Sue Lebeck's Blog Posts Tagged 'economy' (21)

At this morning’s EPA webinar (part of a dynamite series by EPA's West Coast Climate and Materials Management Forum), Annie Leonard shared what she has learned on her journey…

Because nature has proven so successful in her engineering over the last 3.8 billion years, "asking nature" and mining her expertise has become a smart tactic for innovative businesses.   A critical part of that business innovation will be to sort out how to translate Nature's…

My husband and I are active participants in the now-familiar data-informed “sharing economy”-- a collection of cloud-based networks matching temporarily available assets with the people who need them now.  Avid AirBnB hosts, my former home office frequently holds vacationers and future San Franciscans as they discover The City.  ZipCar members now too, we let go of our rarely needed second car (a sexy 300ZX) with…

Upcycling is a creative business practice with the power to literally transform our material world.  Adam Wegener and Scott Hamlin are the creators of two young businesses which are applying upcycling principles to innovate the very way they approach product innovation. Adam is out to inspire a generation of future upcyclers, while Scott is out to change the way the apparel supply chain is materially sourced. The “waste” materials they are…

Sustainability is, at last, becoming deeply embedded into business decision-making and practice.   "Mo'Data" is my translation of the mantra I heard from business leaders last month, as they described what is needed most to get this job done. From KPIs (Key Performance Indicators) to EPDs (Environmental Product Declarations) to LCAs (Life Cycle Assessments), "Mo'Data" is the focus of…

As GreenBiz unveils its State of Green Biz 2013 report this week, risk and resilience emerge as new touch-words for sustainability.  The implications for business will be further explored at the …

"It's the end of the world as we know it, and I feel fine!"  Such was my personal soundtrack during a road-trip move across the country with my family in 1989.  And such is an appropriate soundtrack as we begin this next cycle of the Mayan long-count calendar.

New worlds and new times invite -- nay, demand -- change.  We've often offered…

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…

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…

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,…

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!…

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…

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…

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…

While musing about independence on the 4^th of July, I found myself inside of an unexpected but provocative question.  Asked then: “What is our modern tyranny -- the ‘arbitrary or unrestrained exercise of power’ from which we seek freedom” today?

After sitting with this question for a couple of weeks, I…