The Culture of Sustainability

on love

noreply@blogger.com (Jonathan Isaac Sasmor) — Wed, 11 Jun 2008 02:16:00 +0000

I've come a long way

In stifling heat
I can't sleep
And I always sleep

Anxiety brews
Until
I write down the biggest things I think
Then I feel better because I can do it.

Ohoho earth and all people
I wish for the best for you

hope
peace love
idealism
birth-life-death
honesty
a future

I love you

Love
love
an emotion
the emotion of caring
many forms
still love

the biggest love I can imagine:

I love you earth!
I love you all people!
I love you all beings in all of time!
Empty space I love you too!

you
i will love you no matter what
but
please
give to all my loves
earth
all people
all beings
all of time
the kindness of a future
a better future

there's no time to wait to be kind
and nothing more important to do
i promise

love j

Sustainability: A Fundamental Moral Issue

noreply@blogger.com (Jonathan Isaac Sasmor) — Wed, 04 Jun 2008 23:31:00 +0000

Scientists will debate exactly how much impact humans have on the natural world, without ever being able to achieve enough certainty to know for sure. But here's the bottom line: our unsustainable ways, including the burning of fossil fuels, are killing people and species, now and in the future. There are penguins splattering to death inside the engines of our cars, and babies sucking on the exhaust pipes, choking.

It's ok that we've made a giant, terrible mistake, harming ourselves and our planet in a way that we didn't intend to. But it's time for this madness to stop.

Sustainable development presents technology that allows us to function while also caring for all people and creatures.

How has America responded in the past when our shared moral values have been threatened? We have declared our independence, emancipated slaves, and abolished enforced racial segregation.

The current pending climate change legislation is admirable in the sense that it is more ambitious than any previous attempts. But why are we reducing our emissions by 65 % in 40 years? Why declare 65 % independence from the taxation of future generations and other species without their representation? Why abolish 65 % of the slavery that our polluting ways impose on other species and poorer nations? We need the bravery of Jefferson and Lincoln to free ourselves entirely from the tyranny of fossil fuels!

Current models, including the IPCC reports, fail to consider the possibility of major cultural changes. If sustainable development emerges at the speed of computers and cell phones, we could be off of fossil fuels in no time. Why wait until 2050? If America defends its shared values heroically as it has in the past, we will be finished burning fossil fuels way before 2050. And making climate projections to 2100 seems almost silly, considering how much culture and technology will change in that time.

Surely, we will have to make changes in our lives. Was it was easy for slaveowners to learn to live without slaves? Fossil fuel burning makes our lives easier, just like slavery made life easier for slaveowners. Neither is a moral practice. Whereas slavery imposed inhumane conditions on millions of people at the time of practice, fossil fuel burning may kill millions of people in our lifetimes and for generations beyond, and furthermore may permanently remove a quarter or more of species from our planet permanently.

The good news is that we know how to free ourselves from fossil fuel burning! Sustainable technologies have been developed for all sectors of society. We can look forward to their implementation, which will create a world in which all human beings enjoy ample food, water, shelter, and transport, and where all species enjoy a human watch over their continued existence. Our descendants will remember the great moment in history, coming soon, when we all stood up for the values that we share as human beings, with more at stake than ever before--the moment when we followed through on our intention to care for all people and all living creatures, even in the face of new and daunting knowledge that required our societies to change faster than they have changed ever before.

Welcome!
to an era of sustainability!
to an era of unprecedented conscious morality!

a clipboard fails

noreply@blogger.com (Jonathan Isaac Sasmor) — Sat, 31 May 2008 04:04:00 +0000

For the last several days, I have worked in the park in the sunshine. I prefer to use computers less, so I started a new draft of my plan on paper today. I always write on sheets of loose-leaf paper on a brown clipboard. Periodically, I file them away in a folder.

In the mid-afternoon today, I biked around the park, then found a new spot to work, by the bay. I put my clipboard down for a moment on the bench next to me, and gazed up at a plane taking off from the runway across the bay.

Then a gust of wind came. Whoosh! My papers went flying forward, towards the water. Those papers were all my notes and writings from about the last three weeks. Within a second, I was out on the pedestrian path, down on the ground, scrambling with my full body to smother as many pages as I could. I instantly realized I could hold onto pages better by crumpling them and holding them. I grasped for as many sheets as I could get to, as the wind kept blowing.

Despite my efforts, I watched most of the pages slip under the small fence of black vertical bars that separated the path from the slope down to the bay. I saw one especially valuable page on which I took notes on all my other notes, and I grabbed it, just before it slipped under.

A girl walking by encountered this bizarre scene, and kindly helped pick up some pages, then held a fistful of crumpled pages while I grabbed more. Then I hopped the fence, where a diagonal slope of rocks led about ten feet down to the bay. Miraculously, all the pages were stuck amongst the rocks, and none were visible floating below. I picked up and crumpled all of them, including two that had fallen hidden between rocks. I felt my knees shaking.

"I had a clipboard and it failed," I explained to the girl, as I thanked her, with a gratitude beyond words.

Then I stuffed all the crumpled pages into my backpack in my milk crate on my bicycle. I rode off laughing at my astounding luck.

In a grassy meadow with no wind, I uncrinkled, reordered, and counted: 38 pages retrieved, none missing.

A summary of today: 10 hours of writing, 15 miles of bike riding, and 30 seconds of primitive paper retrieval

don't stop believing

noreply@blogger.com (Jonathan Isaac Sasmor) — Thu, 29 May 2008 04:38:00 +0000

     5:34 PM
Mr Squirrel
Hell
Get out of here
I'm kind of depressed today

     7:07PM
Reading my notes
Glad for the people who told me
you have to be a little crazy
in the passion of a Febraury

       ..
Biking by the green
Laughing
    as I ask myself:
How I am I doing?
          :
again,
I don't know.

--
and that's a good answer,
I have learned
from people
who go to unexplored places
where there's nothing to judge ourselves by

      !!!
"Biker-man!"
I toss the golf ball over the fence
still laughing

. changing fast
flying through life adventures
. It's been lifetimes since we spoke
but still I come back to the same place
. what I believe in
. just understanding more
with new life experiences

dizzy, discombobulated, on a roller coaster with a seat belt?

this time,
changing alone
so no one influences me
but the ancient instincts within
that i discover, more and more

              !!!
why keep making theories about the world
only to see them proven wrong?
stories limit reality, you told me once

at twilight, in the green shrubby woods
the sound ether
of birds everywhere

Looking up at the old tree treetops
          singing:

O forest, why did I ever leave you?

There's a bat
              There's a bat
                             There's a bat

listening listening listening

Glad some beauty is too irrational to explain
I sing lyrics that pop into my head
because they make no sense

bikebikebikebikebike   bike   b i k e . . .     .        .
eeeeee
. ..
if nothing is certain
all that's left is intentions

. ..
the limits of possibility = what we can create

..
....
!!!!!!!!

i like cars

noreply@blogger.com (Jonathan Isaac Sasmor) — Tue, 27 May 2008 08:28:00 +0000

i like cars
why do i like cars?
driving
going fast
freedom to go far
what open space--the road
what an amazing invention!

i like the ocean
why do i like the ocean?
power
chill
open space, with extra vastness beyond sight
peace roar
drunken dizziness from being in the waves
the way my hair feels after

i like times square
why do i like times square?
lights everywhere
people everywhere
the power of humans
dazzle energy
international

i like family & friends & music
why?
a perspective looking at you
a chance to think
memories flying back
human empathic energy

i love you everyone

oh yesterday,
you're beautiful

oho tomorrow,
you're even more beautiful

(technology is not bad,
it's just getting better!)

(major design improvement:
technology that can be used forever)

(if i like cars
i don't blame you for liking SUVs
but we'll find things even cooler!)

the world is changing so fast
no one knows what's going on anymore
i said tonight

and i loved the music and the company
and the stories

professional training: phase iv!

noreply@blogger.com (Jonathan Isaac Sasmor) — Mon, 26 May 2008 17:13:00 +0000

(:

phase iv:
a daily conversation with some of the leading experts on sustainability
from the view of business, religion, history, politics, and marketing
for the last 4 days: by reading their books
for the next 4 days: by writing a plan that responds to their knowledge (and by finding the answers to my followup questions on the internet)
after that: live interaction, working together towards a vision of a brighter culture

(
phase iii:
learning
rigor
confidence
focus

phase ii:
developing
ambition
vision

phase i:
discovering
sustainability
travelers sharing ideas
the power of young people
)

and that's the last 5.5 months!

:)

Sustainability Class

noreply@blogger.com (Jonathan Isaac Sasmor) — Sun, 25 May 2008 04:48:00 +0000

In the park by the lake
I alternate:
Hours of reading
Miles of bicycle meditating

Studying:
biology
history
religion
writing
economics
government
the connectedness of all beings & all disciplines & all things

Each day
I see it clearer
a service corps for sustainability
a more caring culture

Each day
I read more hours
There's no time to wait

Each day
I envision new pages of my plan
That I don't even write yet
because I'm learning so fast

Whew!

a whole new world

noreply@blogger.com (Jonathan Isaac Sasmor) — Fri, 23 May 2008 05:48:00 +0000

Lester Brown:
"The choice is ours—yours and mine. We can stay with business as usual and preside over an economy that continues to destroy its natural support systems until it destroys itself, or we can adopt Plan B and be the generation that changes direction, moving the world onto a path of sustained progress. The choice will be made by our generation, but it will affect life on earth for all generations to come."

* * * *

As I watch the presidential race, I wonder if any candidate realizes how much the world is going to change in the next decade. Will any issues the candidates are discussing matter when we look back at them in 50 years?

Nearly everyone intends that we should care for the natural world, for all people, and for future beings.

Upon results that don't match these intentions, have the liberals thrown a hissy-fit, while the conservatives awkwardly pretend all is well? Neither party seems to move beyond the past to focus on the beauty of the present opportunity.

It's time to refocus on our intentions. We care. How should we care?

Let's create a new, more beautiful world in which we care as we want to. We have the chance to provide life and quality of life to billions of people.

* * * *

"Kindness!" said the Zen student in the classroom-earth.

I, the observer-interloper, objected:
Kindness might attach us to more kindness, and so to doing things that are not most important to us.

Then I could not think of a single thing other than kindness more important to do, so I agreed.

* * * *

In the city park woods at twilight
By the edge of a small abyss
A family of raccoons approaches.
What did they smell?

* * * *

Sustainability might be the greatest kindness--kindness to all human beings and all creatures through all of time.

Spiritual enlightenment might be honesty--admitting where we are, and freeing reality to change, which it will.

1. Sustainability (=) kindness
2. Spiritual enlightenment (=) honesty

: My goals.

After reading Lester Brown's book, I want to work 10 times as fast as social entrepreneur for sustainability.

we are the wilderness

noreply@blogger.com (Jonathan Isaac Sasmor) — Thu, 22 May 2008 05:39:00 +0000

John Kerry and Teresa Heinz Kerry:
"Americans have made great issues the centerpiece of our national life before--civil rights, human rights, nuclear war. Each of these at one moment became the lens through which we looked at the world. Together we can make this moment on earth the moment when we all decided not just to talk about the planet but to save it." (201)

Newt Gingrich:
"No single enterprise, event, or idea will renew the earth. Instead, I believe it will take a movement composed of dedicated citizens who can see the world in a new way and who will work together to bring about revolutionary changes in the way we conduct our lives." (xiv)

Kerrys and Gingrich both see a moral issue in that we have strayed from our common intention of environmental stewardship. I'm encouraged by their optimism that we have redefined our lives before, and might do so again.

* * * *

Went to work in the park today, just as it started raining.
My mood changing like the weather, changing with the weather.

Every day, an adventure.

In the evening
Biked like Sarvis
Through city rain
A stripe of pink on the horizon

On the bridge
The orange sun pops out low in the sky behind the storm
I see it go blip blip blip blip behind the bars
The beautiful dim light slides in

What is nature? I think,
What wilderness is more beautiful
Than the sun after the storm
Through a building frame?

I wait by the spinning cube sculpture
Smiling at people of every sort
Shoppers lovers babies stumblers
They are the wilderness.

Then, in a peaceful den,
Sipping tea for three hours
Telling stories of who we are

"Save Domino!"
I shout every time
As I fly into Brooklyn

My shoes sopping puddles all night
The moonlight winks

The View

noreply@blogger.com (Jonathan Isaac Sasmor) — Wed, 21 May 2008 02:48:00 +0000

On the Willie Bridge at night,
a new confidence

of clear and simple goals:

1. Bring my plan to the right people.
2. Be completely honest with everyone.

ta!

I learned about cups, cones, and bearings tonight.

Glad I biked to the bike repair class, 8 miles each way.
One way in the rain. The first time in a while I've biked in the rain.

A rainy gloomy day fades to nighttime sunshine.

What a view from the Willie Bridge at night!

Bridges, the mountains of the city.

awake?

noreply@blogger.com (Jonathan Isaac Sasmor) — Tue, 20 May 2008 16:05:00 +0000

awake?
alarm: 9:18AM
less than 7 hours?
my body says no
every time

awake: 10:13AM
a grey morning
"What beautiful sleeping weather!"
i exclaim
still not awake

then a lethargic frenzy:
eat email try to print old printer doesn't work shower shave pack
blah

my bike outside
a nasty chill
i almost stop at the door

on the first block
barely pedaling:
"today is an 8 mph day."
then i slow down more, even on the downhill:
"nope, 6 mph"
the first corner
98th Street and 64th Road
i stop

i have plans for lunch
i must go!
so i ride off

the 12-lane road
a gigantic headwind
and i know i will stop
i have no energy for lunch today
nothing to say anyway
feeling like this
i make the call
and it's ok,
because we'll all just people

so i ride 6 mph to the unisphere
giant steel globe
6 stories tall
from the World's Fair in the park

three fences block half the path
on alternating sides
at the entrance to the pedestrian ramp
so bikes have to stop

if the whole world stood still while i could move
i'd take a drill and take out just the middle fence,
to be able to fly down that ramp again

i think of packing gear, food, books, beer
going to live in the woods for a few days
doing my work there

just thinking that for half an hour
gives me the peace not to run
every time so far

at the unisphere
i sit cross-legged
on a low granite wall
the wind force on my back

i take out my bread and peanut butter
to make a sandwich
as i do
when i find a place
i want to spend a moment with

then i lay on my back
on the cold stone
the power-clouds flying by
"today feels like an apocalyptic day."
i say

it starts to rain,
large summer drops
i wince, then i wonder:
"why do we run to get out of the rain
instead of laying flat to catch the most possible drops
to remember that we can feel them?"

i recall going outside naked
in the middle of the night once
windy 25 degrees
noticing my skin where i never had felt it before

the rain stayed only a minute
then i lay in cloudy calm

the sun peeked out
my rain jacket heated up
like a greenhouse effect

once the sun was gone
i couldn't stay there without it

i went "tumbleweeding" through the park
a quarter mile of flat ground no pedaling

emerging from the bathroom, decisively:
"I'm going to go 20 mph now."
I speed up to 26 mph by the flat round pond.

it starts raining again
by the lake: speed speed speed
until I have to slow down
because the windswept rain almost blows me
off the path
into the goose-poop mud

to the library to print
to the bike shop for grease
to the kitchen for lunch
to the bedroom to organize my things
to the park to fix up my bike finally

::lube for the dry squeaky chain
::a patch for the slow flat that i avoided for 2 months by inflating the tire every 4 days
i feel the satisfaction of fixing the things that make your life go

then i ride right into the bathroom
crashing into the wall and a bucket of cleaning fluid at 3 mph
because i forgot to reattach my front brake

to the unisphere for another sandwich, sunny now
i lay on the warm stone
eyes closed
hands clasped on my chest
loosening grip
deep breaths of the ribcage accordion

thinking:

if i'm moody sometimes maybe i should be

destroying our home planet
erasing future people
maybe the most healthy symptom is instability
maybe to be happy all the time today is lying to ourselves

a meditation vision:
the view from the Kaibab Plateau road
of the red and golden desert of Utah and Arizona infinity
the sky glowing orange fire sunset
a bike zooms by
i open my eyes suddenly
the scene too beautiful to keep them closed

i think of how i haven't known
how to act around people lately
especially when they expect me to be a certain way

in the empty space of late afternoon
i discover:
how much i changed again

now, wanting to be free from all attachments
to start over

i want to reply to all my emails and bring everyone up to date
and be totally honest about who i am and where i am
just so i won't be stuck where i was
just so i won't be stuck where i am

i don't need things that most people do
i want not to need anyone
except for the natural world and all people and all creatures

i tap my chest: "ta! you are utterly free."

the sun dips into the trees
where to go?
anywhere but indoors
i walk in a straight line to the "park rules" sign
then i walk all around in circles, kicking a stick

if i don't talk much
it's because i'm learning to be honest with everyone
not just people i know

Flash Mob! (Literally)

noreply@blogger.com (Jonathan Isaac Sasmor) — Sat, 17 May 2008 05:27:00 +0000

This evening, I joined hundreds of people in Foley Square in downtown Manhattan for tonight's Improv Everywhere mission. Leaving the subway, I met four girls who study art at the Pratt Institute in Brooklyn. We were all headed to the same place. In the rainy crowd, I met up with Laura (right), my good friend in nursery school, who I saw yesterday for the first time in over a decade. Laura's friend Jess (left) came too.

The night was cold and rainy. By megaphone, Agent Todd announced our mission: we would proceed onto the Brooklyn Bridge in a single file line, then flash our cameras in a wave all the way across the bridge between the arches.

Out on the bridge, the rain grew harder. We stood for an hour as the line assembled. Finally, in a chaos of cameras flashing sporadically, the wave of flashes passed along the bridge. We were supposed to count off numbers, but the numbers got lost in the noise of the traffic and the wetness of the rain and the confusion of digital cameras that couldn't time their flashes perfectly. A runner raced down the pedestrian path yelling, "flash! flash! flash!" We flashed, and we could not see ourselves through the line of umbrellas in the night. A video was taken from the nearby Manhattan Bridge.

All night long, Jess and I could barely see anything through our glasses, while Laura was glad not to be wearing glasses. After the flash mob, we boarded the subway train soaked.

* * * *

It's good to be out on adventures again. Lately, I've been working long hours every day on preliminary research, writing, and business plan revision. I've been more serious and less social in the last few weeks than almost any time before. I can't say if that's good or bad. I miss spending more time with friends. I'm glad finally to document a more concrete, honest, and ambitious plan. I'm looking forward to developing my plan further by talking it over with people.

Update (6.4.08): Here's the link to the video of the flash mob!

Business Plan Progress

noreply@blogger.com (Jonathan Isaac Sasmor) — Fri, 16 May 2008 22:46:00 +0000

I've spent many hours in the last week working on my business plan.

Here are the contents of the current version:

Mission, Motivations, Goals, and Needs
Statement of Uniqueness
Implementation Timeline
Projected Financial Statement
   Balance Sheet
   Revenue Statement
   Cash Flow Statement
Notes, References, and Acknowledgements

I've made 3 major changes in the last week:

Adding a Statement of Uniqueness to summarize research on how the proposed organization will go beyond the work of existing groups.
Redesigning the financial statement in Microsoft Excel to allow for easy changes in the monthly details of the plan. For example, now I can change the number of employees in any given month just by changing one field in an Assumptions Statement, and the numbers in all the financial statement pages will adjust accordingly.
Replacing a chart of the phases of implementation with a graphical Implementation Timeline to show more clearly my progress so far and my plan for moving forward.

I'm extremely grateful to Tom Miller for teaching me how to assemble a plan and for his ongoing feedback that has helped me to improve the plan over and over again.

This weekend, I'll follow up on more of Tom's comments, make the timeline look nicer, and do additional research on existing sustainability organizations.

Next week, I hope further to improve the plan by seeking advice from people with a range of experience: in marketing, in business, in nonprofits, in foundations, in accounting, and in graphic design, to name a few.

My plan is an ongoing work in progress as I learn more about sustainability and about the process of social entrepreneurship. Please email me for a copy of the current draft.

Ecolution, and Bike Repair

noreply@blogger.com (Jonathan Isaac Sasmor) — Wed, 14 May 2008 04:03:00 +0000

Yesterday I saw an ad on the New York Subway:

Ecolution
As the carbon footprint gets smaller, life gets greener.
Traveling with the MTA helps reduce your carbon footprint--particularly when compared to people who take their cars. To save the planet, we all have to evolve, ecologically. Ride with us to a cleaner, greener future.

I'm impressed by the Metropolitan Transit Authority's forward thinking. This is the first advertising I've seen that acknowledges, in a positive light, how much we will have to change.

* * * *

This evening, I attended the second in a series of free bike repair classes offered in New York by Time's Up! After biking thousands of miles, I am learning to appreciate my bike!

Today I came to understand 3 amazing things about how a bicycle works:

1) The length of chain in use changes as the gears shift. A rotational spring in the rear derailleur keeps the chain tight no matter which gear you're in, and no matter how much your chain stretches as it wears.

2) The derailleur is the mechanism that shifts the chain from side to side as you shift gears. The front and the rear derailleur each fold twice. There are 2 limiting screws on each that restrict how far the deraileur can fold, and accordingly how far the chain can shift from side to side in each direction. These limiting screws manually prevent the chain from the sliding off the outside, or sliding into the wheel.

3) I've always wondered why higher gear means bigger gear in the front and smaller gear in the back. Mark, our teacher tonight, explained it: at first, bicycles had uneven wheels, so that one turn of the pedals could make the bike go one large circumference in distance. When the wheel size was evened, uneven gears were added between the pedals and the rear wheel. On the front gears, a bigger gear means each turn of the pedals moves more chain links, so you're in higher gear. On the rear gears, a bigger gear means more chain links are required for one turn of the gear, so you need to pedal more for each turn of the wheel, and you're in lower gear. The gears adjust the pedal-to-wheel-rotation ratio, so the front gears are in the numerator and the rear gears in the denominator. Math is here!

* * * *

Lately, I've been working hard on researching sustainability organizations, starting a blog, and writing a business plan. Soon, I'll be on the road, revising my plan, founding a nonprofit in D.C., and assembling a Board of Advisors. The plan includes a team of bicyclists traveling the nation this summer. My new bike repair skills are sure to come in handy sooner or later!

Peace

noreply@blogger.com (Jonathan Isaac Sasmor) — Mon, 12 May 2008 15:32:00 +0000

I never visited Prospect Park in Brooklyn until this Saturday night, when my friend Alex and I joined the Time's Up! Moonlight Ride. Frederick Olmsted designed Prospect Park after Central Park, and considered Prospect Park to be his better work. I got my first tour of Prospect Park along with around 40 or 50 other bikers and 4 skateboarders at nighttime.

It was a clear night, just chilly enough that I almost shivered every time we stopped. We took narrow winding park paths deeper and deeper into the park, until a single file line of bicycle lights was all that illuminated the black woods. We stopped by the sound of a waterfall. Three figures stood there. "Don't spill my beer," one of them said, and he laughed. I laughed too, and he laughed again when he heard me laughing. It was too dark to see the waterfall.

We stopped again on a bridge over a pond, overlooking an old boathouse where a wedding was taking place. We waited for the group to catch up. A swan swam towards us, and under us. The ripples of the pond distorted a plane's reflection, and it went hopping across the pond like a frog. I felt my face muscles relaxing in the peace of the night.

* * * *

A few months ago, on a sidewalk rack of free books, I found Mark Sundeen's "Car Camping: The Book of Desert of Adventures." For the last week, I've been reading a chapter every night.

When he finds some empty space in his life, the book's narrator takes to the roads through the deserts of the West. In simple honest detail, he shares his adventures.

After each tale of desert wandering, I close the book, switch off my red light, and take off my glasses. I see the moonlight shining on the mesas behind the windowshades, and I feel the open space around in all directions. With that last waking image, I smile and sleep, alone with the desert.

What's in a Name?

noreply@blogger.com (Jonathan Isaac Sasmor) — Sat, 10 May 2008 03:32:00 +0000

Here's a major flaw in my business plan:

I haven't picked a name yet.

Currently, I am proposing a nonprofit corporation called "????, Inc."

"????, Inc." aims to empower people to live more consistently with a shared value for life within a culture of sustainability.

I did some research about how to develop a fantastic name. I encountered Entrepreneur.com's naming page. I learned that naming can be done professionally by naming firms, who brainstorm hundreds of names before settling on one. Phillip Davis of Tungsten Naming Consultants and Branding Firm has written several articles on how to come up with a good name. For example: use names that evoke emotions, and words grounded in human experience.

You can help to name ????, Inc.!

Email me (jon [at] rollingfrog [dot] org) with a list of words that any of the following branding filters bring to mind:

conveys a sense of moral good
conveys a sense of caring for other people & nature
conveys a sense of inner peace
conveys a personality of friendliness & adventure
evokes images of beauty or connectedness

The zanier the words, the better for brainstorming!

Feel free to assemble some names, but just a list of words will help.

You might find your words in the name of a new organization soon!

Update (5.18.08):

I'm using Rolling Frog as the organizational name for the current business plan draft. Still, I have not yet decided on a permanent name. Please continue to send me your ideas for words, as I will reconsider names again soon!

Philosophy

noreply@blogger.com (Jonathan Isaac Sasmor) — Fri, 09 May 2008 05:14:00 +0000

In the end

We will decide

What matters most

Is it money and things?

Or is it life itself

Extended through space and time?

The Culture of Sustainability

noreply@blogger.com (Jonathan Isaac Sasmor) — Tue, 06 May 2008 03:56:00 +0000

Sustainability means a world that can go on indefinitely. I believe the most promising path to a sustainable society is the development of a mainstream culture of sustainability.

In the culture of sustainability, we will strive to conduct our lives consistently with the value we share for each other and for all living creatures, in consideration of the possible impact of our actions on other humans and on the natural world.

I'm working to create a network of travelers who will promote a culture of sustainability. They will visit businesses, schools, religious groups, and local governments, sharing ideas about how organizations and individuals can operate more consistently with a value for present and future life.

Here are some ways you can help with my project:
1) Ask me questions. Tell me what you think of my blog. I'm always looking for new topics and ways to write more effectively.
2) Help me brainstorm words for names. Find out more about the naming process here.
3) Be in touch! Let me know about articles, people, groups, and ideas. Let me know if you might like to be more involved. My email address is jon [at] thecultureofsustainability [dot] org

Thank you for caring.

Love,
Jon

Research Update

noreply@blogger.com (Jonathan Isaac Sasmor) — Sun, 04 May 2008 14:52:00 +0000

My research this week took me two places: the philosophy of sustainability, and existing organizations for sustainability.

As I think more about sustainability, I find it to be a moral issue, primarily--can we as a species change fast enough to remain consistent with the values that we share, given what we are learning? You can read more about my research of philosophy here.

In the last few days, I've been reading up on organizations that are already working to bring sustainability to mainstream attention:

BioTour first inspired me to think about travel for sustainability, when I joined their vegetable-powered-bus for a week last December.
The Veggie Van mainly focuses on promoting biofuels, and will release the documentary Fields of Fuel in 2008.
TreeHugger.com aims to use online media to bring sustainability to the mainstream. It currently features the 22nd-most authoritative blog on the internet, according to Technorati.
SustainAbility consults on sustainability, mostly focusing on business, as the sector it expects to take the lead in sustainable development.
Futerra Sustainability Communications works with organizations of all sorts to market sustainability. Their name and their website are fantastic--they give the important info and nothing more.
The United Nations Environment Programme works towards sustainability through international support and collaboration.
The Earth Charter collects many of the ideas of sustainability.
The Sustainable Living Roadshow brings together a coalition of traveling educators and entertainers to share practical, more sustainable solutions and to attract attention using all the latest technology.

When I first read about the Sustainable Living Roadshow, I was very impressed because they have developed much of what I've envisioned. I admire their experience, their collaboration of groups, their efforts at publicity, their use of multimedia, their sharing of sustainability through positive steps forward, their goal of a viral spread of ideas, and their commitment to professionalism. I read the senior thesis of Zach Carson, one of the founders of SLR, on how a traveling educational tour might promote renewable energy. The SLR coalition of educators and entertainers has been in the works for a few years. SLR appears to be the combined efforts of an artist-activist, a traveling musician, and an experienced social entrepreneur. SLR operates as a nonprofit through the fiscal sponsorship of the Foundation for Global Sustainability, a local sustainability group of Eastern Tennessee.

This week got me thinking about which elements of my ideas for moving towards a mainstream culture of sustainability are not yet being implemented.

These ideas are already happening through the work of the groups above:

sharing of ideas about sustainability by visiting travelers
travelers-for-sustainability focusing on web & media publicity
sharing of ideas about sustainability using professional marketing
a comprehensive online resource for sustainability

These ideas are not happening yet through existing organizations:

a corps of talented young people (like Teach for America) working towards sustainability
specifically marketing sustainability towards people who are not yet paying attention
a focus on the underlying moral questions that represent the crux of the issue
an extensive network of travelers that will discuss sustainability without charging a fee per visit
sharing positive steps towards sustainability that are specific to different sectors and types of organizations

Zooming out--here's the thought process I'm trying for as social entrepreneur:

What are my intentions?
What's already being done towards those intentions?
What do I envision beyond what's already being done?
How can I best work to accomplish that vision?

My research is developing the answers to these questions. When I have thorough answers, I'll be ready to share my business plan, and to contact groups like the ones above to discuss how we might work together to make even more happen.

Feeling

noreply@blogger.com (Jonathan Isaac Sasmor) — Sun, 04 May 2008 03:58:00 +0000

Yesterday I stayed up late into the night writing down the reasons I was feeling uneasy. For example: the challenge of the business plan, the blog unshared so far, a difficult conversation, a grey & cold day, things changing fast, lack of honest open contact, the writing I haven't done. I saw change, uncertainty, failure, and inconsistency, and felt better, because those things are ok once you realize them.

In the morning, I woke up to bike fast to the park for the finish of the 10-day race. At the finish line, I felt the humanity of the runners in the moment when something huge is over. They and their families were so close, then. I wanted to ask, what did you think about for 10 days? Emptiness?

In the afternoon I organized my things and my thoughts. Then I walked down the straight-line city hill called 99th Street. By the supermarket, I realized I've been working so hard this week, this is the first chance I've given myself just to experience emotions in empty time. I laughed for 2 blocks thinking about that, and walked past an old man hunched over, sweeping the fallen flowers out of his driveway with a broom and dustpan, past a child on the cell phone leaving the playground, up to the pedestrian highway bridge. I tried to peer in at all the drivers in the 8 lanes of traffic below to think where they might be going, but they were too fast to say hello. Were different kinds of people going east & west?

"Death, you have been too far away," I said aloud, for I had not been living each day with death in mind. Then I felt closer, not to death, but to life. As I left, I thought, one of the drivers on the highway will probably die in a car accident sometime, going too fast.

On the way back, I banged my head into a tree somehow as I was walking, and I laughed again, right where I had laughed before.

In the restaurant in the evening, at the next table, a father with graying hair and small glasses was talking at his 8-year-son about all the things he was doing wrong. I wanted to tell him, treat your son better, but I knew he wouldn't listen. After a while, the son took out his Game-Boy-equivalent and played instead of eating. As I sipped soup, I thought, what I really want is to hug the father and pass him a napkin note that says "You care about your son more than how you're treating him." I'm learning to write that note.

A Complicated Day

noreply@blogger.com (Jonathan Isaac Sasmor) — Fri, 02 May 2008 04:57:00 +0000

Frenzy yields to open space.

Forest, home, I love you.

I walked back and forth on a log for 80 minutes.

Gazing at the thoughts and the ??

The clouds came and it got cold.

What do I know? Where am I?

What can I do that's not being done?

Then I learned some more.

i hummed:

"Time to change,

again

always"

every little little

who am i doing it for?

and why so easy to forget?

stranger, friend, i love you

good night

...

......

........................

(the first blog open space)

How Paul Hawken Has Changed My World View

noreply@blogger.com (Jonathan Isaac Sasmor) — Thu, 01 May 2008 01:47:00 +0000

This week, I read Paul Hawken's latest book, Blessed Unrest: How the Largest Movement in the World Came into Being and Why No One Saw It Coming. How has it changed my thinking?

The short version: I've learned how environmental issues relate with all other social issues--they share a set of underlying values.

And, the longer version:

Hawken describes the millions of people working to advance environmentalism, social justice, and indigenous rights as a single conglomerated movement. Unlike any previous movement, this movement operates as thousands of organizations in parallel, each focusing on its own local means of addressing a specific social goal.

A society's treatment of the environment will parallel its treatment of human beings and outside cultures, Hawken argues. Then sustainability becomes a cultural change in the way we interact, not just with the environment, but also with each other.

Hawken distills the movement's values and goals into the pursuit of two common principles:

1. The Golden Rule: "Never do to anyone what you would not have done to yourself."

2. All life is sacred, "whether it be creature, child, or culture."

I would add a third characteristic principle to Hawken's:

3. Action to maximize consistency with values.

Unlike previous movements, Hawken says, this one is based on ideas and not ideology, since this movement opens itself to evolving with new knowledge and to cooperating with existing ideologies. But perhaps the principles above represent an ideology themselves, a simple, open, broad ideology that believes in leaving the world better than we found it, and implicitly, believes in sustainability of life.

The principles above are consistent with the beliefs of nearly every religion and society. The values that can make a better future have been around for centuries. The question is, can we learn to implement them in time? Hawken believes that a spiritual awakening might already be in progress.

About the future, Hawken writes: "When asked at colleges if I am optimistic or pessimistic about the future, my answer is always the same: If you look at the science that describes what is happening on earth today and aren't pessimistic, you don't have the correct data. If you meet people in this untamed movement and aren't optimistic, you haven't got a heart." (p. 3) Hawken presents the movement as an immune system that is just now engaging to protect earth and humanity. If that immune system can protect enough diversity in people, in cultures, and in species, then humans and life at large might gain the opportunity to continue evolving.

While Hawken expresses optimism that the immune system might succeed, his book focuses mostly on what the movement looks like and how it developed, but not much on how it might develop in the future. What are the failings of the movement so far? Should it continue to be a loose collaboration of small local groups, or should it unify? What might we do to improve the movement's chances of success?

Hawken indicates that organizations can and must do better at cooperating to pursue parallel goals. Perhaps he does not give himself enough credit--it might be helpful for all organizations to consider their work in the context of a vision for global change as broad as Paul Hawken's. Hidden in the Appendix, Hawken gives a more specific hint about the movement's needs for development, "The success of this movement will be defined by how rapidly it becomes part of all other sectors of society. If it remains singular and isolated, it will fail. If it is absorbed into religion, education, business, and government, there is a chance that humanity can reverse the trends that beset the earth." (p. 193).

As Hawken describes in detail, money is failing as our primary currency. There is a more important currency, the currency of the Golden Rule. The pursuit-of-a-better-world movement has not gone mainstream quite yet. If the movement grows to a tipping point and our currency incorporates our values, humans might devote their livelihoods primarily to making the world better, to the greatest extent they can. Hawken's movement might become our society.

A week ago, I defined my broadest goal as sustainability--the balance of our current needs with the ability of future generations to meet theirs--a society that could continue indefinitely.

Now, I see an even larger, more beautiful goal that might also be the most realistic path to a sustainable future--the creation of a mainstream "culture of sustainability," defined by adherence to the three principles above.

In the organization I'm working towards, I hope to empower a corps of talented people to travel the country and the world, with the intention of integrating the culture of sustainability into all sectors of society.

Hear Paul Hawken talk about Blessed Unrest here.

Tuning In: Brian Lehrer

noreply@blogger.com (Jonathan Isaac Sasmor) — Wed, 30 Apr 2008 06:21:00 +0000

Every now and then, the Brian Lehrer Show is so good that I drop everything, pour some tea, and listen. Today was one of those days.

On today's show, we heard about Indiana's requirement of photo IDs for voting, about the 3 presidential candidates' differing positions on repealing the federal gasoline tax, and about New York City's Sustainable Streets plan.

I most enjoyed an interview with David Ngaruri Kenney, who organized a group of farmers in Kenya to resist government oppression, was jailed and tortured for his actions, and escaped to the U.S., only to be denied asylum. His lawyer and co-author, Phillip Schrag, also comes on the air to discuss the inadequacies of the asylum process in the United States. Listen to the segment here:

You can listen to the other segments of today's episode here. (the April 29, 2008 episode, that is.)

The Brian Lehrer Show recently won a 2007 Peabody Award.

I admire the interesting guests, the great questions that Brian asks them, and the evolving use of interactive web resources.

The Brian Lehrer Show airs weekday mornings between 10AM and noon. Find out more, and tune in, here.

What's Going On?: 4.28.08

noreply@blogger.com (Jonathan Isaac Sasmor) — Tue, 29 Apr 2008 04:13:00 +0000

Making your dreams come true isn't easy, especially when they're big ones.

After backpacking around the United States for a few months, I spent a wonderful week with BioTour in December 2007, and discovered the possibility of travel for sustainability. Since then, I've been hard at work trying to empower a corps of travelers who will share the ideas and opportunities of sustainability. At first, I was hoping to make something huge happen fast. As the months went by, I learned about the important preliminary steps that must happen before a corps of travelers can achieve its potential.

Lately, I've been revising a business plan. This plan concisely describes my vision and implementation timeline in text, and gives projected financial statements for the prototype stage. In the first year, I hope to operate a nonprofit in which a small group explores how travelers might most effectively attract attention and cause change towards sustainability. Subsequently, the organization will expand rapidly, to employ a corps of travelers and a fleet of clean-energy vehicles to visit organizations of all sorts, first around the U.S.A., and then around the world. We will serve as the ambassadors of sustainability.

I would be ready to share my business plan, except for one important flaw. My plan does not yet address how my idea is unique. Who else is trying to bring sustainability to mainstream attention? Why is my plan exceptionally important?

This week, I'll be doing some research about existing organizations and about the potential niche for travelers in catalyzing a movement towards sustainability. Also, I'll be working on communications--developing and sharing this blog, and updating people I've talked with.

Once my research is complete, I'll update my plan, and get some advice about improving it. Soon, the organization I'm hoping to create will have a name. After that, the time might come to start a nonprofit, to establish a Board of Advisors, to secure funding, and/or to work with other people and groups.

I remain convinced that sustainability must reach mainstream culture, and that travelers can help it get there. I look forward to telling you more as I keep learning how.

Why Bother?

noreply@blogger.com (Jonathan Isaac Sasmor) — Sun, 27 Apr 2008 04:56:00 +0000

"Why bother?" Michael Pollan asks, and answers, in his recent New York Times Magazine column on climate change.

I found Pollan's column to be exceptionally well-written and broad-minded. Here's what I take away from it:

1) Major change is necessary. "The climate-change crisis is at its very bottom a crisis of lifestyle — of character, even." Pollan quotes Wendell Berry: “Once our personal connection to what is wrong becomes clear, then we have to choose: we can go on as before, recognizing our dishonesty and living with it the best we can, or we can begin the effort to change the way we think and live.” To take climate change seriously, we must change the way we think and live.

2) Major change is possible. Cheap energy has specialized society--all the little things that need to be done can happen in places far apart. As specialists, we feel powerless to address large problems, and we say "why bother?" But our dependence and powerlessness are an illusion, created by cheap-energy culture. We need our leaders and experts to act, yes, but our leaders and experts need us to show that we want to change. We have the power to create our own identity, a new identity, one that is more consistent with the way we care about the world. Our new behaviors, moral imperatives, and taboos may spread as a cultural virus.

3) Changes we make are powerful, and they can be fun too! Example: starting a vegetable garden. In WWII, victory gardens provided as much as 40% of produce for Americans. So plant a garden--know your neighbors, eat your fresh zucchini, and discover your independence!

Until recently, the green movement has advocated changes in our policies and our lifestyles that are relatively minor modifications to the current consumption culture. Now, more and more, we are hearing about the need for changes that will pervade the way we all live and think.

The beginning of social change towards a culture of sustainability: setting appropriately ambitious goals. Articles like this one make me optimistic.