Inspired Republic

Hands down, one of the most inspiring and influential duo in my life have been architect William McDonough and chemist Michael Braungart.

Creaters of the Cradle to Cradle design philosophy, they blew me away with their vision of seeing a “world of abundance, not limits”. I am completely drawn to their maverick idea that “design is a signal of intention” and theirs is to shift the current endlessly destructive model to one that “loves all children, of all species, for all time”.

Rather than making humans feel guilty, the C2C concept celebrates human creativity, culture and productivity, integrating nature’s effective design principles and integrating business and the environment.

Scoffing at the traditional “reduce, reuse, recycle” mantra as just a “downcycling” spiral, C2C design focuses on making products such that they enter either the “technical” or “biological” nutrient cycle once their life is over.  This way they can be completely used in another avatar rather than ending up in landfills.

In other words, the goal is to eliminate waste completely and turn it into  food. This is “eco-effectiveness” as opposed to the herd mentality of “eco-efficiency”.

The new breed of eco-effective designers are constructing:

• Buildings that, like trees, produce more energy than they consume and purify their own waster water
• Factories that produce effluents that are drinking water
• And – a personal favorite – ice cream wrappers (biodegradable and embedded with seeds of endangered species) that can be freely littered into the earth where they dissolve and sprout new life!

Whoa!

In one of his interviews, Michael joked that given a choice, would you strive for your relationship with your significant other to be merely “sustainable” or something greater? Similarly, in a world running amok chanting “sustainability”, he challenges us to shift our notion of what is possible.

Like the industrious ant or the generous cherry tree, could humans use their ingenuity to become integrated natives of the planet rather than isolated consumers?

MAKE AN INSPIRED CHANGE!

Lets Cradle!

Read the book Cradle to Cradle

Get your C2C mojo on with this iconic documentary Waste Equals Food:

Forget about everything you associate with a “movement” or an “-ism” you might know: well defined ideology, central aggregation of power, and (usually) male dominated leadership.

The movement I’m talking about is what author, enviromentalist, entrepreneur and the best spokesperson Mother Nature ever hired Paul Hawken brilliantly describes as “humanity’s immune response” to our current ecological and social crises.

The scientist in me loves this analogy. The changemaker in me heaves a sigh of relief (just as Hawken predicts) – the sense of finally dropping the orphaned feeling of having to be out in the trenches with a tiny army; marching with the grand burden of saving the world on my shoulders.

I’m sure you have a basic idea of the human body’s immune system. The good guy antibodies recognizing, attacking and killing the bad guy antigens (viruses, bacteria etc) to keep you healthy.

Hawken replaces this simplistic caricature and reminds us of the jaw dropping reality.

“In each of you are one quadrillion cells, 90 percent of which are not human cells. Your body is a community, and without those other microorganisms you would perish in hours. Each human cell has 400 billion molecules conducting millions of processes between trillions of atoms. The total cellular activity in one human body is staggering: one septillion actions at any one moment, a one with twenty-four zeros after it. In a millisecond, our body has undergone ten times more processes than there are stars in the universe…..

….So I have two questions for you all: First, can you feel your body? Stop for a moment. Feel your body. One septillion activities going on simultaneously, and your body does this so well you are free to ignore it……You can feel it. It is called life. This is who you are.

Second question: who is in charge of your body? Who is managing those molecules? Hopefully not a political party. Life is creating the conditions that are conducive to life inside you, just as in all of nature. Our innate nature is to create the conditions that are conducive to life.

What I want you to imagine is that collectively humanity is evincing a deep innate wisdom in coming together to heal the wounds and insults of the past.”

Just as the immune system is a complex, highly networked movement, so to is the fastest, largest and most complex movement in the world. 

 It consists of all the non-governmental organizations and people worldwide:

• Working from the bottom up for ecological sustainability and social justice
• Focused on ideas, not idealogy; the ideas are test-driven and constantly revised
• Solutions-based
• Without a central leader
• Diverse, eclectic, varied in their make-up but never contradicting each other in the grand scheme of things

When Hawken’s researchers first catalouged them on Wiser Earth, the numbers were just over a 100,000. At last count, the researchers anticipate the numbers to be closer to 1-2 million!!

It is important to keep in mind that Hawken doesn’t predict the outcome of this movement. Who knows if it will succeed or come to an auto-immune demise?

That shouldn’t stop any inspired changemaker. As Hawken points out:

“When asked if I am pessimistic or optimistic about the future, my answer is always the same:

If you look at the science about what is happening on earth and aren’t pessimistic, you don’t understand the data. But if you meet the people who are working to restore this earth and the lives of the poor, and you aren’t optimistic, you haven’t got a pulse.

What I see everywhere in the world are ordinary people willing to confront despair, power, and incalculable odds in order to restore some semblance of grace, justice, and beauty to this world.”

MAKE AN INSPIRED CHANGE!

Join the movement already! There’s tons to choose from:

• Go to WiserEarth and connect with the folks in your neighborhood or start a local group
• Read Hawken’s tome Blessed Unrest: How the Largest Movement In the World Came Into Being and Why No One Saw It
• Enjoy his commencement address to the Class of 2009 at the University of Portland  - now the stuff of internet folklore
• Check out artist Chris Jordan’s awesome installation based on the largest movement in the world

If you have a cup of tea handy, sit back and get inspired by the man himself, speaking at the Long Now Foundation:

Sometimes its all too much! All that talk about climate change and fossil fuels; the heaps of statistics and the dismal picture of our combined shaky futures.

What’s a changemaker to do?

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A few years ago I stumbled upon The Earth From Above [Vu Du Ciel], a collection of aerial photographs by Yann Arthus Bertrand. My jaw dropped to the floor. I was in awe. Not just of Yann’s genius – which is exemplary – but the mind boggling view of the earth I had taken for granted.

More than pretty pictures, these images tell a compelling story of the state of our planet.

To wit: The Eye of Maldives, an atoll [coral reef surrounding a sunken volcanic island] that is at risk from changing tides and temperatures, as well as the ravages of tourism. As a reference point, atoll formation may take  up to 30,000,000 years.

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