We’ve been human for maybe 300,000 years. For most of that time our ancestors hunted and gathered in small groups. You might think that means they didn’t practice politics since they didn’t have governments with three branches and giant domed buildings on hills with highly-paid lobbyists trying to influence them. If you understand politics to mean group decision-making in general, they were likely more political in that in hunter-gatherers today,[…] Keep reading →

It happens with nearly every client, usually around the second or third month, but then throughout the process. I was speaking the other day with a client in the c-suite of a major health care chain. Part of what we’ve worked on are personal social and emotional skills. At that level of an organization of that size with a mission that includes saving lives, your co-workers are passionate and dedicated.[…] Keep reading →

I wish I could express the dismay I feel at seeing how much good food people throw away. Or, for that matter, how much people claim eating like I do costs more, often from the same people. I don’t see how not throwing away food costs more than throwing away food. Maybe exasperation as much as dismay. Anyway, my (partial) solutions to food waste: If you buy food, eat it.[…] Keep reading →

I’ve written about how I want to give up every day. I don’t give up. Here’s a quick, simple post with two tactics I use to persevere and keep going with enthusiasm. I didn’t make them up. They work. When you want to give up, help someone else. Spend time with people who want to succeed. They’re not hard and don’t cost anything.

When I teach my core sustainability leadership practice, the Spodek Method, in classes and corporate workshops, I have participants pair up and practice it with each other. When there is an odd number of participants, one usually pairs with me, leading me to new commitments on my environmental values. At first I worried I’d run out of commitments after reading many ten-little-things-you-can-do-for-the-environment articles that promote the same things. Those CCCSC[…] Keep reading →

I’ve made it no secret that sustainability lacks leadership and leaders. If you want to help on sustainability, I suggest that the most valuable thing you can do is learn to lead. If you know how to lead, improve it. Nothing can change as much as leading cultural change. Gautam’s passion is to learn how leadership works, how to teach it, learning more about it, writing about it, the military,[…] Keep reading →

One of the uses of fossil fuels no one has any replacements for is container ships. No batteries or hydrogen cells are on order to power container ships. Then you might read about how to make a pair of jeans, the cotton is transported to one place to be made into thread, another to be made into fabric, another to sew it, another to package it, another to sell it,[…] Keep reading →

How often is an option better in every way? Even quitting cigarettes, which seem better in every way to me in saving money, improving health, decreasing litter, and so on, to a smoker mean losing pleasure. How cereal became better in every way As a kid growing up, the cereal aisle of a supermarket seemed as much a part of nature as trees outside. It just existed, as did all[…] Keep reading →

Read my post When a heavy polluter says “we need to bring energy to the world’s poorest,” watch your wallet, where I describe that everyone with their misguided way to drive our polluting system faster profiting themselves in the process says some version of “we’re helping the poor,” they’re helping themselves, likely exacerbating poverty, dumping pollution onto the poor. As I find examples in the media, I’ll put them here:[…] Keep reading →