Events
Not much to be Proud about - an Apology to the coming generation
Tuesday 29 April 2008
On the 22nd of April I did a quick presentation at the Water Technology Breakthrough Forum hosted by The Churchill Club and IXC at the Melbourne Town Hall. Over lunch during the day we were lucky enough to have a group of seven students from Melbourne Grammar and MacRoberstons Girls High School form part of a panel that was facilitated by Richard Hames. It was a rather enlightening group. well informed about water policy and issues of an environmental nature and there was a wide perspective of views including 'the social activist', 'the interested economist' and 'business leader' who fell naturally into the roles that seem to align with their thinking. And then Richard asked a question along the lines of 'What does or is likely to motivate you to change your behaviour?' The answer of one of
the panelists concerned me greatly - 'Fear of what could happen'. Most of the other panelists nodded in agreement
Imagine that. We've done such a fine job at negatively impacting the planet through the choices we make that those who follow us are motivated by fear of the looming disaster! How proud we must all be that our arrogance, ignorance and selfishness has left the generation that follow with a fear of their future world.
Clap, clap, clap - well done to us.
Once the panel had finished I approached them and apologised for the sense of fear we have imparted upon them. Leaders often talk about 'legacy' and what our legacy to the future will be. If creating a society of people who fear for their health and safety' is what our legacy will be, we ought to hang our heads in shame!
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Events
Tuesday 8 May 2012
Have just spent a few hours discussing the Future of Money, hosted by James Bibby at Microsoft in Sydney and facilitated by Peter Vander Auwera from SWIFT/Innotribe. I'd like to flag that everyone understood that the session was way too short for such a big topic and everyone would agree that we just scratched the surface (not that the scratch would leave too much of a mark just yet). The session was a kick start for a group from a wide variety of interests: banks, payment providers' IT specialists and some specialty consultancies.
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Wednesday 2 May 2012
Ernst & Young and GreenBiz have completed a survey of business executives looking at the development of Corporate Sustainability around the world. The report shows that there has been a clear rise in awareness; that employees are a core source driving sustainability actions; that reduction of costs is a core appeal and that return on investment in sustainability actions is required to be judged in the same way as other corporate investments. For me this poses a dichotomy of thinking - the environment was built up over millennia and our use of it has taken just a couple of centuries yet we judge sustainability actions at the same 'speed of delivery' criteria. That poses a challenge and is perhaps an unrealistic set of expectations.
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Tuesday 24 April 2012
On the eve of ANZAC day here in Australia ABC Radio Darwin's Vicki Kerrigan chats with futurist Marcus Barber on the future of war - what the future triggers of war might be and how war will be fought
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