1. What’s trending ?
Right to repair movement picking up again to design in the Circular Economy & improve productivity.
In Australia, it sometimes doesn’t feel like it but we are in quite a remote area and many industries such as Agriculture in regional areas are very disconnected from resources and support.
Western Australian grain farmers have highlighted that callouts to some of their more remote grain farms can cost $1000. Australian farmers not only have to adapt to farm machinery that is built and tested in overseas conditions but point out that “It’s not like in America where there’s a dealer around the corner who can get on their computer and sort the issue out for you. What we’re left with is being 120kms away from the dealer, it’s an hour and a half trip for a dealer to come out with his mechanic, plug his computer in, do his little stuff [then] five minutes later turn around and drive for another hour and a half to go home.’ (Mochan and Bennett, Farmers driving ‘right to repair’ issue as legislative battle unfolds in US, https://www.abc.net.au/news/rural/2018-03-11/farmers-spearhead-right-to-repair-fight/9535730)
Latest push: https://www.abc.net.au/news/2019-08-30/smartphone-electronics-right-to-repair-request-ministers/11462572
Key points:
1. ‘Right to repair’ laws would require companies to make their products easier to fix
2. The movement pushes back against growing levels of e-waste, and planned obsolescence of technology like smartphones.
Emerging technology for remote support is being used by You3 that will allow you to instantly connect with Suppliers via Augmented reality technology and solve problems
2.What’s impacting the industry
Businesses are also voting with their feet to respond to actual or future customer pressure around event based issues.
With Fires still blazing in the Amazon rain forest and people feeling powerless, what actions can business take?
US-based VF Corporation — parent company of apparel and shoe brands Timberland, Vans and The North Face — for one, has decided that it will no longer buy leather from Brazil; the company says the Amazon fires are evidence of lax environmental governance policies that are not only allowing, but encouraging, the country’s businesses to contribute to the destruction of the world’s largest rainforest.
This has worked successfully before in Indonesia when the Pulp mills suppliers pulled the plug and they ‘turned over a new leaf’
With great power, comes great responsibility – What can your organisation take a stand on?
3.What technology is available right now?
The limitless mind to solve sustainability issues.
Integrate packaging completely into the design – Simple genius.
Plastic pack rings, referred to in the industry as hi-cones or yokes, are circular plastic rings that hold together multi-packs of canned drinks, like a six-packs of beers for example.
This new innovation is called a “fit pack” and it’s a collaboration between the maker of Corona and Chicago-based advertising company Leo Burnett. The design won a Bronze Lion award recently at the Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity in France.
A short video showing the concept states that the beverage industry produces over 16.5 million tons of plastic packaging every year and according to conservation group Oceana, 8.8 million tons enters the ocean every year. Moreover, only 9% of all plastic waste generated actually gets recycled.
What can you do? A cloud based amazing industrial design program is available free to use. – Go Create!
4. What are we watching?
Storytelling for Sustainability
Life is about stories. We have all met them, the story tellers that can capture you and transport you, engage your heart and mind and be at one with them. Story telling is embedded in cultures and one of the oldest and close to home is Australian Traditional Story telling.
Australia traditional storytelling, handed down from generation to generation, has always been part of the landscape. Since the beginning of time (the Dreaming) storytelling played a vital role in Australian Aboriginal culture, one of the world’s oldest cultures. Aboriginal children were told stories from a very early age; stories that helped them understand the air, the land, the universe, their people, their culture and their history. Elders told stories of their journeys and their accomplishments. As the children grew into adults they took on the responsibility of passing on the stories. These stories are as much a cultural necessity as they are entertainment and are still passed on orally though many are now recorded in print, audio and video
In life, understanding story telling basics and being able to communicate your personal or brand story for a ‘purpose for good’ business is essential and also makes you far more interesting!
5. What are we listening to?
Is every other life here to serve us?
In this excerpt, yogi, mystic, and visionary, Sadhguru and American actor and environmentalist, Ed Begley, Jr. discuss the human role of sustainability, a vision for recycling, and transforming agricultural systems.
Sustainability: Is Consciousness the Key? Ed Begley, Jr. in Conversation with Sadhguru
– If all the worms disappear right now, all life will disappear in 18 months.
– If all the insects dissaper 3.5 to 4 years all life will disappear.
– If all humans disappear the planet will flourish.
Quote we are contemplating:
“We are living on this planet as if we had another one to go to.”
– Terry Swearingen, Nurse & Winner of Goldman Environmental Prize in 1997