Archive for the ‘collaborations’ Category

Saturday the 26th of March was Earth Hour – a social marketing phenomenon that started in Australia in 2007  and is now known around the world. The high visibility of switching off lights makes Earth Hour  a corporate responsibility dream.  In just 5 short years it has captured the imagination of a global audience with its initial intend to

” make a bold symbolic statement about the critical issue of climate change and to engage Australians in taking action”.

This rapid growth must make it one of the most successful social marketing campaigns globally.

I have been an Earth Hour sceptic since its inception, wondering how on earth switching the lights off for one hour could possibly assist in moving us towards a sustainable lifestyle – although I did switch off our lights on Saturday at 8.30pm.  I do, however, recognise Earth Hour’s potential to build on its success and speed up positive social change.

My main concern is that this ‘bold symbolic statement’ let’s us off the hook, offers an easy way out. Read the rest of this entry »

There is a terrific group on linkedin called ‘Green’ where one member prompted the rest of us to propose the one thing that everybody could do to reduce their impact on the environment and it has turned into a long, long list. I have picked three things we can all do right now in Australia as a starting point:

• “Do as you choose as long as you do not forcibly interfere with the equal rights of others to do as they choose. In short, if someone else desires clean water, I shouldn’t pollute it because I’d force myself upon them. If I head into the mountains to hike, I shouldn’t spoil the trips of others behind me by leaving trash or spoilage.  Simply, be responsible. That one thing is as green as one can get.”
• “Use contraception to reduce family size and stabilize populations”‘
• stop buying bottled water and use tap or rainwater.

Click here to check it out. In addition to interesting discussions about cultural relevance of things that everybody in the world could meaningfully do, regardless of where we live, there are more than 1800 suggestions, there is bound to be something in there that all of us can do asap.  You need to be on linkedin and become a member of the group to see it though and no, Momentum doesn’t have any vested interest in linkedin!