Learning from Lotus Plants How to Clean without
Cleaners (biomimicry)
 | Welcome to our July 2010 issue of View from the Field, an e-newsletter that highlights the programs of Nebo for Sustainability
and leaders working for a better world. This month we will highlight leadership at the intersection of technology and sustainability. Join us as we explore leadership that envisions technology in service to sustainability - people, planet, place and profit.  Jan Kearce
VP, Nebo for Sustainability
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Leading the Way to Sustainability with Technology
 There is little doubt that we wouldn't be where we are as a society without continuous advances in technology, each one building on the last or emerging from break-through thinking. Technologies have evolved and taken us to the depths of the ocean and deep into our night sky, while creating a revolution in communication, factories, farms, construction, communities and hospitals. In our own homes we have excitedly embraced the next round of technology that provides entertainment, makes our lives easier, or increases efficiency as free time dwindles.
As Winston
Churchill said, "the further we look back, the further we can see into
the future." For the most part, many of the new technologies over the past two hundred years have been driven by the desire to create new business opportunities - to sell something or meet real and perceived consumer needs. While deriving great short-term benefits, there was little foresight of the consequences to nature or people as the long train of inventions intersected on the tracks to extraction of natural resources and resulted in living beyond the means of Earth. Today's thought leaders are challenging the old paradigm and moving on a track that advances technology in service to sustainability.
This month's Leader for Sustainability, Book of the Month and Featured Links are dedicated to those who are leading the way to sustainability with technology.
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Leadership Profile - John Nicoll
Leading with Technology for Sustainability and Community
 Before 1993, most of us had never heard of the world wide web. The technology that would lead to the internet, proliferation of information, social media and a myriad of applications was in the hands of the scientists. Today it's in the hands of passionate innovators like John Nicoll, editor of The New Green Economy and creator of Local Share.
LocalShare is a search engine that will allow 80 million adults (U.S.)
who are spending $300 billion per year on goods and services to make
choices that support sustainable
living. Users will gather information about buying choices, identify opportunities to share resources or skills and build community. For example, if someone needs a lawn mower, they will go on-line to find a sustainably manufactured and sourced model at a local store, buy a used one, or identify a new neighbor a block away who wants to share her little used mower. And that's just the beginning!
LocalShare is also another chapter in the realization of John's vision to use web technology and systems to affect change in the world. Today, through The New Green Economy, he is a communicator - a journalist in the on-line green space. Trained as a holistic healer, he seeks to integrate healing and technology through providing web-based tools for people to shift away from focusing on unsustainable consumption and living in disconnected communities to a new economy based on sharing, community and informed, values-friendly and earth-healthy choices.
Although a leader in the new ways of technology, John is also a learner in the process of realizing his vision. In the "design and production stage," it would be easy to lose faith and listen earnestly to one's inner critic. When asked, "what keeps you going," John provides some advice for all of us by saying and savoring:
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"The freedom to contribute the best that I have to offer, to
take on the full challenge. I wake up everyday knowing that my best is required. It's not stressful, it's a joy. I have created an opportunity."
- "Meeting other people who are
doing it too...curious, passionate, and authentic people. I read, hear and see other people's work - synthesizing all of it - and realize that everyone on earth has a piece of the
puzzle."
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"Kindness...to oneself. Be kind around the courage, persistence and strong intention that it takes to succeed. When things don't go
well, practice self-kindness."
And...it all began when, at the age of 13, he wrote a snail-mail letter to all of his neighbors that encouraged them to recycle. Now, his words and work connect across town and around the world in service to sustainability and community.
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Nebo for Sustainability News
Kate Ebner, Principal / Founder of Nebo, and Jan Kearce, VP of Sustainabilty for Nebo launched the DC Chapter
of the Global Sufficiency Network in late May. The primary focus of the network is to fuel a global conversation for sufficiency -
catalyzing action to address scarcity as a fundamental root cause of environmental, social justice, spiritual and economic crises. Contact
us for more information. The next meeting will be at the Oneness
Family School in Bethesda, Maryland, on July 22, 2010, from 6:30-8:30pm.
Awakening the Dreamer Symposium Jan Kearce and colleague Heather Driscoll led a half-day event designed to inspire participants to powerfully connect with their deep concern for our world and their own power to make a difference. For more information about the symposium, a program of the Pachamama Alliance, visit Awakening the Dreamer. To host an event in your organization or community, please Contact Us. Into the Field RetreatsDon't miss your opportunity to travel with other leaders to the Amazon. Check out Into the Field Retreats with Nebo and the Pachamama Alliance. Coming up in February 2011. Deadline for registration is December 1, 2010. Customized retreats are available for groups or your work team. Camp Get-away: White RockOn July 10, 2010, Kate and Jan will deliver a workshop on Personal Sustainability at the weekend retreat of the Girl Scout's administrative volunteers. |
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Book of the Month
Biomimicry - Innovation
Inspired by Nature
by Janine Benyus
Learning from humpback whales how
to create efficient wind power.
Biomimicry is a new science that analyzes nature's best ideas and adapts them for human use. Janine Benyus takes readers on a journey into the field and into the labs with visionary researchers and leaders who are applying natural solutions to human problems "in order to live sanely and sustainably on the Earth." She looks to the past and into the future to suggest present nature-based actions that will help us sustainably answer critical questions:
How will we...
- feed
ourselves?
harness energy? make things? heal ourselves? store what we learn? conduct business?
Where do we go from here?
Janine Benyus suggests that we turn from the Industrial Revolution to
the Biomimicry Revolution and that our tools (technology) are used in
service to fitting in on Earth, thereby crafting a sustainable
relationship to nature.
For more information visit The Biomimicry Institute. See Jane Benyus on TED.com.
"Nature...
runs on sunlight.
uses only the energy it needs.
fits form to function.
recycles everything.
rewards cooperation.
banks on diversity.
demands local expertise.
curbs excesses from within.
taps the power of limits."
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Nebo for Sustainability
 Jan Kearce, Vice President,
Nebo for Sustainability,
PROFILE
 Kate Ebner, Principal and Executive Coach, PROFILE
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