What have I learned this week?
Well I learned that i have a very energetic & talented group of people working with me to launch our business together.
I'm trying to see how I can apply that EQ I've been developing, but so far there haven't been any group conflicts. I am trying to keep folks focused, and to orient the process so we don't get ahead of ourselves. People are excited and they want to start looking at spaces to rent and creating websites, but we haven't even figured our costs yet, heck we don't even have a real name so I feel like my job is to help everyone think strategically and apply the breaks when necessary. Fortunately everyone is really supportive of my "Hippie Business School" tactics, and when I propose wheeling, brainstorming or 'living into' our ideas I'm met with wonderful enthusiasm, creativity and zeal.
What did I learn specifically about TRE? Well... I learned that I'm behind on the reading. Ha Ha! Should have kept one of the paper syllabuses, but I'm confident I can catch up. I'm enjoying reading Gibson and Blackburn. What I particularly connect with is this idea that "Sustainability is the old wisdom" (Gibson, 39). We get caught up in 'green trends' and hope for new technologies to save us, we forget that many civilizations were sustainable for thousands of years. It wasn't until this new-fangled agricultural revolution came along in that things started getting out of whack. My capstone business plan revolves around using traditional wisdom to create foods that can heal the body, and i' heartened to see this applied in more technical fields as well. Three cheers for hunter gatherers!
Friday, September 25, 2009
Thursday, September 17, 2009
So I'm trying to read my Alphabet Soup...
Sustainable Development Strategies, A Resource Book is the alphabet soup in question. I'm 60 pages into it and I'm still not sure what I've been reading about, but it's really boring.
That's not really true, in fact the book is about the challenges, setbacks and successes of international development organizations to implement Sustainable Development programs in the "Third World." What makes this reading challenging is having to navigate the mish mash of National Conservation Strategies, (NCSs) National Forestry Programs (NFPs), National Environmental Action Plans (NEAPs) and Regulatory Obligation Baseline Optimal Conservation Observation Protocols (ROBOCOPs).
Okay I made that last one up. But basically the text describes these organizations as seen from 30,000 feet up, the big picture. And it's hard to understand what these various orgs actually do aside from hold stakeholder meetings and issue reports and plans, prioritizing actions and outlining goals. It is hard for me to visualize or understand exactly what this means on the ground: What is the Pakistan 2010 program doing? How many acres of the rain forest has the TFAP preserved?
I have been able to glean the following nuggets of wisdom:
Sustainable Development Strategies is available from Amazon
That's not really true, in fact the book is about the challenges, setbacks and successes of international development organizations to implement Sustainable Development programs in the "Third World." What makes this reading challenging is having to navigate the mish mash of National Conservation Strategies, (NCSs) National Forestry Programs (NFPs), National Environmental Action Plans (NEAPs) and Regulatory Obligation Baseline Optimal Conservation Observation Protocols (ROBOCOPs).
Okay I made that last one up. But basically the text describes these organizations as seen from 30,000 feet up, the big picture. And it's hard to understand what these various orgs actually do aside from hold stakeholder meetings and issue reports and plans, prioritizing actions and outlining goals. It is hard for me to visualize or understand exactly what this means on the ground: What is the Pakistan 2010 program doing? How many acres of the rain forest has the TFAP preserved?
I have been able to glean the following nuggets of wisdom:
- Sustainability means different things to different classes and individuals, and Environmental Sustainability can't happen without Social / Economic stability & well being.
- Sustainable Development programs must combine bottom up leadership as well as top down support. If the varying individuals affected by the program have no stake in the planning process, the program will fail.
- Sustainable Development programs must be flexible, and tailored to the nation or community they are serving.
- Program implementers must understand the facets of the 0rganizational level they are dealing with, nation, state, community. This reminds me of some of the basics of the Systemic Thinking Labs, understanding at what level of the system you are dealing with and what its specific properties are.
- Programs must address the very short and very long term, wile including enough flexibility to change the long-term strategy as the facts on the ground change.
- The US does not pay her UN membership dues.
Sustainable Development Strategies is available from Amazon
Monday, September 14, 2009
I learned that this makes sense...
The Market Equation:
I've tried to wrap my head around this one before, but finally this weekend in Ecological Economics we reviewed it and it makes sense to me, I guess. I will endeavor to explain it in "Layman's terms."
MU is Marginal Utility, this is the subjective value a consumer places on a product or service when purchasing it. P is the basic Market Price, and MPP is the marginal physical product of a factor (a) when used to make the good (X or Y). That is, the extra output produced with one more unit of input, one more pound of dough makes 12 cookies, or something like that.
The use of a ratio of X/Y is basically Product X, compared to Product Y, so this equation is only comparing two products, but is extrapolated to contain every product found on the market today.
What this Means, among other things, is that prices will reflect the consumer's perceived utility of a product, and the value of the inputs, and that all prices are relative to each other, and other product's perceived utilty.
Now, this is of course one of those theoretical economic principles that sounds good but falls apart as soon as reality is acknowledged, and it explodes into shards of nonsense once you apply any environmental values or principles of ecological economics.
For example, Utility is highly influenced by Advertising, just ask my Lady Friend what she spends on blue jeans, compared to the utility of the jeans I bought six years ago which are just fine despite the hole in the crotch thank you very much.
Second, prices don't often reflect the environmental impact of the products in question, somewhere someone or someplace is being impacted by the pesticides used on the cotton grown to make my blue jeans, but the mitigation of those toxins are not factored into the price.
Finally, what is the market price of a lungful of air? What is the value of that Air? What if the Air was unavailable?
I've tried to wrap my head around this one before, but finally this weekend in Ecological Economics we reviewed it and it makes sense to me, I guess. I will endeavor to explain it in "Layman's terms."
MU is Marginal Utility, this is the subjective value a consumer places on a product or service when purchasing it. P is the basic Market Price, and MPP is the marginal physical product of a factor (a) when used to make the good (X or Y). That is, the extra output produced with one more unit of input, one more pound of dough makes 12 cookies, or something like that.
The use of a ratio of X/Y is basically Product X, compared to Product Y, so this equation is only comparing two products, but is extrapolated to contain every product found on the market today.
What this Means, among other things, is that prices will reflect the consumer's perceived utility of a product, and the value of the inputs, and that all prices are relative to each other, and other product's perceived utilty.
Now, this is of course one of those theoretical economic principles that sounds good but falls apart as soon as reality is acknowledged, and it explodes into shards of nonsense once you apply any environmental values or principles of ecological economics.
For example, Utility is highly influenced by Advertising, just ask my Lady Friend what she spends on blue jeans, compared to the utility of the jeans I bought six years ago which are just fine despite the hole in the crotch thank you very much.
Second, prices don't often reflect the environmental impact of the products in question, somewhere someone or someplace is being impacted by the pesticides used on the cotton grown to make my blue jeans, but the mitigation of those toxins are not factored into the price.
Finally, what is the market price of a lungful of air? What is the value of that Air? What if the Air was unavailable?
What have I learned so far?
Hello Ed!
This is a blog with a fairly tight audience segment, a one Mr. Edward Quevedo, Senior Counsel and Chair of the Sustainability Practice Group at Paladin Law. He is also my instructor in Thriving Regenerative Enterprises.
This is a blog with a fairly tight audience segment, a one Mr. Edward Quevedo, Senior Counsel and Chair of the Sustainability Practice Group at Paladin Law. He is also my instructor in Thriving Regenerative Enterprises.
This Blog is a Journal of my leanings, it will also include some humorous anecdotes and / or funny pictures, this can not be helped, but hopefully it'll make reading my homework a bit more interesting.
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