Planning Pool

Paul Hawken is a visionary environmentalist, entrepreneur, journalist, and author of well known books such as Blessed Unrest, and co-author of Natural Capitalism. (His opening remarks for the Gaining Ground Resilient Cities Conference were blogged on Planning Pool earlier today.) He is also a twin, as we learned during the session.

The author with Paul Hawken!

In a salon session with conference participants, Hawken mused on topics suggested by attendees. Here is a sampling of the wisdom and thoughts he shared:

Action

• As individuals, it’s okay to make make mistakes. Nature makes lots of small mistakes, but no big ones.
• Everyday I have the same problem you have, I ask myself: am I making a difference? I just need to have faith that if I continue to pursue and learn, there is a cumulative effect.
• It’s most important that we each do something that we care about and have passion for

Devine Feminine Leading the Way

• Women have something to bring to this world from all cultures that is drastically missing in this time. Women are going to decide the fate of the Earth.
• What should men do to help women? Get out of the way. The male gender had its go for the past few thousand years and here we are in this civilization. We need to nurture, support, and… get out of the way.

Today’s Economy

• Right now we steal the future, sell it, call it GDP and then split the profits among a few hands.
• We have a vaccum of political and economic leadership. Our current mental model is always first about cost, and that is what got us here. For example, coal is cheap in the typical cost equation, but with ‘externalities’ it has the most expensive price.
  

Leadership

• Don’t expect change to arise out of leadership. Even if there is agreement on international climate change action, we all know it will be insufficient than the task at hand, although it would be better than nothing.
• Can’t look at top of heap for vectors of change. What’s being organizied around COP15 is more important that the negotiations themselves. By getting together and bringing intention to it, we can change the conversation, plus have fun and laugh.
• We must keep working to develop prototypes for new future, even if they are being ignored, so that when changes in perceptions occur, all of us as leaders have knowledge and practice to implement new systems.

Common Framework

• We need one common metric for measuring our energy impact. Not carbon, megajules, horsepower, or barrels. We need to use Watts. Everyone can relate to a lightbulb’s energy use.

Diversity

• Leadership is the capacity to listen to all voices. If a convening doesn’t have in the room the people who are affected by an issue, the conversation will be stunted.

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