I am having a crazy week, so I don't really have time to post. The only reason that I am here at the moment is that I am waiting for my turn to present on a conference call.
But I just saw this post on No Impact Man. It is his response to the question, "How are you dealing with the deprivation inherent in your No Impact experiment?" He talks about some research on happiness that I found fascinating.
Just take a look and maybe we'll talk about this later this week...
Showing posts with label Personal Sustainability. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Personal Sustainability. Show all posts
Wednesday, October 24, 2007
Thursday, October 18, 2007
An example of anti-sustainability
Here is another tangent related tp my sustainability post from earlier today.
One of my concerns with the current corporate model is that it encourages behaviors that are - in my humble opinion - counterproductive. I'll understand if you scoff at my use of that term, because corporations are OBVIOUSLY productive. They are the backbone of our economy! They produce goods, services, and jobs. But they also actively encourage behaviors that I consider to be just plain bad for adults.
I bring this up because I just read Christine Kane's blog post from yesterday. The first two paragraphs include a story about her encounter with a confused salesman from a national corporation. He had questions after her presentation at a local because she talked about the idea of trust - and that was different from anything he knew about sales. In my world, good business is sustainable business. Instilling fear and distrust in clients is not sustainable.
Business as a competitive "us/them" single sale event is so 20th century! It eats up the good in people at an unsustainable rate - and that is one resource that I believe that we can't do without. I suspect that it will slowly change of its own accord, as more people experience trust based, collabarative business. But if it doesn't, I have no qualms about helping it do so - in a very friendly and non-competitive manner, of course. After all, if I'm right, collaborating to make the corporate model more sustainable could be the consulting gig of a lifetime!
One of my concerns with the current corporate model is that it encourages behaviors that are - in my humble opinion - counterproductive. I'll understand if you scoff at my use of that term, because corporations are OBVIOUSLY productive. They are the backbone of our economy! They produce goods, services, and jobs. But they also actively encourage behaviors that I consider to be just plain bad for adults.
I bring this up because I just read Christine Kane's blog post from yesterday. The first two paragraphs include a story about her encounter with a confused salesman from a national corporation. He had questions after her presentation at a local because she talked about the idea of trust - and that was different from anything he knew about sales. In my world, good business is sustainable business. Instilling fear and distrust in clients is not sustainable.
Business as a competitive "us/them" single sale event is so 20th century! It eats up the good in people at an unsustainable rate - and that is one resource that I believe that we can't do without. I suspect that it will slowly change of its own accord, as more people experience trust based, collabarative business. But if it doesn't, I have no qualms about helping it do so - in a very friendly and non-competitive manner, of course. After all, if I'm right, collaborating to make the corporate model more sustainable could be the consulting gig of a lifetime!
Sustainability
So, let's start with the end of last post. Wikipedia says, "Sustainability is a characteristic of a process or state that can be maintained at a certain level indefinitely." My definition of sustainability might be a little more about resources. Maybe like this: A process or state that can be maintained at a certain level without using up the resources committed to it.
The reason I think in terms of resources is because that is the problem I've faced most often. Almost every problem that I've solved has been about doing the same thing with less money or doing the same thing but letting people go home on time. Because people are resources, too. Ask any certified Project Manager. They show up that way on the project plan! So, in the interest of getting this on paper at this point, I'll post a brief list of areas that interest me that I believe are related to sustainability.
Business
So, what else do you think falls into designing a sustainable life?
The reason I think in terms of resources is because that is the problem I've faced most often. Almost every problem that I've solved has been about doing the same thing with less money or doing the same thing but letting people go home on time. Because people are resources, too. Ask any certified Project Manager. They show up that way on the project plan! So, in the interest of getting this on paper at this point, I'll post a brief list of areas that interest me that I believe are related to sustainability.
Business
- Process improvement work (the business equivalent of HTR)
- Prep for Gen Y/Millenials
- Virtual teams/offices (including the tech to make this reasonable)
- Energy efficiency - as an overhead reduction measure
- Money management
- HTR, of course, which can encompass most of the following
- Debt reduction/money management
- Environmental concerns - related to money management
- Energy efficiency
- Local food
- Household management - provisioning, cleaning, cooking wisely
- Job management
So, what else do you think falls into designing a sustainable life?
Wednesday, April 4, 2007
Sustainability
I've been interested for some time in sustainable/green living and ways to adapt my life here in the desert to those principals. My interests are primarily pragmatic - reducing energy consumption reduces energy costs, recycling reduces landfill size - and somewhat ideo-political. A lot of data exists out on the web and I have shared some of it with my extended family, so they are all aware of my interests. It was only natural for Ommi to text me when she saw the article on Sustainability at ASU.
When she mentioned it, though, the first thoughts through my head were not water usage and sustainable building materials. I thought of personal sustainability. Part of my research on creativity and happiness has to do with recognizing and understanding my own limits. I understand that the energy required to maintain my life as it currently exists is often larger than the energy that I have to provide. That is especially true now - in the height of the Valley allergy fun times - so, instead of blogging more tonight, I am going to curl up on the couch and recharge my batteries. I expect to be back to full energy tomorrow!
When she mentioned it, though, the first thoughts through my head were not water usage and sustainable building materials. I thought of personal sustainability. Part of my research on creativity and happiness has to do with recognizing and understanding my own limits. I understand that the energy required to maintain my life as it currently exists is often larger than the energy that I have to provide. That is especially true now - in the height of the Valley allergy fun times - so, instead of blogging more tonight, I am going to curl up on the couch and recharge my batteries. I expect to be back to full energy tomorrow!
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