How a country’s a rapid collective learning and extrapolation is key to systemic greening success
“We must... become adept at learning. We must become able not only to transform our institutions, in response to changing situations and requirements; we must invent and develop institutions [and societies] that are "learning systems," that is to say, systems capable of bringing about their own continuing transformation.” - Donald A. Schon
Systemic greening success depends on rapid collective learning and extrapolation in practice
The paragraphs below are a part of a big green collaborative idea I co-wrote and introduced over two decades ago and then printed in 2012 in a self-published work under the title, A Big Strategy – In times of Crisis. A Model to Help Regenerate The Environment, Community And Sustainable Economy. This back then was a strategic move to help kickstart worldwide innovation and awaken for the most part inert, and ideologically entrenched in the old thinking paradigm, green mindset.
[Our research shows that, despite some organisations having a great resource base, i.e. infrastructure made up of outstanding educational facilities, extensive land, access to volunteers and a well-developed loyal volunteer programme, an exceptional academic arsenal of highly educated staff, some organisations sometimes are still unable to earn enough income in order to meet their overheads, let alone make further funds that can be re-invested back into further initiatives and schemes.
Sustainability is all about being practical.
Yet we have seen far too frequently how intellectual overdrive ends up tipping the balance towards excessive analysis, displacing fresh thinking, which in turn frustrates everyone’s efforts and stifles progress. It is really important to realise that once empowered themselves, these centres can then employ more people, fuel a small boom in green start-ups in the country and help other centres achieve sustainability. New would-be-sustainable centres could follow suit also if the model works and is inspiring enough to others to want to replicate.
For instance, one could join a course to learn how to make solar panels and then purchase through a centre either a complete or partial system required for them to go solar, or start up a solar company. It is an undertaking that will require courage and willingness to take measured risks and view outside perspectives with openness that can provide the group with innovative and realistic proposals for income-producing activities.]
Collective intelligence and the wisdom of crowds – how to harness this for climate success
It is this linking of intangibles to tangibles to arrive at universal truths that produces practical solution strategies capable of resolving complex problems. We have yet to see this happen in reality. We termed this tying together of theoretical to practical – joined up thinking. Today, we see here and there first glimpses of this promising realistic future that we have collectively started enacting now. However, at this historical, ecologically-inspired new juncture we are nowhere near enough reaching this state of aware readiness.
Furthermore, a significant barrier to moving closer towards that is the absence of an answers framework in every country. We are now in a similar paradigm that once saw the invention of a steam engine in Alexandria, three hundred years after the carving of the Rosetta Stone, totally overlooked. The ruling intellectual class saw it more as a novelty rather than a solution that could have transitioned the entire model of their society. The steam engine rolled on the scene centuries later as a result of the deliberately aligned industrialisation process.
Ecoplaza – a truly global solution, envisioning new answers through collective learning
We live in the age of information. Today’s mantra still is: “We will adapt to our changing climate as it develops, of course, we will! How do we know? What we may require, however, to significantly change the conditions, is a framework from which we address it, an operating structure. In terms of solving problems, we need the equivalent of an “operating system” upgrade that operates on a global level. So that every state is part of this vast network of communication of the most effective clean energy-driven economic models that communities co-own. We learn and practically resolve issues as a community and extrapolate solutions for the accelerated uptake by others. Anyone that has run a successful boat, restaurant or building site will confirm that it is down to planning. It is also usually much more difficult to operate any of these badly than it is efficiently.
Focusing information to save our resources and boost climate and nature conservation
Inefficiency costs our societies, governments, and all sector organisations vast sums. It costs us considerable time and countless other resources to be so inefficient. Governments tend to move slowly and rarely lead on tough issues like climate change, or democracy, without pressure from the public. We, as voters, have an opportunity to apply that pressure especially this year, as 2024 is the biggest election year in history according to predictions by Future Perfect. With so many climate-critical countries holding elections this year —from India, Pakistan, and Indonesia to Egypt, Mexico, and South Africa to the US, the UK, and the EU – the stakes are high.
Ecoplazas can prepare the public to fend better against the current crises and misinformation. How? By arming communities with the insight and know-how that comes from working practically together to solve problems. One of the positive outcomes that I perceive would be climate and climate justice issues moving to the top of priority lists. In practical terms, this would translate into fewer destructive ‘isms’ that plague our societies and much more sustainable, healthier, and happier lifestyles. At elections this would enable highly ecologically polarised nations to cast better informed ballots.
So, if we want to save time, we must look to smart duplication models; new blue-green models – that have in-built altruism – that we can scale and replicate at speed. Why keep the solutions back and away from the populations’ view when we can have an infrastructure to make them so effortless to access, see and experience – almost an automatic part of everyone’s life?
Regenerative thinking is finding eco-socially sustainable alternatives that make good business sense and create world peace
What the current environmental emergency demands of us is better local alternatives to what we have today in terms of eco-social activities that align our thinking and action together with the Earth. This can bring us into operating as one organism that can act coherently to solve climate-community problems, where we live, and adjust our lives accordingly. We have a lot of information, but a lot of it is not good or relevant. The line from my A Big Strategy book of 2012 that read; “through providing better information, new markets of green products will develop” rings even more relevant today.
This has happened and will continue. Our approach to how we treat innovation and information still demands fundamental adjustments. For our response to be effective it must be united, global and uncompromising. A truly green age where we evolve all our interactions so that they focus on the planet, people and prosperity. Thus we rebalance by evolving a transactional model that is in tune with rapidly evolving climatic response of nature in peril due to centuries of human impact.
Climate response and systemic greening can only succeed with an Ecoplaza-type ‘learning and extrapolation solution’ framework
Forging and leading a transition into low consumption lifestyle is not something that business sector can deal with on its own. Circular economy model(s) can go a long way in adjusting the current paradigm, but they are also likely to be less efficient on their own. Or, equipped well enough to affect a fundamental change and push a critical mass of people around the world to shift from overconsuming to living within the planet’s means and limits.
But what do we need to induce this type of collective change in awareness and behaviour, without waiting for a critical mass of people to awaken and rise to the most enlightened way of thinking and acting? I believe we require apolitical structure with a universal ideology of planet saving and global outreach that is capable of bringing all countries to this higher level of operating.
Bibliography
A Big Strategy: In times of Crisis. A Model to Help Regenerate The Environment, Community And Sustainable Economy. Published in 2012. Authors and innovators of this advanced methodology: Peter Hughes & Kinga Monica
This article presenting the original award-winning concepts is the work of the Earthvoice editor, Kinga Monica. She is available for consulting on practical instigation of these concepts, sustainability, and ecotourism consulting, internationally.
To learn more on this topic and the solutions that have helped shift some gears of the climate change action to date, please follow my innovative work on Earthvoice blog and on Medium.