Stack Coordination

This brilliant clip from Derek Sivers beautifully sums up the challenge and possibility that I think the sustainability movement holds right now for businesses and communities:

Sustainability is at a tipping point.

The “lone nuts” of sustainability - Paul Hawkin, Donella Meadows, Karl-Henrik Robért, Armory and Hunter Lovins, Ray Anderson, David Suzuki, Tim O’Riordan, Peter Senge, Manfred Max-Neef, Sim van der Ryn, Bill Reed, Bill McDonough, Bob Willard (and so many others) – boldly braved the spectacle and discomfort of dancing to the beats that they heard blaring from the world’s speakers.  We may actually be past a crucial threshold based on David Suzuki’s welcomed presence in front a couple thousand CEOs at a Walmart Sustainability Conference (did we think THAT would happen 10 years ago?) as well as ‘mainstream’ chatter like the Green Police ad during the Super Bowl.

At the same time, I do think that there are two lessons from Derek that we need to heed.

The first is about simplicity – we must constantly work to make sustainability, which is inherently a study of everything, simple enough to follow. The “green world” is incredibly scattered and wide-ranging, and can be difficult to make heads or tails of it – simplicity, without reduction, is essential. To make matters worse, we have recently seen the damage that the poor (and unethical) communication has done to the climate change dialogue.  We must make things easy to follow.

The second lesson is about making it fun.   Sustainability, especially in business, is a massive exercise in risk management, and it can be all too easy to get wrapped around the fears that come with such a sobering topic.  But we also know that sustainability offers a brighter and more liberating existence, and if we can exude confidence in that vision, we’ll attract far more people willing to dance their butts off.

The “lone nuts” have done a fantastic job starting the dance.  Now it’s up to us to keep the party going.