The Thought Kitchen is our effort at collective inquiry and its power to affect change. Have you ever noticed how the party is always in the kitchen? There are more walls to lean on and people are energized by the proximity to food and drink. Well, welcome to our kitchen, where we hope to tap into everything we love about that feeling—community, vivacious exchange, food for thought.
If You Knew Everything About Tomorrow, What Would You Do Differently Today?
So asks Faith Popcorn, who has created quite a reputation for what she calls “applied futurism.” By that she means weaving the future into the everyday texture of companies and brands. Faith and her gang have come up with a list of predictions for 2008. One in particular caught my attention. It’s titled “Reactions to Cashing Out”:
Lagom: From the Swedish, most commonly translated as “just enough.” It’s an approach to both design and consumption that explains the essence of brands like Ikea and Volvo. We see notions of “minimalism” and “sustainability” taking on significant currency, as even Americans reject hyper-consumption as not just excessive, but actually damaging to themselves, others and to the planet.
KarmaCapitalism: As “Cashing Out” rises to this level of prominence, we’ll see a basic shift in the identity/mentality of people, as they make the transition from “consumer” to “citizen” – recognizing that every act of consumption has cost and consequence beyond the transaction, and that every transaction is a “vote” in favor of the offering entity, and against the options not chosen. To compete, companies are going to have to weave “goodness” as a fundamental intent into their corporate culture. Bringing on a dash of “corporate responsibility”; whether the mere monetary commitment to a cause, or some more symbolic gesture, will not suffice to curry favor with the citizen. In a world of transparency, where every corporate practice is knowable, they will be watching and exercising that all-important vote of the purse.
Hmmm. As we like to say: that was then, this is Nau.
Take a bit of entrepreneurial flare, mix in a bit of eco consciousness along with a dash of digitally enabled community participation in the form of “crowdsourcing” and “crowdfunding” and what do you get? How about Nvohk (pronounced “invoke”) – an eco-friendly, surf inspired clothing manufacturer that appears to be decidedly democratic in its management approach. The concept: You sign up for free and when membership hits 20,000 everyone invests $50 a year. In return, you get a say in the management of the company, including — according to its founders — major business decisions like logo design, product design, athlete selection and advertising direction. You’ll also have a voice in choosing what charities receive 10% of net profits and 35% of net profits will be directed back to members via award points. As of March 21st, over 2106 future members had signed up. This experiment is one to watch, if not participate in. It will certainly test the power of crowds and our capacity for collective decision-making.
It’s not often that I envy other cities for their bike-related policies (Portland being such a poster child, in that department), but this is pretty impressive: a formalized bike-sharing program in Barcelona that’s much like Zip Car here in the states, only better, because it cuts out the car part.
Only begs one question: Why haven’t we done this yet in the States? Or have we? Found via Out There Biking.
Intelligent Debate. Passionate Media. How rare is that? If you found it, would you engage with it? I ask because I recently discovered Scribemedia.org. That’s exactly what they promise and that’s definitely what they deliver. The folks at Scribemedia travel extensively to capture and deliver speeches, roundtables and interviews of thought leaders across an incredibly diverse range of disciplines from technology, fashion, business, design, media and the arts. My samplings included a talk by Chris Jordan at the recent Greener Gadgets Conference where he artfully illustrates our staggering quantities of mass consumption and a speech by Lord John Browne of Madingley (former Managing Director of the colossus oil company British Petroleum) about the future of world energy markets.
Scribemedia serves up intelligent dialogue, versus the usual sound-bite approach that has become all too prevalent in our national dialogue. As they say, they “deliver content where and how people want to receive it.”
A few days ago I received an email that read as follows:
“I try not to send too many mass emails about the subject of my work, but this one can’t be missed. A friend in Berkeley, Annie Leonard, produced this video with Free Range Films. I have been anxiously awaiting it, and boy is it good. It gets a little political perhaps where it shouldn’t, but it is the first time I’ve seen the truth and consequences of our consumerism put into understandable, comprehensive terms. Please watch it online—it’s pretty short (15 mins) and you will not regret spending the time. And please send it to everyone you know. Everyone in the world (literally) needs to see this.”
There’s only one thing I’d add to that urging: Our dominant paradigm for understanding the world is based almost exclusively on a linear cause-and-effect worldview. The difficulty with this paradigm is that it provides a very limited short-term perspective for understanding how things really work. What makes this video, which is called “The Story of Stuff,” so compelling is that it goes beyond the typical linear cause-and-effect paradigm by examining patterns of behavior and the interrelationship between things. It’s a whole systems view that enables a much deeper understanding of the way things operate; an understanding that creates the conditions to make lasting positive change within the system possible.
I recently had the chance to spend a week in Austria on a media trip focused on food, wine and design. Odd combo you say? Not really. Many Austrian chefs and wine makers are looking for, and finding, ways to merge the country’s rich culinary and viticultural history with its equally rich modern design contributions, but more on that later. While in Vienna, there was a lot to appreciate in regards to thoughtful design integrated into daily life. For starters, almost every light I encountered in non-constant use situations was on a motion sensing timer, reducing the amount of time lights were on without someone in the room. Also, literally every bathroom I saw had a low-flow toilet and motion-controlled faucets. Vienna also has a city bike program similar to the one recently introduced in Paris, and an extensive network of bike paths separated from car traffic.
The capper for me came one Saturday, when we passed this woman standing at the start of a major retail street in the city center. In case your German is a little rusty, her sandwich board is advertising the merits of compact fluorescent bulbs, and announcing that later that afternoon, you can bring your old incandescent bulbs back to the same location and swap them out for compact fluorescents, for free, courtesy of IKEA. Now that’s putting your PR where your environmental practices are.
Where do ideas begin? How does one inspiring idea or inspiring individual influence a series of additional ideas or people? I ask the question because I just received a phone call from a friend informing me that Anita Roddick, the founder of The Body Shop and a major shit disturber (in the best sense of the term) just died suddenly from a brain hemorrhage. I was utterly shocked and saddened to hear the news. But, Anita’s flame burned incredibly brightly. I knew and worked with her at The Body Shop. She had infectious enthusiasm and was absolutely relentless about wanting to change the world, in big, bold ways. She was a maverick thinker and doer; one of the first to demonstrate that business could actually be a force for positive change in the world. She will be remembered as a great activist, an impressive entrepreneur, a source of inspiration to women worldwide and as a person who wasn’t afraid to take a stand in the face of difficult looking odds. Her ideas and her inspiration live on. I can’t help but think, for example, that Nau wouldn’t exist if Anita hadn’t done the early pioneering work that she did. Thanks Anita. You will be missed but your spirit carries on. And Gordon, please know that I’m thinking of you, Justine and Sam.
I did! And it was really cool. Ecomotion, a new Earth friendly vehicle dealer opened near my house in Northeast Portland last week, and I couldn’t resist swinging by to see what they were selling. The showroom was filled with electric Zap! cars – lipstick pink ones, Kermit green ones, fluffy cloud white ones, and even a surfboard blue teeny truck that got me thinking about the possibility of zapping my way to the beach every weekend. Unfortunately, this version of the electric car — only capable of going 25 miles per charge up to a maximum speed of 40 miles per hour — is not freeway legal… yet. Apparently, within six months Ecomotion will carry souped-up versions of the Zap! car that will be faster and capable of going much farther. I’m sure it’s not this one, but the notion of pimping my electro-ride makes me wonder if I could run an extension cord from the bathroom at Short Sands to a parking space.
The car I test drove was the Zap! Xebra, a three-wheel, four-door sedan that seats four and weighs in at 1,800 pounds. The first thing I noticed about the car was how quiet it was. I had no idea the thing was on until I pushed down the accelerator (not “gas pedal”) and it took off. The car has more spunk than I was expecting, and feels pretty solid on the road. I hesitate to call this a glamorized golf cart, with its fully enclosed seating area, classy interior, and faux wood dashboard, but it did rattle a little over bumps. No problem, I thought, and cranked up the little stereo system. Classic rock inspired me put the pedal to the metal and within seconds I had the green machine maxed out at 40.
A couple months ago, I came across an article in The Christian Science Monitor that went into great detail about Britain’s recent revolt against the plastic bag. It chronicled how concerned citizens across the pond have gone as far as encouraging small towns to ban plastic bags and as a result, large retailers have been experimenting with plastic-bag-free days and reusable totes.
Of particular interest to me was a section of the story describing a limited edition reusable cotton bag emblazoned with “I’m Not a Plastic Bag,” designed by London fashion house Anya Hindmarch. The reason it caught my attention was because my Thai sister-in-law had called me a month before, asking that I beg, borrow, or steal one of those very bags for her when they came to the US on July 20. At $10, I didn’t think it was a big deal, but then I found out how impossible they were to get.
It turns out that this bag is a major status symbol, not only in Asia, but around the globe. Sold in limited runs that didn’t come close to meeting their demand, the bags are virtually impossible to buy, unless you’re willing to shell out much higher prices (somewhere between $600-$1000) for originals that are being resold online.
All evidence points to the fact that people want to be seen as green, which is an interesting trend around the world, and not necessarily a bad thing in cases where positive change is the end result. But a trip to Anya Hindmarch’s website made me scratch my head. On the section of the site devoted to the bags, several disclaimers described why bags are so hard to get:
“Due to the unprecedented demand for I’m Not A Plastic Bag in South East Asia and our concerns for our customers safety we will be cancelling [sic] the launches at the following stores: Anya Hindmarch Beijing, On Pedder in Shanghai and On Pedder in Jakarta.”
“Please note all I’m Not A Plastic Bag bags have now sold out in the United States.”
This made me wonder why Hindmarch doesn’t simply make more of the bags (in more earth-friendly ways), allowing more people to use them, thereby reinforcing her mission to raise awareness of the message written on it. And, more importantly, if more people can actually buy and employ the bags everyday, less plastic bags will be produced that will eventually end up in our oceans… right?
Before I went to Nicaragua last month, I had a pretty difficult time finding current information about the dynamic political climate of the country and the best places to surf and stay there. Travel books seemed out of date and surf themed sites offered conflicting information between their sales pitches for all-inclusive surfaris. What I wanted were honest opinions from people who had actually been there recently. I needed a little Web 2.0 magic to make sure I scored, not only with the waves, but also with our accommodations and cultural experiences. I did my best to prepare by asking around on message boards and my surf blog—then I purchased a wildly inaccurate online surf map, booked a condo and a cheap flight, and crossed my fingers.
The trip went great, but it could have been better with a little practical advice from people with Nica surf experience (For instance, I lost a whole day of surfing because the airline I chose didn’t allow surfboards on flights to Nicaragua).
When I plan my next adventure, I’ll check in with a new travel site called Matador Travel, a startup that’s building a community of creative, passionate travelers who also happen to be socially conscious. So far, I love how the content is set up, with articles and blogs organized into categories like sustainability, music+art, travel+place, sport, and innovators. The company is also part of the 1% for the Planet program, with Surfrider Foundation as their beneficiary, which I’m especially stoked about.
Matador also has a cool new feature called The Bounty Board, where travel writers and photographers can pick up a few bucks by covering assignments that they (and other travel companies) are looking for. And wouldn’t you know it? One of the stories they’re after is a piece on “Surfing Central America.” The Nicaraguan travelogue I’m planning on submitting includes this list of dos and don’ts:
1. Check airline rules (small print) for embargoes on oversized baggage to Nica.
2. Get full insurance for your rental 4X4.
3. Read Salman Rushdie’s The Jaguar Smile.
4. Prepare for rolling blackouts.
5. Bring three boards: Your daily driver, a step-up board, and maybe a fish/quad.
6. Stay out of trouble – don’t be a “bad gringo.”
7. Have backup plans for flat spells: day trips to Granada, hiking volcanoes, etc.
8. If you don’t stay on a surf break, budget for boat trips.
9. Bring old gear to give to local kids.
10. Support Nicaraguan-owned restaurants and hotels.
Click here to check out my profile on Matadortravel.com.
So asks Faith Popcorn, who has created quite a reputation for what she calls “applied futurism.” By that she means weaving the future into the everyday texture of companies and brands. Faith and her gang have come up with a list of predictions for 2008. One in particular caught my attention. It’s titled “Reactions to Cashing Out”:
Where do ideas begin? How does one inspiring idea or inspiring individual influence a series of additional ideas or people? I ask the question because I just received a phone call from a friend informing me that 
A couple months ago, I came across 
