officer of VANOC, the Vancouver Organizing Committee for the 2010 Olympic and Paralympic Winter Games, gave a presentation on how sustainability is being incorporated into the games. For the first time, sustainability has been included in the overall vision statement! Key sustainability objectives included: 1) Accountability, 2) Environmental Stewardship & Impact Reduction, 3) Social Inclusion & Responsibility, 4) Aboriginal Participation & Collaboration, 5) Economic Benefits from Sustainability, and 6) Sport for Sustainable Living. Anne’s perspective on how the definition of sustainability has evolved over the past few games was particularly interesting. The level of rigor for sustainability measures, accountability and expectations is much higher now.

• David Waldron, Strategic Advisor for the Suzuki Foundation, co-founder of Synapse Strategies, and founding member of MSLS program team at BTH, gave a presentation on his post-Karlskrona adventures including his tenure with the Suzuki Foundation. He shared how his career had been shaped by a special formula: Conversation - Serendipity - Opportunity. In other words, being present for seminal conversations, plus a dash of serendipity, which ultimately led to exciting opportunities. For those who remember our friend Manfred Max-Neef telling us to ‘drift in alertness,’ this sounded very familiar!

• Ted Battiston, now the Strategic Energy and Emissions Manager of the Whistler Centre for Sustainability, gave a rapid fire presentation describing his role during the Whistler2020 process as the Manager of Sustainability Initiatives for the Resort Municipality of Whistler. He created more than a few lightbulb moments - particularly with his story of teaching himself how to calculate key financial metrics using Wikipedia - NPV (net present value) and IRR (internal rate of return). He doesn’t use ROI as an argument for capital investments anymore, instead he says “show me any investment you could make today that will give you a better rate of return than the 10-15% that this renewable energy system will give you.” Learning to speak the language of business to this degree was a very powerful point. Don’t expect the number crunchers to do the math in their heads - give them the data and they might even become powerful allies.

• Arthur DeJong, the Mountain Planning and Environmental Resource Manager of Whistler-Blackcomb Resort shared from the heart with moving stories of life on the mountain. He emphasized the importance of transparency and “blunt honesty,” as an ethical stance. A devastating spill had occurred at one of the maintenance facilities he was responsible for - a diesel tank without any safety shutoffs was accidentally emptied into a fish-bearing creek downhill from the fueling site, with no barrier in between. He met the press the next day and acknowledged their fault for the terrible accident, and said that their entire operation would be examined and upgraded to prevent such things in the future. His hard-won lesson was that without that level of true-grit honesty, it wouldn’t have been possible to engage in real dialogue and build trust going forward.