Sue Lebeck's Blog (90)

In Austin, Texas last week, the SXSW Eco community convened for its second year to address “the need for a concerted, cross sector approach to solving the recognized challenges facing the economy, the environment and civil society”.  Their aim: “to drive the conversation of sustainability beyond rhetoric and towards solutions. “  

The SXSW Eco folks are perhaps naming our era as they reach out to “professionals at the…

Ah, summertime!  A vacation to Tuscany, a visit from my daughter, a publishing break – such are the spaces that allow creativity to thrive.   And yet, we close our summer breaks fittingly with a celebration of Labor and the generative fruits of our work – which often have their genesis in the creative spaces of summer.  We highlight two such initiatives today.

The first creative initiative comes from the always-generative…

Trust is at the core of what I care about.

Trust is the sustainable-design-quality behind the "T" in "SMART" innovation.  Trust is also at the center of our work at StarNet, where we create conditions for leaders across an industry to come together to lift their shared…

Whether we feel we are experiencing too much change or not yet enough, change IS the massively multiplayer adventure game on the table these days. And the game is much more fun if we are prepared!

 

Admired colleagues are serving up some great preparations for change-makers this month, and you will want to get your share. Marianna Grossman’s Sustainable Silicon Valley WEST - Climate Change and Resiliency…

Last year at one of the many sustainability-focused conversations I joined, a wise woman in the audience expressed well the conundrum we are living.   Despite our talk and activity around sustainable practice, our current cultural narratives of consumption and narrow measures of success are working against us.  We have no narrative for creating a world with regenerativity and sustainability at its core.  Without a new story, we are well-intended players trapped in an out-of-date…

What a difference a year makes.  While last year’s SuperBowl ads optimistically touted the latest in “green” cars, this year’s most-talked-about SuperBowl ad called the alarm on our current social crisis.  Yes, Clint Eastwood’s “It’s Half-time in America” pep-talk…

In the after-glow of holiday magic, we are reminded of our power - and responsibility - to create magic in the world.  Suspending disbelief, we stretch our imaginations and, at least for a time, expand our view of what is possible. 

Recently, my colleagues and I answered an invitation to consider how to expand our collective view of what is possible in the field of commercial space.  In responding to DARPA’s One…

As many of you know, my mid-life crisis came early.  After fifteen years in the networking industry commercializing and connecting people to the Internet,  I stepped back in the mid-90’s to look at the people we were connecting and, well, people in general.  For several years, I directed my creative energy to parenting, studying psychology and seeking the meaning of life (or at least the meaning of mine).  I did not find the meaning of life, but I did learn how we create meaning for life. …

Today's perspective comes from guest blogger Alyson Greenlee, a newly-minted twenty-something MBA who immediately impressed me.   I enjoy Alyson's thinking, so I asked her if I could share one of her thoughtful and provocative questions here.  Enjoy! -- Sue

A story in today’s New York Times caused quite a stir.  The headline: “A Blow to PinStripe Aspirations”, a.k.a. "Wall Street Layoffs Take Heavy Toll on Younger Workers".   Have a quick read, and then check out the passionate reaction it elicited.   The word “schadenfreude” was used several times to describe what was unfolding.  (Schadenfreud is not a word in my vocabulary,…

As we all prepare to celebrate Thanksgiving, join me in thanking the InnovatingSMART all-volunteer creative team. Their generous contributions of time and talent over the past year-and-a-half made and make our all-volunteer publication possible.

You guys rock! Thank you!

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Our readers know that Alvin Toffler invented the word, but I might be the first person to "verb" it.  From our friends at Wikipedia:

The term [Prosumer] has ... taken on multiple meanings in business and economics: the business sector sees the prosumer (professional–consumer) as a market segment, whereas economists see the prosumer…

These days such a statement might make one a little jumpy.   But in this case, there is no need to panic. Nature is not jones-ing to downsize your position.  Instead, as a result of an increasing number of human apprentices, Nature's genius is on-deck to help YOU look brilliant.





As regular readers have detected by now, I am an unabashed fan of the concepts and potential of Biomimicry, the human practice of…

News from our friends at B-Lab -- Woohoo!

Check out also our new Video addition to the B-Labs innovation story!…

One of my favorite organizations reaches out in collaboration for yet another great-looking event.  Check out the Biomimicry Institute at the Cal Academy of Sciences on October 13!





From our Biomimicry friends:

Great design often takes cues from nature— get your hands on real products inspired by natural forms and speak to the folks at Ask Nature and the…

Like many, I have become discouraged, even angry, in the wake of Silicon Valley solar manufacturer Solyndra's filing for bankruptcy. 



Unlike many others in the blogosphere, I am not angry with the government loan guarantee program for backing Solyndra.  I am not even angry with…

This past weekend, our Airbnb guests had come to town for the Mechanicrawl 02011 event hosted by the Long Now Foundation, whose mission is balancing “faster/cheaper” thinking with its “slower/better” counterpart.   It prompted me to take another look at my copy of…

Sometimes you just cannot be everywhere you want to be.  The eighth of September was one of those days for me, as Sustainable Silicon Valley (SSV) held a workshop on Designing for Sustainability through Biomimicry, and I was not available to go.  I heard from colleague Diana Lee of the Biomimicry Institute that SSV Executive…

SMART innovator Eddie Leung of Secured Environment will be setting up a degree program in Hong Kong on nuclear risk engineering and give a seminar on pollutant valuation.  A description of that Seminar is below.

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In the wake of Fukushima, I can hardly believe I’m saying this. 

Nuclear energy – that field I’ve loved to hate, that clean-energy-with-the-out-sized risks, that “nuclear” word which nearly dissuaded me from having children back in the 1980’s – nuclear energy (of a not-often-heard-of type) could come back out of hiding to address our urgent need for clean, plentiful energy in the 21^st…