The “Phoenix Economy,” State of the World Forum and Global Coherence Initiative

“A new economic order is rising from the ashes—and a new generation of innovators, entrepreneurs and investors is accelerating the changes essential for delivering scalable sustainable solutions to the world.”

The Phoenix Economy:  50 Pioneers in the Business of Social Innovation

Global Footprint Network has been named one of the “Phoenix 50,” a new list generated by Volans, an organization that describes itself as “part think-tank, part consultancy, park broker and part incubator.”  They are in the business of helping develop and scale social innovations to financial, social and environmental challenges.

They distinguish between four types of markets instead of the usual two we’re used to hearing about–Bull and Bear markets.  The Dragon characterizes markets like China, where social cohesion is just strong enough to keep the double-bottom line economic engine roaring, while the Phoenix is the kind of market we have to do more than hope we’re destined for–a market that “blurs across national borders and works to integrate the triple bottom line of economic, social and environmental value added into its DNA—as a triple helix of change and new growth.”

From the website:  “From the ashes of the downturn, a new Phoenix Economy is self-assembling—focused on providing social and environmental solutions, where markets and governments have failed. If the pioneers of the Phoenix Economy are to succeed, they will still need substantial assistance from governments, foundations, investors and businesses, and we identify urgent opportunities for facilitation, collaboration and support.”

Volan’s Phoenix Economy report was supported by The Skoll Foundation, SustainAbility, NetImpact, and the United Nations Environment Programme.  It’s a market intelligence report of scale solutions leading into a Phoenix economy, and ends with a “Phoenix Agenda,” detailing how different sectors can help enable this paradigmatic shift.  The Phoenix 50 are organizations–for-profit, non-profit, and NGO’s–that are, in the authors’ opinions, among the best currently doing this work.  (Heartening to see the Haas School of Business, UC Berkeley on the list, since I was there pioneering socially and environmentally responsible curriculum for corporations during most of the 90’s, when awareness of the need for this kind of work was quite low–except among the student body in the form of the self-organized Students for Responsible Business, which has since become NetImpact.)

The report quotes the same”everyone a changemaker” remark from Bill Drayton that I quoted in an earlier post on his presentation at the Tech Awards last year.  Drayton is convinced that we’re about to hit the “awareness tipping point” in which “the public at large will engage.”  This is one of the functions of collab partners like the 2009 State of the World Forum–to move the momentum towards a tipping point in which the public is not just aware, but is also motivated and empowered to act; that is, where a critical mass feels sufficiently networked into solutions capable of addressing the challenges we face in transforming ourselves and our societies.

One of the most interesting parts of the report is the “Pathways to Scale” model, which is described as 5 stages:

1. Eureka!, in which growing dysfunctions of the current order reveal emerging opportunities
2. Experiment:  trial-and-error responses to those opportunities
3. Enterprise:  building responsive business models that support new value creation
4. Ecosystem, in which critical mass is achieved through alliances and imitation
5. Economy:  the system transcends to a new equilibrium.

These stages remind me of what Belgian chemist and Nobel Laureate Ilya Prigogine said about a system in balance and functioning well.  Such a system is difficult to change, but as that system falls into disorder, change becomes more and more feasible and finally inevitable.  At that inevitable point the least bit of coherent order (or critical mass) can usher in a new higher form of order.  We are clearly at that inevitable point.  Now we need to facilitate the critical mass that will usher in a higher-functioning order out of the “ashes of the downturn.” Reports like the Phoenix Economy, and organizations such as those that comprise the Phoenix 50, are helping to get us there.  And for an example of an initiative working to create critical mass on the level of being to complement the doing, see the Global Coherence Initiative.

Read the full report, or watch for the second half of this post which will summarize remaining highlights.

Ecological Footprint Calculator Covered by CNN

“Have you ever figured out your Ecological Footprint?  Do you even know what that is?”  That’s how the CNN anchor introduces the story.

Cosmometry: The Art of Modeling and Mapping the Cosmos (4/16 Event)

Aligned with our emphasis on supporting information visualization projects, NextNow Collaboratory was an early supporter of Cosmometry, and Thursday, 4/16 is a rare opportunity to hear about the project.  This presentation will be hosted by the Kalliopeia Foundation in San Rafael where we will get “a breathtaking look at the patterns and shapes hidden within our universe.  To see these emerge and become aware of them is a magical and awe-inspiring experience.  Cosmometry is both an ancient field and a newly emerging one.  It is ancient in that human beings have been discerning  and describing the fundamental nature of cosmic design for centuries; and new in that we are now at the threshold of understanding and applying this essential knowledge at an entirely new level of comprehension.  Most commonly known as Sacred Geometry, the breadth and depth of this field has now exceeded the scope of this term and therefore has a risen the need for a new name:  Cosmometry.

Cosmometry is the art of modeling and visually mapping the many dimensions of the universe.  At every scale, from macro-galactic to micro-atomic, the same patterns, structures, processes and principles can be found constructing, sustaining and transforming all aspects of manifestation.  Whether physical (material) or metaphysical (energetic), we are beginning to be able to make visible the cosmic patterning that is present, discernible and comprehensively integral within all expressions arising from the unified field of pure potential.

This presentation will introduce the fundamental aspects of Cosmometry and the field as a whole, as well as showcase examples of how understanding of this knowledge is being applied within various fields of human endeavor.  This is a very visual presentation with numerous images showing these patterns, structures, and processes in nature.  It is not technical or deeply scientific, yet it is grounded in observable “fact” and logical scientific premise that have been corroborated by many contemporary researchers as the leading edge of the field.”

We’re so excited to see the progress the Cosmometry team has made over the last year.  It’s fascinating to imagine how this emerging field could interact with and inform an application like Sky (which enables Google Earth users to view and navigate through 100 million individual stars and 200 million galaxies).

The host organization, Kalliopeia Foundation, supports work that contributes to the evolution of communites and cultures that honor the unity at the heart of life’s rich diversity.

RSVP’s are requested due to limited capacity.

Kalliopeia Foundation, 1623 5th Avenue, Bulding D, San Rafael, CA

events@kalliopeia.org

NNC and 2009 State of the World Forum in Washington, D.C. Nov. 12-14

“Gaia’s main problems are not industrialization, ozone depletion, over-population, or resource depletion. Gaia’s main problem is the lack of mutual understanding and mutual agreement … about how to proceed with those problems. We cannot reign in industry if we cannot reach mutual understanding and mutual agreement based on a worldcentric moral perspective concerning the global commons.” – Ken Wilber

NextNow Collab is collaborating with The 2009 State of the World Forum to inspire a global network of people and organizations committed to transforming the way we live.  Global challenges are both too systemic and too personal to be left to government and business alone; it really is time for each of us to “be the change.”  (Sorry; it’s well-worn but nothing says it better.)

The 2009 State of the World Forum will vision and launch a 10-year plan to make more sustainable both our economies and our lives by 2020, including through

• Using Ken Wilber’s Integral Framework as our “operating system,” allowing for organizing knowledge and action plans that recognize personal and cultural values, resulting in truly empowered action
• Debuting Version 4.0 of Lester Brown’s Plan B
• Drawing inspiration from action-oriented, forward-thinking organizations such as the Presidential Climate Action Project, Apollo Alliance (who gave a powerful presentation at Social Venture Network conference in October), Friends of the Earth, Global Urban Development and many others
• Leveraging the concept of “social artistry,” as embraced by the United Nations Development Programme, towards creating real leadership for social change
• Releasing the latest data supporting the rise of the “new progressives,” a culturally creative worldwide demographic reflecting global values
• Demonstrating new technologies that enable us to envision, and participate in, sustainable systems.

NextNower’s that will be in the Washington, D.C. area and wish to collaborate please contact NextNow Collab.

Ken Wilber's Integral Framework

Featured speakers include:

Ray Anderson, Founder and CEO, Interface Inc. www.interfaceglobal.com Esperide Ananas, International Coordinator, Federation of Damanhur, Italy, founded in 1975. Damanhur  is a U.N. agency award-winning sustainable society numbering 1,000 citizens; it is a member of G.E.N.; and an active supporter of the Earth Charter Initiative.   www.damanhur.org Bill Becker, Executive Director, Presidential Climate Action Project; Project Director and Senior Consultant, National Leadership Summits for a Sustainable America; and former Director, Department of Energy, Central Regional Office. www.natcapsolutions.org Barrett C. Brown, Co-Director, Integral Sustainability Center, organizational consultant, author, and specialist in leadership development for global environmental and social sustainability. www.integrallife.com Lester Brown, Founder, Earth Policy Institute, World Watch Institute, author of numerous books, including Plan B 3.0: Mobilizing to Save Civilization. www.earth-policy.org Brian Castelli, Executive Vice President for Programs and Development, Alliance to Save Energy. www.ase.org Michael Cox, Chair, Executive Committee, California Student Sustainability Coalition. www.sustainabilitycoalition.org Sean Esbjorn-Hargens, Chair, Integral Theory Department, John F. Kennedy University; Executive Editor, Journal of Integral Theory and Practice; co-author, Integral Ecology. www.integralinstitute.org Morel Fourman, Founder, Gaiasoft; author Managing in the New Economy – Performance Management Habits; and The Book of Personal and Global Transformation. www.mindofmany.com Vasilis M. Fthenakis, Senior Scientist, Head, National Photovoltaic Environmental Research Center, Brookhaven National Laboratory; Director, Center for Life Cycle Analysis, Earth and Environmental Engineering Department, Columbia University www.bnl.gov Jim Garrison, President and Chairman of Wisdom University, a graduate academic institution that explores both ancient wisdom traditions and the wisdom culture shaping our future today. He is also founder and president of State of the World Forum, a San Francisco based non-profit institution with a global network of leaders dedicated to developing a more sustainable global civilization. Richard Hames, Distinguished University Professor, Founding Director, Asian Foresight Institute, Dhurakij Pundit University, Bangkok, Thailand www.richardhames.com Marilyn Hamilton, Founder, Integral City Meshworks Inc.; author, Integral City: Evolutionary Intelligence for the Human Hive. James Hansen, Director, NASA Goddard Institute for Space Studies; Adjunct Professor, Department of Earth and Earth Sciences Division, Columbia University. www.giss.nasa.gov Johannes Heimrath, Executive Director, Club of Budapest. www.johannesheimrath.de Jean Houston, mythologist, philosopher and researcher in human capacities, long regarded as one of the principal founders of the human potential movement; author of 19 published books, including The Possible Human, A Mythic Life: Learning to Live Our Greater Story, The Passion of Isis and Osiris, and Jump Time. www.jeanhouston.org Ross Jackson, Founder and Chairman, Gaia Trust, a Danish foundation which since 1987 has supported over 300 sustainability products in over 40 countries, especially in the ecovillage movement. He is also a major shareholder in the Urtekram International, the largest organic wholesaler in Scandinavia. Jurriaan Kamp, President, Editor-in-Chief, Ode Magazine www.odemagazine.com Chuck Kutscher, Principal Engineer/Group Manager, Thermal Systems Electricity, Resources, and Building Systems Integration, National Renewable Energy Laboratory www.nrel.gov Osprey Orielle Lake, Founder/artist of the International Cheemah and Mari Monument Projects, which are dedicated to environmental sustainability, cultural diversity and societal transformation. www.ospreyoriellelake.com Ervin Laszlo, President, The Club of Budapest; Founder and University Chancellor, The Institute at GlobalShift University. www.clubofbudapest.org Pierre-Yves Longaretti, Theoretical astrophysicist, Astrophysics Laboratory of Grenoble, France. http://www-laog.obs.ujf-grenoble.fr/~pyl/ Amory Lovins, Chairman and Chief Scientist, Rocky Mountain Institute; focuses on transforming the hydrocarbon, automobile, real estate, electricity, water, semiconductor, and several other sectors toward advanced resource productivity. He has authored or co-authored twenty-nine books and hundreds of papers, and consulted for scores of industries and governments worldwide. www.rmi.org Hunter Lovins, President and Founder, Natural Capitalism Solutions. She is currently a founding Professor of Business at Presidio School of Management, one of the first accredited programs offering an MBA in Sustainable Management. www.hunterlovins.com David Martin, Executive Chairman, M∙CAM, Fellow, Batten Institute, Darden Graduate School of Business Administration, University of Virginia. www.m-cam.com Peter Merry, Founding partner of Engage! InterAct; Chair of the Board of the Center for Human Emergence; author, Evolutionary Leadership. www.engage.nl Caroline Myss, Author of five New York Times bestselling books, including Sacred Contracts, The Interior Castle, The Anatomy of the Spirit; founder, Caroline Myss Education Institute. www.myss.com Karen O’Brien, Chair, Global Environmental Change and Human Security Project Professor, Department of Sociology and Human Geography, University of Oslo  http://www.iss.uio.no/instituttet/ansatte/karenob.xml Mary Otto-Chang, Consultant, UNICEF Regional Office for Latin America and the Caribbean, Children and Climate Change; UN Secretariat for the International Strategy for Disaster Reduction (2003-2007); UN Development Program, Bureau for Crisis Prevention and Recovery (2000-2003).  UNICEF and UNICEF in Latin America and the Caribbean Rajendra Pachauri, Nobel Peace Prize Laureate (2007); Chairman, Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change; Director, Tata Energy Research Institute; author of over twenty books and numerous articles on ecology, climate change and technology.  www.climatescience.gov Sandra Postel, Director, Global Water Policy Project and Center for the Environment at Mount Holyoke College.  www.globalwaterpolicy.org James Quilligan, Economic development policy advisor and writer for many international politicians and leaders, including Pierre Trudeau, François Mitterand, Jimmy Carter, Edward Heath, Julius Nyerere, Olof Palme, Willy Brandt, Tony Blair, and His Royal Highness Prince El Hassan bin Talal.  www.global-negotiations.org Sally Ranney, CEO, StillWater Preservation LLC. www.stillwaterpreservation.com Paul Ray, Sociologist; Director, Institute of the Emerging Wisdom Culture, Wisdom University; author, The Cultural Creatives.  www.wisdomuniversity.org Jerome Ringo, Chairman, Apollo Alliance; Associate Research Scholar “ Yale University; former Chairman, World Wildlife Fund.  www.jeromeringo.com Rustum Roy, Evan Pugh Professor of the Solid State Emeritus; Professor of Science Technology and Society Emeritus, Pennsylvania State University www.rustumroy.com Robb Smith, CEO, Integral Institute; Chairman, CEO and co-founder, Integral Life. www.integrallife.com Richard Tarnas, author of The Passion of the Western Mind and Cosmos and Psyche; Professor of Philosophy and Psychology at the California Institute of Integral Studies. www.cosmosandpsyche.com Marc Weiss, Founder and CEO of Global Urban Development. www.globalurban.org Herman Wijffels, Member, Office of the Executive Director, World Bank, representing Armenia, Bosnia and Herzengovina, Bulgaria, Croatia, Cyprus, Georgia, Israel, Macedonia, Moldova, Netherlands, Romania and Ukraine; former Chairman of Rabobank; Chairman, Economic and Social Council of the Netherlands. www.clubofbudapest.org Ken Wilber, Author of 25 books translated into some 30 foreign languages, he is the most widely translated academic writer in the United States. Ken is the internationally acknowledged originator of Integral Theory and co-founder of Integral Life.  www.kenwilber.com Michael Zimmerman, Director, Center for Humanities and the Arts, and Professor of Philosophy, University of Colorado, Boulder; co-author, Integral Ecology.  www.colorado.edu Ken Zweibel, former Program Leader for the Thin Film Photovoltaic Partnership Program, National Renewable Energy Laboratory, and is often credited with the success of thin film photovoltaics in the U.S. Zweibel also cofounded a thin film CdTe PV start-up, PrimeStar Solar and became the founding Director of the Institute for Analysis of Solar Energy at George Washington University. He has written two books on photovoltaics and co-authored a Scientific American article (January 2008) on solar energy as a solution to climate change. solar.gwu.edu

Digital Earth and Re-Engineering for Green (Imaging Notes/Foresman)

We missed a few, but here’s the latest Imaging Notes commentary from NextNower and NextNow Collab/ISDE5 team lead Tim Foresman, courtesy of NextNower and Imaging Notes publisher Myrna Yoo of Blueline Publishing (thank you, Myrna!):

Infrastructure Stimulus: Green Economy and Green Jobs

A new era is upon us, with palpable tension for 2009.

Citizens in Washington and around the country appear to have focused, finally, on seriously working our way out of the mess we have gotten into. And what a mess it is. Al Gore’s message on global warming is now being accepted as reality by most citizens at a time of competing crises and economic implosions that simply boggle the mind. Our saving grace appears to be that intelligent leadership, under the Obama administration, is ready to take charge and tackle the litany of challenges and issues facing our nation and the world.

Spatial data and decision support systems will serve a crucial role in re-engineering a green and sustainable society.

Rome was not built in a day, but it was built by engineers. And we can expect to see a lot of green and sustainable engineering projects at state and local levels working to rebuild America while providing new impetus for the creation of green-collar jobs. Aligning and funding The Green Jobs Act (passed in 2007) with the Infrastructure Stimulus Package, and perhaps tying mortgage refinancing schemes with energy conservation retrofits, would help to educate, empower, and engage a whole generation of young citizens, leading them into productive green collar careers.

If you haven’t already, I suggest you read Van Jones’ book, The Green Collar Economy, along with a series of reports by the Center for American Progress (www.americanprogress.org), to delve more deeply into the economics involved in creating a blueprint for green-engineering our way out of city decay and social pathos. Positive thinking for the New Year: The good news is that the remote sensing and GIS communities recognize the credible and crucial roles they must play in this new era of green hope.

Green engineering encompasses a wide range of civil engineering and public works operations. Improved building codes for new construction seen in U.S. Green Building Council (www.usgbc.org) and LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) standards are often viewed as the poster children for green buildings. However, significant work is required immediately to retrofit existing homes and other buildings for energy conservation to save money and reduce energy loads from fossil-fuel-driven electric grids (Figures 1 and 2).

Figure 1 Satellite imagery-based spatial information system used for inventory and field survey assessments for Waynesburg, Pennsylvania (courtesy of JMT).

Over two decades, research and operational experience have proven that remote sensing with infrared scanners is a cost-effective approach to assessing thermal losses in residential and industrial facilities. Integrating thermal loss imagery with GIS parcel and district databases can be used to investigate energy audits and to assess options for engaging industry and homeowners with conservation and retrofitting campaigns. Retrofitting campaigns will require large labor pools of caulking and insulation workers, as well as people trained in solar panel installation.

Currently, energy audits are being conducted throughout the state of Maryland and the City of Baltimore using utility billing information combined with computational models and selected onsite instrumentation. Spatial data information systems and aerial measurements can provide a more meaningful and quantitative approach to energy audit initiatives.

Transportation is another green engineering domain that has a document history of applied remote sensing and GIS technology. The challenge is to accelerate the use of spatial data and information systems to help design and re-define environmentally sound and sustainable transportation systems. Bikeways and pedestrian pathways, given short shrift in the past, are increasingly being considered serious options for reducing CO2-polluting car miles and for promoting healthy and sustainable lifestyles in urban centers. The $4-dollar-a-gallon experiment in the summer of 2008 demonstrated a significant and continued increase in ridership on mass transit buses and trains.Increased application of aerial coverage and spatial analysis is required to work with the planners and communit-ies to find new alternatives for moving the masses. From impervious surface assessment to hydraulics to National Pollution Discharge Elimination System (NPDES) reporting, transportation engineers and planners require more remote sensing and better integrated spatial database systems to do their jobs more effectively.

Figure 2 VAIO field data collection recorders for house-to-house survey and inventory (courtesy of JMT).

Tree planting, biological corridors, waste water and water systems, landscape architecture, airports and harbor construction, wetlands protection, and community planning are all components of the new green engineering enterprise philosophy that is required to design and construct a healthier and more sustainable world around us. Remote sensing and GIS are paramount for both creating and integrating the spatial information technology framework for engineers.

Importantly, these spatial technologies are critical for engaging decision-makers and other citizens in visualizing and comprehending the scope and magnitude of green engineering operations. Citizen support is mandatory to maintain comprehensive infrastructure re-building. Scientific visualization, using remote sensing and GIS, was credited by Maryland’s Governor Glendening for the historic passage of the Smart Growth legislation. We know it works. Now is the time for this community to unabashedly promote spatial technology for the new green engineering revolution. President Obama’s Infrastructure Stimulus package will require nothing less to succeed.

Increased application of aerial coverage and spatial analysis is required to work with the planners and communit-ies to find new alternatives for moving the masses. From impervious surface assessment to hydraulics to National Pollution Discharge Elimination System (NPDES) reporting, transportation engineers and planners require more remote sensing and better integrated spatial database systems to do their jobs more effectively.

Tree planting, biological corridors, waste water and water systems, landscape architecture, airports and harbor construction, wetlands protection, and community planning are all components of the new green engineering enterprise philosophy that is required to design and construct a healthier and more sustainable world around us. Remote sensing and GIS are paramount for both creating and integrating the spatial information technology framework for engineers.

Importantly, these spatial technologies are critical for engaging decision-makers and other citizens in visualizing and comprehending the scope and magnitude of green engineering operations. Citizen support is mandatory to maintain comprehensive infrastructure re-building. Scientific visualization, using remote sensing and GIS, was credited by Maryland’s Governor Glendening for the historic passage of the Smart Growth legislation. We know it works. Now is the time for this community to unabashedly promote spatial technology for the new green engineering revolution. President Obama’s Infrastructure Stimulus package will require nothing less to succeed.