The Abundance Affect

Thought I’d share what is happening over at Abound. We’ve got a Facebook page, and Facebook Group and have started to collect stories that illustrate the “Abundance Affect“. Here’s an excerpt from the website:

…When we make this commitment surprising things begin to happen. Positive value begins to ripple and flow out from this intention and commitment. Happy accidents occur. Rather than creating collateral damage, collateral benefit begins to accrue. Formerly externalized costs are transformed into externalized value. It is the creation of unintended yet undeniably positive value in unexpected places. We call this the Abundance Affect.

…To understand more about how they are doing this, the challenges they face, and the tough choices they have to make please take some time with their stories. They are beautiful. They are real. They are happening now.

Tags: Abound, Abundance Affect, externalized costs, Facebook, happy accidents

Addicted to Ding Dongs

Apparently, we are not just what we eat. What we eat transforms us. Our bodies, brains–our whole system–organizes around what we choose to consume. A recent study has shown that rats fed a steady diet of Ding Dongs develop classic addiction symptoms and behaviors. These include withdrawal and the willingness to endure hardship (repeated shocks) to obtain those precious creme-filled treasures.

Think about what you eat. Vegetarian? A diet rich in meat? You have physiologically, psychologically and existentially organized your self around this choice and this choice now has become a habit, a way of life. This choice is now organizing you.

We are incredibly resilient creatures. Highly adaptive, the wholeness of our being adapts to and adapts us to the life conditions we choose and into we are embedded. And, what we eat seems to be one of the core organizing principles.

So, it’s kind of neat to think that we can choose our addictions. We can choose to overdose on Ding Dongs and their nefarious yellow cousins, Twinkies. We can choose to align our selves with Monsanto and Nestle and shovel down processed foods oozing genetically modified high fructose corn syrup. Or we can organize our lives around thriving and consuming and living locally. Literally, we can become one with land and, through the habits of mind, body and spirit this choice engenders, become closer to each other.

The choice, initially, belongs to you.

Tags: addiction, Ding Dongs, high fructose corn syrup, Monsanto, rats, Twinkies

The Abundance Dynamic

There is a shift in progress.

For hundreds of years we have been living, working, consuming and discarding without much concern for the consequences of our actions. The dominant paradigm has been one of individual, corporate and national profit making and taking. The costs of these pursuits has been consistently and conveniently “externalized”, meaning, simply, that we’ve been ignoring the systemic reverberations of our actions. If you haven’t done so already, watch The Story of Stuff, now.

Generally speaking this is resulting in largely unintended and increasing patterns of environmental degradation, 5 nation-sized gyres of plastic soup in our oceans, a growing number of extinctions or near extinctions,  climate destabilization, crippling trade imbalances, the ongoing accumulation and concentration of wealth and health in small minorities, and the proliferation of re-enforcing systems and structures that, as populations increase, are accelerating these patterns. As populations grow and resources dwindle the consumptive force of this negative spiral is poised to increase exponentially. Accompanying  this tsunami-like increase we’re already seeing rather undignified grabs for resources (think oil–and, more recently, tuna).We call this the scarcity dynamic. We all know how this works. We perceive (correctly or incorrectly) that there is not enough to go around, so we hoard, consume more quickly, things fall apart and we realize the tragedy of the commons.

Recently, though, new patterns have been emerging that demonstrate the transformative power of widening our scope of action, intention and awareness. When we do this consistently and systemically we begin taking ownership and accountability for the impacts and influences we exert beyond the immediate scope of our work, commerce and consumption. We begin to realize that, instead of contributing to the negative spiral outlined above, we can create ripples of positive value in the world around us. We call this the abundance dynamic. And, it begins with a shift from “me” to “we.”

Tags: abundance, climate destabilization, extinction, me to we, oil, plastic gyres, population, scarcity, The Story of Stuff, trade imbalance, tragedy of the commons, tuna

The Futility of Fighting Climate Change

Recently there is a lot of debate and derision around the science of climate change. As an example, a recent article in the Times Online lists numerous studies criticizing the validity of data gathered by weather stations around the world. The point: many of the readings of these stations have been compromised by changes in context. A taste:

Some are next to air- conditioning units or are on waste treatment plants. One of the most infamous shows a weather station next to a waste incinerator…the weather station at Rome airport…catches the hot exhaust fumes emitted by taxiing jets.

For a summary of other recent controversy read “How Wrong is the IPCC?” in Mother Jones. On the other side of the debate, I regularly receive urgent email from Repower America trying to enlist me in the fight against big oil and the fight for clean energy.

Fight, fight, fight, fight, FIGHT! We are at war with…our selves. The enemy is us and we are losing.

Are we affecting the climates that have supported and sustained civilization for the last few thousand years? Absolutely. How bad is it? I don’t know and, really, neither does anyone else. Why? We are dealing with complex, open, living systems influencing and interacting with other equally complex, open, living systems. In these relationships cause becomes effect, effect turns to cause. Nothing is fixed, change is utterly non-linear and notoriously unpredictable. We might as well walk outside and try punching air. It certainly feels good…

We are simply not designed for this struggle. In trying to comprehend climate change our senses fail us. We deal in immediacy. The building of our capacity to sense the long term is a work in progress desperately in need of more funding. Logic unravels. How do we build a useful proof when “A” and “B” are both and neither? Mathematic modeling is hopelessly inadequate. How do we construct a model for life?

So, what should we do? Stick with what we’re good at, agree on what we agree on, sprinkle in a liberal dose of common sense and top it all with a big ‘ol dollop of compassion.

What are we good at? Building stuff. Constructing civilizations. Creating profoundly moving art. Telling stories. Learning and adapting.

What do we agree on? I’m betting that we all want to live somewhere beautiful. We all want stimulating, inspiring work and lives. We all want good neighbors. We all want lives of prosperity and abundance.

What is common sense? Let’s listen to our senses. Let’s keep it simple. How would a house full of auto exhaust look, smell and feel? How would a plastic fish sandwich taste? Anyone for eau de landfill? How about a chocolate pesticide milkshake? Now, how about basking in the sun on a cool day? What is the feel of a cool breeze on a warm summer day? The feel and smell of cool, moist soil? The taste of a clear mountain stream? Listen to your senses, they’ve done a pretty dang good job of keeping us alive so far…

Compassion. C’mon people, like it or not we are in this–suffering and succeeding–together. Just because we disagree does not mean we have to dismiss, disengage and disintegrate. If we are going to fight, let’s stop beating the shit out of each other and find the common passion to design and implement ways of working and living together that create and sustain life, that create and sustain that which sustains us.

Let’s get really good at it.

Just to keep the record straight this is not a feel good appeal for a world of ponies and rainbows. This is hard work, a life’s work. And, yes, the devil is definitely in the details. And, yes, we are going to disagree, lose our tempers, maybe even throw some shoes. But, let’s keep our eyes on the prize. Climate change is not the enemy. It is a symptom and a growing cause of our collective dis-ease.

Let’s use a little more common sense and let’s stick with what we’re good at and let’s generate a lot more compassion. Resistance is futile.

Tags: climate change, common sense, compassion, complex living open systems, data, IPCC, Repower America, weather stations

Consuming Thoughts: Y

Y is for Yes and the Power of Intention. Peter Gabriel: And the tears roll down my swollen cheek, I think I’m losing it, getting weaker…I hold the line, I hold the line. Record numbers of homeowners are walking away from mortgages that they are fully capable of paying. According to a Times Magazine article Their decision is strategic. It’s good business. As the writer says, “we are all economic pinballs, insensibly colliding for better or worse.” Financial services organizations routinely make such “strategic” decisions. Banks no longer own mortgages, why should we?

This is economic nihilism and it does make sense – if we view our lives as one thin transaction after another. If we believe we’re losing it we probably will. Disconnective thinking breeds disconnected action. It is a a symptom of withdrawal, collapse, contraction and fear. Mentally, physically, spiritually we grow weaker. We believe we can separate our “selves” from “the world.”

We hold the line. The line is a thread. A thread that connects and binds us together. We can ignore it. We can say “no” to it but the relationship won’t go away. We hold the line. We can turn our backs on responsibility. We can put our heads in the sand and refuse ownership and obligation. We remain connected, however, the quality of that connection is weakened, degraded, frayed. Or, we can say, “yes.” “Yes”, opens us to opportunity, possibility and abundance.

They hold the line. What would happen if a line of credit was also seen as a line of connection? What would happen if banks looked at us less as risks to be managed and more as opportunities to increase social and relational capital in the communities they serve?

We hold the line. What would happen if we said “yes” to spending strategically to build value in our cities and communities? What if our intention as consumers was to support and sustain the banks, businesses and services that sustain us?

Try it. Say “yes”, reach out and connect. Manifest the intention to support and sustain each other. Share what we share anyway to strengthen our connection. It is within our grasp. We hold the line, the line of strength that pulls us through the fear.

Tags: abundance, credit line, mortgages, Peter Gabriel, strategic defaults, We hold the line

Consuming Thoughts: X

X is for “Exchange” Your Money for Action. George Bailey: …this rabble you’re talking about… they do most of the working and paying and living and dying in this community. We do. 99.9% of businesses operating in the world are small to medium-sized businesses. In the US, small and medium-sized businesses employ over 60 million people. Currently, many of these businesses and their people are suffering. Cut off from sources of credit, capital and equity they are slowly, inexorably going broke.

Traditionally, small, community banks and lenders were there to serve small businesses and individuals. However, according to the Move Your Money post in the Huffington Post:

…America’s Main Street community banks — the vast majority of which avoided the banquet of greed and corruption that created the toxic economic swamp we are still fighting to get ourselves out of — are struggling. Many of them have closed down (or been taken over by the FDIC) over the last 12 months. The government policy of protecting the Too Big and Politically Connected to Fail is badly hurting the small banks, which are having a much harder time competing in the financial marketplace. As a result, a system which was already dangerously concentrated at the top has only become more so.

So, what can we do? Three things:

1. Continue to buy local. Small and medium-sized businesses are overwhelmingly local and regional businesses. Healthy cities and communities are sustained on a resilient web of local commerce and consumption.
2. Start saving and investing locally. Put your money in local, community-focused institutions. The folks at the Huffington Post have started the Move Your Money campaign and website where you can get information about how and where you can make a difference just by opening a bank account. Community banks, savings and loans and credit unions have a much bigger interest and stake in maintaining and growing a healthy community.
3. Check out this video. George Bailey or Mr. Potter? The choice is ours.

Tags: buy local, George Bailey, Its a Wonderful Life, Move Your Money, small and medium-sized business, The Huffington Post, too big to fail

Consuming Thoughts: S

S means Savings Through Which We All Win. John Lydon; Anger is an energy! Anger is an energy! So is money. It is the water cycling through our economic ecosystems, the electric currency powering the prosperity of our communities. Life is a big ‘ol square dance of energy exchange.

Money is kind of funny because it has value only because we agree that it does. It’s not food, shelter, clothing and certainly not sex. It is a means to an end. What end? In the “West” we tend to focus on personal prosperity. In the “East” there is still often a strong element of familial piety that creates large amounts of savings and distribution within large, extended families. Both models work and both can become highly dysfunctional. Their relative levels of success depend on where we stand in terms of scarcity and abundance.

Scarcity leads to contraction, hoarding, and win-lose competition for what are perceived as limited resources. Abundance demands we expand our sense of “me” to “we” and our sense of family to include community. In a scarcity driven world we save money out of fear and distrust. With an abundance mindset we save money because of its potential to benefit us and the community that sustains us. Scarcity leads us to the false choice of “either/or.” Abundance challenges us to be big enough to hold “both/and.”

To spend money we have to save money. Saving is good. It builds up a reservoir of energy. What we need to consider is, “What are we saving it for?” How can those savings be best used to sustain us and that which sustains us?

Another key consideration is value. Some of us are highly skilled at accumulating money but are terrible musicians and would soon whither in the extremes of a 1st grade classroom. Currently schools throughout the US are significantly underfunded yet scarcity minded, yet professional sports salaries continue to climb. Koyaanisqatsi, koyaanisqatsi.

Collectively we have the talent, resources and means to create communities of abundance. Our biggest obstacle? Our selves. What are we saving it for? What are we waiting for? What can we create-together?

Tags: abundance, bonuses, John Lydon, koyaanisqatsi, savings, scarcity

Consuming Thoughts: H

H is for Health That Should Never Be Poor. Basho: Old pond / frog jumps in / the sound of water. In the US we are currently wrapped up in a very important, often ridiculous debate about healthcare or, more accurately, health insurance. Having just repatriated and wandered the maze of healthcare choices”, as a consumer, I can say the array of choices in front of me was more like a game of Russian roulette or a bizarre amalgam of Sophie’s Choice and Groundhog Day. Each of the myriad “choices” I had to make was a gamble or a sacrifice. It was stressful, unsatisfying and, well, unhealthy.

David Gilmour: I am you and what I see is me. Consider a frog. Essentially frogs need water, warmth and bugs. Taint or take away one of those essentials (or the conditions that support these essentials) and you’ve got a mess of unhealthy, mutated frogs or no frogs at all. Frogs are voracious consumers in their eco-systemic niche. So are we. As humans we need a healthy, resilient, sustaining Value Web, yet so many of the choices we are being asked to make are neither healthy for us, our communities and the eco-systems that sustain us.

For consumers, shopping is a highly entertaining game of choice. The question is what are we really choosing? In the case of healthcare we are “choosing” damaged goods from a broken system. In the case of health, though, as we shop, we have the opportunity to choose for our selves and support the health of our communities and the eco-systems that support them. Our choices can give life instead damaging the conditions that make it possible. We can design the effects of our purchases to be less bad and more good and healthier for all of us-including the frogs.

Tags: Basho, David Gilmour, health, health insurance, healthcare, russian roulette, sustainability, value web

Consuming Thoughts: G

G is for Good, of Which We Need More. Tom Waits: You got to keep the devil way down in the hole. Disposable diapers. The mark of a sophisticated consumer society. No muss, no fuss, take ‘em up and toss ‘em into the nearest available trash receptacle. That amounts to over 4,000,000 tons of turd bombs trucked to landfills yearly in the US alone. Shocking. What’s our response to shock? We recoil, pull back and, physiologically prepare for fight or flight. Fleeing, we fling our filth away, deliberately in denial, we cut our selves off from considering the consequences. Fighting, we campaign in outrage, demand responsibility through reduction, writing rants, we burn off our anger in opposition. We’re demanding rather stridently that we change behavior. For some reason, this rarely yields the results intended…

John Cleese: And now for something completely different. What if we re-thought, re-designed, re-branded and marketed disposable diapers that allowed us to stay in our throw away rut and that were also nutritious (for worms, that is). Well, it’s been done and gDiapers is doing it right. Disposable diapers that disappear as compost (residential or commercial). Certified as cradle to cradle, they go back to where they came from, closing the loop. Think of this as an aiki-solution. No fight, no flight, re-direction of disastrous behavior into virtuous, value-generating action. Same babies, same parents, same behaviors, different diapers, good waste.

Of all the things, more good from wasteful behavior. Chevy Chase: Ahahahaha … I like it!

Tags: aiki, and now for something completely different, Chevy Chase, compost, Cradle to cradle, disposable diapers, gdiapers, John Cleese, Tom Waits, you got to keep the devil way down in the hole

Special Announcement: The Green Marketplace Forum

For those of you in Japan or going to Japan at the end of September we are co-sponsoring this landmark event:

The American Chamber of Commerce in Japan Presents:

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GREEN MARKETPLACE FORUM: THE FUTURE OF WORK, HOME, & HOW WE GET AROUND

Wednesday, September 30th, 9:00-18:30

DISTINGUISHED SPEAKER LIST INCLUDES:

• Mayor Hiroshi Nakada of Yokohama
• Paul Sands, General Manager of Virgin Airlines
• Kiyotaka Fujii, President of Better Place Japan
• U.S. Govt. Expert on emerging GOJ policy around carbon reduction targets and how that is shaping the business environment

PLUS:

Interactive “stakeholder dialogue” session: Your opportunity to connect and catalyze business opportunities with other individuals and organizations, and add your perspective to the discussion on emerging government policy around carbon reduction targets and how that is shaping the business environment

EVENT OVERVIEW:

The Green Marketplace Forum (GMF) is an interactive event that explores the future trends and business opportunities of Green Design/Building and Green Mobility/Transportation as they relate to our lifestyle and the many changes resulting from efforts to achieve a Carbon-free society. The US Embassy will also present an update on the Government of Japan’s carbon reduction targets and how this may affect the business environment and business opportunities. The GMF allows you to hear from and interact with policy-makers, thought leaders, organization leaders, innovators and entrepreneurs; and provides event participants with a process to begin moving from dialogue to action in these core areas of our lives and work.

DATE: Wednesday, September 30, 9:00 to 18:30

VENUE: Four Seasons at Chinzan-so in Tokyo

MAP: <http://www.fourseasons.com/tokyo/directions_and_map.html

<http://www.fourseasons.com/tokyo/directions_and_map.html> >

COST: (All fees include a buffet lunch)

Morning Session: Members: 7,000 yen; Guests: 8,000 yen

Afternoon Session: Members: 7,000 yen; Guests: 8,000 yen

Full Day: Members: 10,000 yen; Guests: 11,000 yen

Contact: Chad Stewart (chad@ikan.biz) to register

REGISTRATION AND CANCELLATION DEADLINE: 5 p.m., Friday, September 25

Tags: American Chamber of Commerce Japan, Better Place, carbon free, Green Building, Green Design, Green Mobility, Green Transportation, Hiroshi Nakada, Kiyotaka Fujii, Paul Sands, Virgin Airlines