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The ‘Think globally, act locally’ was the mantra of my early years in the environmental and sustainability movements – but I always had a slight unease with the second bit. Partly, perhaps, because I got involved in some of the early alternative technology communities that attempted to practice a grassroots approach to global challenges.

Most imploded.

Later, I quite liked it when the phrase was spun to ‘Think locally, act globally’, but couldn’t quite work out what that meant.

Now this morning, sitting around the table with Elaine and Jim Salzman, I was ploughing my way through a slightly rain-soaked heap of papers hen, in the New York Times section of The Observer, I came across Guy Trebay’s article on the way hip-hop is morphing into a new dance trend, ‘jerking’.

His first line: Think globally, act virally.

Eureka! You know a great catch-phrase when you see it.

So I was slightly shocked to see that the phrase dates back at least a couple of years, being attributed – in the form ‘Think global, act viral’ – to Rudy De Waele of mTrend. The original context was mobile telephony, but, boy, can this mantra serve us across a wider front.

With COP15 looming, this spirit ought to apply to everything we do in tackling the climate – and wider sustainability – challenges.

One of my favourite writers on environmental themes, particularly with his book Collapse, is Jared Diamond. He has an interesting Op-Ed in today’s New York Times, on the question whether big business can save the Earth? “There is a widespread view, he begins, “particularly among environmentalists and liberals, that big businesses are environmentally destructive, greedy, evil and driven by short-term profits. I know – because I used to share that view.”

But, having worked on the boards of WWF and Conservation International, he says, “I’ve … worked with executives of mining, retail, logging and financial services companies. In the process, I’ve discovered that while some businesses are indeed as destructive as many suspect, others are among the world’s strongest positive forces for environmental sustainability.”

He continues: The embrace of environmental concerns by chief executives accelerated recently for several reasons. “Lower consumption of environmental resources saves money in the short run. Maintaining sustainable resource levels and not polluting saves money in the long run. And a clean image – one attained by, say, avoiding oil spills and other environmental disasters – reduces criticism from employees, consumers and government.

Interestingly, though, I got an email earlier today from Steve Brant in New York, welcoming the piece but noting that Diamond had failed to celebrate the work of the catalytic organisations that help companies get onto the beyond compliance track – among them BSR, WBCSD and – it struck me – SustainAbility.

It also struck me that as leading companies continue to push the boundaries, the work of such catalytic, intermediary organisations will not only grow, but also mutate and evolve furiously. Finally, it struck me that – as SustainAbility heads towards its twenty-fifth anniversary in 2012 – I should take another a look at the work and agendas of what we called the ‘Green Keiretsus’ in an article in Tomorrow magazine way back in the 1990s. 

Left to their own devices, companies – particularly from the BRIC nations – cannot be relied on to do all of this on their own. They also will need activist pressure, media scrutiny, government regulation and incentives, business-to-business pressures and the mutual support provided by organisations like BSR, WBCSD and, in different ways, by organisations like SustainAbility.

Part of lunch snapped as I passed

Delightful weekend, with Jim Salzman staying over the weekend and Jed Emerson coming to lunch today. The two of them hadn’t met before. Magic moment when I – rather belatedly – realised that Jim would be a wonderful resource for the new Volans project on ecosystem services, newly funded by Tellus Mater, given that this has been his field since the late 1990s. I may be slow, but I get there in the end.

Alejandro interviewed Cineforum mapping of the Road to Ecotopia 

Spent the day at Cineforum’s ‘Road to Ecotopia’ event at the old St Luke’s office building, 22 Duke’s Road, just across the road from Euston Station – and literally round the corner from where, pretty much exactly 35 years ago, I walked out of the UCL School of Environmental Studies, having completed my M.Phil., and into my first real job, with TEST. Wonderful gathering of tribes – and a strange sense of more great wheels of fortune turning and starting out on new cycles.

With around 150 people, this was one of the most enjoyable events I have been to in a long time, organised by Jobeda Ali and James Parr – and with the backing of organisations like Tomorrow’s Company, IDEO, SustainAbility and Volans. Alejandro (Litovsky) led an all-day session on the biosphere, which I kicked off in – but then flitted from session to session as a ‘Honeybee’, my duty to cross-pollinate. Wonderful to see people like Hunter Lovins again, though kissing her hat is a navigational challenge.

Among the initiatives spotlighted was Hopenhagen, which I joined up with a while back – and whose passport idea was dreamed up by Alejandro’s sister. One of my favourite sessions was up in Nest 3, led by Louis Savy of Sci-Fi-London, which organises the London International Festival of Science Fiction and Fantastic Film. Also very struck by the visualization work of Jonathan Arnold – and by a session on China led by Andrew Leung.

The day ended with a session in which Hazel Henderson and Fritjof Capra beamed in from the US, with Hazel using the opportunity to launch a new Global Climate Prosperity Scoreboard, which tracks private investment in companies growing the green economy globally. “This new, never before reported number, showing $1,248,740,645,993.00 (over $1.248 trillion) in total investment since 2007, indicates how investors and entrepreneurs are leading governments in promoting sustainable growth,” she noted.  

The scoreboard totals investments in solar, wind, geothermal, ocean/hydro, energy efficiency and storage, and agriculture. It purposefully omits nuclear, “clean coal,” carbon capture and sequestration, and biofuels.  It indicates which investments have been publically announced and committed by major companies for 2010 and beyond.

Niels Peter Flint Louis Savy Biosphere session Ideacomb

With Andrea With Andrea 2 Filming 1 Filming 2 Filming 3 John Grant through the keyhole

A remarkable day at 2 Bloomsbury Place, with a constant stream of visitors, including Andrea Spencer-Cooke (Henwood), who I worked with years ago – and who was instrumental in my coming up with the triple bottom line concept. We also had James Parr and a film crew from Cineforum for tomorrow’s ‘Road to Ecotopia’ event, with John Grant also coming in to be filmed. Sam shot a nice picture of him through a keyhole while he was being filmed.