#sustainability

#bitcoin’s inescapable, inconvenient truth
▻https://hackernoon.com/bitcoins-inescapable-inconvenient-truth-da0f0219cda6?source=rss----3a814

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Bitcoin has a dirty secret, and the community rapidly running out of excuses for it.It’s time to start making Bitcoin environmentally sustainable.When Satoshi Nakamoto created the digital currency Bitcoin, he also decided there would never be more than 21 million coins. These coins would slowly be released over time, as a reward for those participating in the block creation process for Bitcoin’s underlying #blockchain. Satoshi described the “steady addition of a constant of amount of new coins” as “analogous to gold miners expending resources to add gold to circulation”, and noted that “in our case, it is CPU time and electricity that is expended”.Growing energy consumptionIt is unknown whether Satoshi, while writing this, ever envisioned the energy-hungry nightmare Bitcoin has become. Over the (...)

#renewable-energy #sustainability #e-waste

#reciprocity in Open Source
▻https://hackernoon.com/reciprocity-in-open-source-e60fb98ee1cc?source=rss----3a8144eabfe3---4

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“Treat open source as open source treats you.”The Golden Rule is the principle of treating others as one’s self would wish to be treated. It is a maxim that is found in many religions and cultures and it is considered an ethic of reciprocity. It is expressed usually in the form: “One should treat others as one would like others to treat oneself.” If you think of open source as a business model, or culture, or religion, you will see that the Golden Rule applies here as well. If I were to phrase the Golden Rule of open source, I’d say: “Treat open source as open source treats you”.Image by Internet Archive Book ImagesReciprocity is behavior in which two people or groups of people give each other help and advantages. If you are using open source software, you are getting advantage from it. Here I (...)

#open-source #open-source-reciprocity #sustainability #golden-rule

VCU Imagineers Use Spore Stickers to Recycle Cardboard
▻https://hackernoon.com/vcu-imagineers-use-spore-stickers-to-recycle-cardboard-earth-hacks-recap

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Earth Hacks RecapVirginia Commonwealth University (VCU) is a public research university located in Richmond, Virginia and on Jan. 26–27, VCU Earth Hacks happened.Experimental Civics was immediately on-board with being a sponsor, hosting a design thinking workshop during the event, and providing additional support and intros! Kudos to the whole team for running an amazing event!Start of VCU Earth HacksI caught up with Sanjana Paul, one of the co-founders, to ask her why she has supported this event:Sanjana Paul“I started Earth Hacks when I noticed that the rate at which environmental problems are increasing is exponential and the rate at which solutions to these problems are progressing is linear.Having attended #hackathons in the past, I know that during these events, rapid innovation takes (...)

#sustainability #hacking #technology #environment

Sustainability Transitions Research Network

#STRN is an international network of more than 1’500 scholars interested in #sustainability_transitions. Sustainability transitions are long-term transformation processes of established industries, socio-technical systems and societies to more sustainable modes of production and consumption.

STRN is an entirely independent, research-driven network. Membership is open to anyone who is interested and involved in research on sustainability transitions.

Our mission is to deepen the scientific understanding of sustainability transitions through a program of networking, research coordination, education and synthesis activities. Towards this end we want to provide a meeting place and a platform, where researchers can engage in a vibrant intellectual exchange on the challenges of sustainability transitions.

We also want to be a hub for practitioners in policy making, civil society, and business who are working to advance societies into more sustainable directions.

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#design for human and planetary #health: a transdisciplinary approach to #sustainability
▻https://hackernoon.com/design-for-human-and-planetary-health-a-transdisciplinary-approach-to-su

WIT Transactions on Ecology and the Environment, Vol 99, © 2006 WIT Press, ISSN 1743–3541 (on-line)D. C. Wahl, Centre for the Study of Natural Design, University of Dundee, Scotland, UKAbstractThis paper explores various integrative frameworks that are contributing to an emerging transdisciplinary meta-perspective on sustainable development. It proposes a holistic/integral strategy based on scale-linking design for human and planetary health:First, ‘Integral Theory’, ‘Spiral Dynamics’ and ‘Integral Ecology’ are briefly reviewed as dynamic mapping methodologies to structure, facilitate and mediate between diverse value systems and perspectives of multiple stakeholders and disciplines. Changes in worldview, value system, and intentionality are crucial to the emergence of a sustainable (...)

#sustainable-development #healthcare

Life’s collaborative lessons transform #business
▻https://hackernoon.com/lifes-collaborative-lessons-transform-business-aa1f4348fd27?source=rss--

Organizations have three options: 1. Hit the wall 2. Optimize and delay hitting the wall3. Redesign for resilience — simultaneously optimizing existing networks whilst embracing disruptive #innovation and working collaboratively with partners.Dawn Vance, Global Supply Chain Director at Nike, in Hutchins (2011)Living the questions that initiate the transition to a commons-based collaborative economy describes transformative innovation from within the third horizon. It is an example of how H3 [the 3rd Horizon] is already present today but unevenly distributed. A fundamental transformation of our economic and monetary systems is becoming a necessity, if not inevitability. [This is an excerpt from Designing Regenerative Cultures. If you want an introduction to the 3 Horizon Framework for (...)

#culture #leadership #sustainability

Elon Musk’s Next Logical Move — Electric Airplanes — Modular Strategies for Sustainable Global…
▻https://hackernoon.com/elon-musks-next-logical-move-electric-airplanes-modular-strategies-for-s

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Elon Musk’s Next Logical Move — Electric Airplanes — Modular Strategies for Sustainable Global MobilityPhoto by Leio McLaren on UnsplashIn Australia, Elon Musk built an electric battery plant that can back up the grid within milliseconds.And he’s losing money with it.Tesla’s 100 MW/129MWh Powerpack system near Jamestown, Australia provides backup power for South Australia’s energy grid. 30–40% of the electricity it provides goes unpaid because the grid only measures electricity pumped into the system a full 6 seconds after a breakdown event.The Powerpack farm responds in milliseconds: 0.14 seconds the last time it had to back up the grid.Why lose money instead of adding in an artificial 6 second delay?Because Elon Musk’s next project is beautiful.But it’s not about airplanes.Next project:Provide a (...)

#electric-airplane #sustainability #global-mobility #modular-strategies #elon-musk

Green chemistry and material #science
▻https://hackernoon.com/green-chemistry-and-material-science-e03ad1d0a28b?source=rss----3a8144ea

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Studying and copying nature is one of the greatest tools in the green chemistry toolbox.Paul Anastas interviewed by Josh Wolfe (2012)The chemists Paul Anastas and John Warner are the initiators of a global movement called ‘green chemistry’ aimed at designing chemical products and processes to eliminate, or drastically reduce, the generation of hazardous substances by the chemical industry. Anastas & Warner (1998) formulated twelve principles of green chemistry. Some of the questions these principles invite chemists to ask are:How can we create chemical synthesis methods that maximize the incorporation of all materials used in the process into the final product?How can we, as much as possible, rely on synthetic methodologies that use and generate substances with little or no toxicity to (...)

#innovation #leadership #sustainability #technology

Definitions, Cake, and Zombies | 3 Lessons Learnt from #hacking at TX McCombs 3-P Hackathon
▻https://hackernoon.com/definitions-cake-and-zombies-3-lessons-from-hacking-at-tx-mccombs-3-p-ha

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Last weekend, I had the pleasure of hacking at the McCombs School of #business 3-P Hackathon which was focused on tackling 3 challenges: People, Profit (Sustainability), and Planet. We worked over the course of Friday and Saturday to come up with some creative solutions to these mammoth-sized problems.With every hackathon, there is always something new to learn and I wanted to share 3 lessons that I took away from this experience:1. Define everything2. Problems = Layered cake3. Zombies are welcomeOur keynote speaker on Saturday afternoon was Kristjan Jespersen, Ph.D. who is an Assistant Professor at the Copenhagen Business School. I loved his quote about how every business developed these days should be sustainable, but beyond that, he started his speech by showing a painting “Landscape (...)

#hackathons #sustainability #diversity

What #money is and what’s wrong with it?
▻https://hackernoon.com/what-money-is-and-whats-wrong-with-it-8bca0e20a333?source=rss----3a8144e

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SourceQuestioning assumptions“Money has become a ring we wear through the nose, which allows us to be led around by those who control it.”— Mark KinneyMoney is one of the core technologies at the heart of human societies. It is the means by which we trade among ourselves. In many if not most modern societies money has become a central element around which many human relationships are organised.To ask what money is may seem a trivial question that is barely worth asking. After all, we make constant use of it in our day-to-day lives and, for the most part, pay it no attention whatever — other than to occasionally worry whether we have enough of it. Our unquestioned assumption is that it is a neutral lubricant for the economic system that in no way influences how that system works. We also tend (...)

#sustainability #education #economics #design

Paradoxes of #sustainability with consequences for health - The Lancet Global Health
▻http://www.thelancet.com/journals/langlo/article/PIIS2214-109X(16)00038-3/fulltext

An important aspect of the conceptual transformations is that the term sustainability has gradually changed from being a goal (durability) to acquiring connotations that serve as a selection criterion for development aid. Using sustainability as a selection criterion risks privileging recipients who have the capacity to gain control over health and living conditions and exclude others as unworthy needy.

#santé_mondiale

Global Fishing Watch

Global #Fishing Watch is the product of a technology partnership between #SkyTruth, #Oceana, and #Google that is designed to show all of the trackable fishing activity in the ocean. This interactive web tool – currently in prototype stage – is being built to enable anyone to visualize the global fishing fleet in space and time. Global Fishing Watch will reveal the intensity of fishing effort around the world, one of the stressors contributing to the precipitous decline of our fisheries.

With hundreds of millions of people around the world depending on our ocean for their livelihoods, and many more relying on the ocean for food, ensuring the long-term #sustainability of our #ocean is a critical global priority. We need a tool that harnesses the power of citizen engagement to hold our leaders accountable for maintaining an abundant ocean. .....

▻http://globalfishingwatch.org/assets/720/south-georgia.webm
►http://globalfishingwatch.org

Report: ▻http://globalfishingwatch.org/oceana-global-fishing-watch-report.pdf
@wizo

The CEO of #Unilever receives a mega bonus for his contribution to “sustainable development”
▻http://multinationales.org/The-CEO-of-Unilever-receives-a

Known in France for his intransigence towards the Fralib workers, the Unilever CEO Paul Polman is also viewed by some as a visionary leader and a champion of sustainable development and responsible capitalism. This apparent contradiction reflects a rather narrow conception of #sustainability and corporate social responsibility. This article was originally published in French. Translation: Mathilde Balland. Who ever said that sustainable development was incompatible with profit? The boss of (...)

#News

/ #Greenwashing, Unilever, Food & Agribusiness, #executives, #tax_system, #tax_evasion, #financialisation, #social_impact, #environmental_impact, #marketing, sustainability, (...)

#Food_&_Agribusiness #salary
“►http://www.greenbiz.com/blog/2013/04/29/why-unilever-patagonia-puma-lead-pack-say-sustainability-leaders”
“►http://france.attac.org/se-mobiliser/les-requins”
“►http://www.lesrequins.org/actions-du-15-mars/article/journee-du-15-mars”
“►http://www.flickr.com/photos/moneyblognewz/5408773200

Instead of their pilgrimages to San Francisco, startup founders should travel to South Germany to learn from the #Mittelstand how to build sustainable companies that benefit their communities as much as their founders.
▻http://thirdwaveberlin.com/2013/10/week-158 #sustainability #startups

The Viridian Design Movement
▻http://www.viridiandesign.org

bruce sterling speaking

#design #blog #architecture #technology #sustainability #futurism