Eccho

We are not so much anti-capitalist (…) We’re fortunate enough to have built a very healthy business, even though we haven’t attempted to. All we have done is stop short of trying to become insanely wealthy. We have met billionaires and it sounds funny but it’s not necessarily a bed of roses to have that kind of money. (…) Their life becomes about figuring out how to employ all that money either by philanthropy or other means. So we don’t consider it that revolutionary to have stopped short of that.

- Joe Buckman

In other words if wealth becomes more distributed more people could use this wealth in more efficient ways.

We are not so much anti-capitalist (...) We're fortunate enough to have built a very healthy business, even though we haven't attempted to. All we have done is stop short of trying to become insanely wealthy. We have met billionaires and it sounds funny but it's not necessarily a bed of roses to have that kind of money. (...) Their life becomes about figuring out how to employ all that money either by philanthropy or other means. So we don't consider it that revolutionary to have stopped short of that. - Joe Buckman In other words if wealth becomes more distributed more people could use this wealth in more efficient ways.

I have been in UK for about two weeks now. But I still haven’t found that many twitter conversations about sustainability that comes from the UK. Maybe they don’t exist? Well I’m sure they do, but the conversations is probably happening between followers and small networks discussing things in between each other. That makes it difficult to track what is being said as well as finding a place to participate in the discussion.

Globally there is a bunch of different hashtags people are using to discuss solutions and what can be done in social and environmental matters. It’s one of the things that I think is great about twitter. This possibility of connecting with people in faraway places that have the same passion that you do. However these global hashtags does not help very much if you want to meetup or plan something concrete.

The networks that forms around global hashtags only become dense when it comes to interest, they will never become dense geographically because of their global scope. It’s only when a network becomes dense both geographically and in interest that people get more motivated for action. You only need to look at Egypt to understand that. Except there they were probably even denser when it came to geographic location.

In Sweden the environmental community has adopted the hashtag #swgreen to discuss things about environment and sustainability. In the same way I think it would be helpful to form a UK specific hashtag for discussions on sustainability and environment. So how about #ukgreen? I have seen people using it occasionally, but let’s get over that threshold!

Once you have a common ground you can start to be more specific when it comes to your geographic location as well as interest and thus form denser networks.

So if you think this is a good idea, tweet it, blog about it, facebook it, tell your offline friends and above all write a comment so I can keep in touch. I’d love to get to know more people in the UK and eventually meet up.

(ps I’m also in need of a not too expensive flatshare in London as soon as possible, as I have to move out in the end of February. If you know anyone renting a flat it would help me a lot)

Note: For those of you who aren’t using twitter yet, here is a quick guide as well as an explanation of what a hashtag is and how it is used.

I have been in UK for about two weeks now. But I still haven't found that many twitter conversations about sustainability that comes from the UK. Maybe they don't exist? Well I'm sure they do, but the conversations is probably happening between followers and small networks discussing things in between each other. That makes it difficult to track what is being said as well as finding a place to participate in the discussion. Globally there is a bunch of different hashtags people are using to discuss solutions and what can be done in social and environmental matters. It's one of the things that I think is great about twitter. This possibility of connecting with people in faraway places that have the same passion that you do. However these global hashtags does not help very much if you want to meetup or plan something concrete. The networks that forms around global hashtags only become dense when it comes to interest, they will never become dense geographically because of their global scope. It's only w

The words here are all a reflection of who you are and how you describe yourself. In fact, if you would take a peek at your twitter biography you will probably find one of these words in there.

I hope that you enjoy following me as much as I enjoy following all of you. If you by any chance don’t find a word in your biography that doesn’t match one of the words here, it probably means that you have a special place in my heart. Because then you are probably talking about things from an entirely different perspective that I value.

The words here are all a reflection of who you are and how you describe yourself. In fact, if you would take a peek at your twitter biography you will probably find one of these words in there. I hope that you enjoy following me as much as I enjoy following all of you. If you by any chance don't find a word in your biography that doesn't match one of the words here, it probably means that you have a special place in my heart. Because then you are probably talking about things from an entirely different perspective that I value.

• JMW Kommunikation » BEFRIAD ZON: Bristande digital kunskap är allvarligt. För alla.
  – One of the big giants in social media in Sweden writes thoroughly good about the lacking digital knowledge. It’s an issue about democracy and that we are able to actually communicate properly with each other. We all need to talk the same language. If you don’t understand swedish, google translate it!
• The Time Has Come for Holistic Business Strategy | Fast Company
  – Truly newsworthy article! “Now, however, it has become clear that social media, at least in larger organizations has become another silo, albeit an important one.” I’ll definitely have to dig deeper into this article!
• Seth's Blog: Misjudging risk (and bad decisions)
  – If you want to create action on the important, figure out how to make it vivid, personal and immediate. – Remember it! Words of wisdom.
• Is Apple Polluting and Endangering the Health of Its Chinese Workers? | Fast Company
  – Anyone know chinese? I’d be really interested in reading that NGO report. I also think it is sub-standard for one of the most profitable companies in the world to not be transparent about their environmental impact and not focusing on their environmental and social bottomline.
  
  Apple is about design, right. Well designing a product with low-impact is the ultimate design challenge. That’s something to actually be proud of.
• Facebook Turns 'Like' Into Its Newest Ad – Advertising Age – Digital
  – The next privacy to blow up at facebook? I really think that there should be an opt-out for this

JMW Kommunikation » BEFRIAD ZON: Bristande digital kunskap är allvarligt. För alla. - One of the big giants in social media in Sweden writes thoroughly good about the lacking digital knowledge. It's an issue about democracy and that we are able to actually communicate properly with each other. We all need to talk the same language. If you don't understand swedish, google translate it!The Time Has Come for Holistic Business Strategy | Fast Company - Truly newsworthy article! "Now, however, it has become clear that social media, at least in larger organizations has become another silo, albeit an important one." I'll definitely have to dig deeper into this article!Seth's Blog: Misjudging risk (and bad decisions) - If you want to create action on the important, figure out how to make it vivid, personal and immediate. - Remember it! Words of wisdom.Is Apple Polluting and Endangering the Health of Its Chinese Workers? | Fast Company - Anyone know chinese? I'd be really interested in reading that NGO report.

In some way the movie Home has taken the place as one of the most known and best environmental movies out there among movies like, an inconvenient truth, Wall-E and Avatar. Home is indeed a visually enchanting motion picture and the permission to use the film to show your friends most likely increased the spread and familiarity of the movie. These two aspects truly appeal to me, a message and knowledge this important should indeed be encouraged to spread.

But when I last saw the movie, at a 350 event last autumn, it deeply troubled me. In this 93 minutes long movie we learn about how human beings are bringing environmental havoc to planet earth. Minute by minute a portrait of a planet in decay is being painted. It is truly painful to watch. During the event even a child at the age of about 11 years old began to cry. Heck, I almost did as well. It’s only by the end of the movie, after an excruciating 81 minutes you hear that “it’s too late to be a pessimist”. By the time you hear those words you are already so dispirited that you don’t really care what the movie tries to tell you. It’s already too late to tell about the things that actually are going well. Emotionally, it’s already to late. The feeling that stays with you even past the slightly encouraging end is that there’s no hope for the future, or does the movie Home have merits that are unnoticed by me?

Both this documentary and an inconvenient truth has this doom and gloom touch to it, that makes the watcher take a more pessimistic approach and eventually stop listen to what is being said. So I thought that I’d show you a marvelous piece that in my view does everything right. An educational environmental short movie called “Plastic bag”. Avatar and Wall-E are also great movies, but the educational angle is less pronounced there. That’s the interesting part about the short-film Plastic bag it retains a more educational angle while trying to tell an engaging story.

“My first breath. I met my maker. I had a purpose.”

What this movie manages to do is to weave its message into a story. The life of a plastic bag. Through the eyes of plastic bag we see how life emerges, and mind you, her maker is certainly a quite environmentally person but still she finds that the plastic bag of hers can only function for so long. The life of the plastic bag continues long after her disposal of it. The plastic bag so continues in search of his maker.

Through the short-film a very strong connection is built up between the watcher and the plastic bag. You start to feel empathy for the restless plastic bag wandering all over the country. In your heart you start to hope that he will meet his maker once again, or come to peace with himself. Then when the short-film finally ends, it ends with the words: “I wish you had created me so that I could die”. With these words you realize your part. That you do have a choice and that it is worth doing something about. Throughout the short-film they also managed to eloquently tell short bits of facts about the plastic problem without disrupting the story.

This is how you convey an environmental message, with passion and with love.

In some way the movie Home has taken the place as one of the most known and best environmental movies out there among movies like, an inconvenient truth, Wall-E and Avatar. Home is indeed a visually enchanting motion picture and the permission to use the film to show your friends most likely increased the spread and familiarity of the movie. These two aspects truly appeal to me, a message and knowledge this important should indeed be encouraged to spread. But when I last saw the movie, at a 350 event last autumn, it deeply troubled me. In this 93 minutes long movie we learn about how human beings are bringing environmental havoc to planet earth. Minute by minute a portrait of a planet in decay is being painted. It is truly painful to watch. During the event even a child at the age of about 11 years old began to cry. Heck, I almost did as well. It's only by the end of the movie, after an excruciating 81 minutes you hear that "it's too late to be a pessimist". By the time you hear those words you are al

• Why we need a law on ecocide | Polly Higgins | Environment | guardian.co.uk
  – A short comment here, I do think this is all about tone. People are getting angry because the tone is too harsh. I mean, he violates Godwin’s law in the first paragraph, that’s no good. People in general think that polluter’s should pay, people in general also think that vandalizing should be punished, if severe enough even with prison. So arguing that way is probably more useful than going straight on and compare companies with the Nazi regime.
• How does the idea of p2p and the commons differ from the socialist tradition? » Article » OWNI.eu, Digital Journalism
  – This is a marvelous piece. Just read it. How the culture of internet influences politics. I also find it exciting that it is very compatible with green politics as well. I think the internet culture and environmental culture has more in common than people realize. Both of the cultures have the same kind of concepts that they would like to protect.
• Psychology of Persuasion — PsyBlog
  – Let’s use this for good, ok? Could also be made into a good e-book it seems.
• The Guardian's sustainability naivity | SustainabilityForum.com
  – So are sustainability changing industry and our planet in a positive way. Not according to Chris, and I agree. I do think however that playing field are changing. I just hope that it will change fast enough. I think that we have seen some early adopters this year trying to show off. But I agree that there is a long way to sustainability being the all over imperative.
• FlackList – The Journalist's Little Black Book – Karen Buckoski's blog – The Do's and Don'ts of Media Relations
  – A good post on how to handle media relations. It can be boiled down to keep what you promise and make everything as easy as possible for counterpart and above all be relevant.
• High-Tech PR Blog >> Beyond the Hype: At the Speed of Blogosphere
  – An interesting read about pitching tech bloggers. I imagine that tech bloggers are in a particularly competitive space, so this probably does not apply to other sets of bloggers.
• When Brand Loyalty Goes Too Far – Michael Schrage – Harvard Business Review
  – When brands become a part of our lives.

Why we need a law on ecocide | Polly Higgins | Environment | guardian.co.uk - A short comment here, I do think this is all about tone. People are getting angry because the tone is too harsh. I mean, he violates Godwin's law in the first paragraph, that's no good. People in general think that polluter's should pay, people in general also think that vandalizing should be punished, if severe enough even with prison. So arguing that way is probably more useful than going straight on and compare companies with the Nazi regime.How does the idea of p2p and the commons differ from the socialist tradition? » Article » OWNI.eu, Digital Journalism - This is a marvelous piece. Just read it. How the culture of internet influences politics. I also find it exciting that it is very compatible with green politics as well. I think the internet culture and environmental culture has more in common than people realize. Both of the cultures have the same kind of concepts that they would like to protect.Psychology of Persuasion â

• Need a Reservation? That Could Depend On How Big You Are on Twitter (Really) – Advertising Age – DigitalNext
  – There has been a lot of talk about influence lately and this a slightly older article about just that. But what is influence anyway? The current measure of influence in some sense subscribes to the thought that the more your words and thoughts are shared, the more influential you are. In some sense it’s true. Because then it has the possibility to form other people’s thought process. For instance the Brundtland report has been hugely influential as it has formed the way we think about things. But it also took a couple of years before we noticed it would be that influential.
• Advertising and marketing storytelling strategy for brand positioning | ParkHowell.com
  – Park Howell shares his process on telling a good story. So take a look, it’s worth it.
• Smart Safety – Ã…terfÃ¥ din cykel med GPS! – MyNewsdesk
  – There’s a company developing a GPS unit for bicycles, so in case it becomes stolen you’ll be able to find it again. I’m curious when it will go live, it was about 8 months the made a pressrelease about it. Since I’ve had around 6 of my bicycles stolen it might be a good product for me.
• Ten Things to Consider When Designing A Peer-to-Peer Reputation System – Collaborative Consumption Blog Posts
  – If you’re considering to build a system on collaborative consumption this some truly valuable knowledge to consider. It has a lot to do with maintaining the trust between peers.
• The green jobs debate (cont’d) « Marc Gunther
  – “Will a transition to a clean energy future be a free lunch? No, there will be costs—small and manageable costs, but still costs. No pain no gain.”
  That is so true. Framing the action we have to do as an insurance is a good way to put it. One could also frame it as an investment. Changes will take time, one has to acknowledge that.
• Mikael Colville-Andersen – TEDx Copenhagen
  – A really interesting talk about bicycles and why on earth we should be using them. Also some interesting facts on using helmets.
• Creative Review – Amnesty's guerrila campaign makes the invisible visible
  – A heads up for a really creative campaign.

Need a Reservation? That Could Depend On How Big You Are on Twitter (Really) - Advertising Age - DigitalNext - There has been a lot of talk about influence lately and this a slightly older article about just that. But what is influence anyway? The current measure of influence in some sense subscribes to the thought that the more your words and thoughts are shared, the more influential you are. In some sense it's true. Because then it has the possibility to form other people's thought process. For instance the Brundtland report has been hugely influential as it has formed the way we think about things. But it also took a couple of years before we noticed it would be that influential.Advertising and marketing storytelling strategy for brand positioning | ParkHowell.com - Park Howell shares his process on telling a good story. So take a look, it's worth it.Smart Safety - Återfå din cykel med GPS! - MyNewsdesk - There's a company developing a GPS unit for bicycles, so in case it becomes stolen you'll be able to

• 20 Logos with Clever Negative Space | Inspiration
  – I’m a sucker for good design. So here are some great logos effectively using negative space. Be ready to get in awe. I especially like the gecko logo at the end. I guess it’s the environmentalist within me ;)
• Dagens Flip – ett nytt sätt att fÃ¥ koll pÃ¥ svenska nyheter | jardenberg unedited
  – Ett vackert sätt att aggregera nyheter pÃ¥. Detta tar jag med mig. Kudos till Joakim som delar.
• The Coming Decade of Radical Transparency | Fast Company
  – How transparent is it possible to become? How do you cope with the competition in the industry while being transparent? Is it better to find ways of cooperating instead of competing? What do you then do to avoid monopoly or oligopoly situations? There are a lot of questions here.
• Engensa launches exclusive FREE solar campaign under the UK feed-in tariff – Solar Power Portal
  – I would like to see this happen to nuclear power ;). Small-scale renewables are much easier to leverage. Decentralized for the win.
• Giving What We Can
  – Giving what we can is great initiative, combining peer pressure with support to give some of the economic wealth we have. I have been thinking of joining it myself. But it is a big commitment, and truly needs some pondering before doing so. I think it would be easier if you did together with a friend as well. Local support so to speak. So anyone else pondering about doing it?
• The Steve Jobs Theory of Customer Relations – Joshua Gans – The Conversation – Harvard Business Review
  – So obviously there are different ways of dealing with customers. In a way it’s smart of apple to “hide” the feedback they are getting by incentivizing people to send email feedback to them. But it also comes at a cost of being less social, and thus less collective learning from the feedback. After all feedback generated by Apple might benefit another company as well if it is open.
• The Myth Of Work Life Balance | Six Pixels of Separation – Marketing and Communications Blog – By Mitch Joel at Twist Image
  – It’s time to for me to start pondering about these questions as well. Managing the different aspects of life is crucial to avoid hitting the wall.
• Open source anti-theft solution for Mac, PCs & Phones – Prey
  – a great solution for those of you who are always carrying around your laptop like me.
• How To Find Inspiration For Corporate Blogging: Use The Variation Technique
  – So do you have a problem to come up with what to write. Now here is post that writes exactly about that. Some good sound advice! I’ll see if I can make use of it myself.
• Philanthropy as a Business Model?
  – Business and charities can go well together. For that to happen they have to have synergy effects on some sense or another. So supporting charities that matters for your business and both will win. However, that doesn’t take away the work you need to do to improve your business model and make it sustainable.
• 20 predictions for the next 25 years | Society | The Observer
  – Some predictions for the next 25 years. I especially found the prediction on advertising interesting.

20 Logos with Clever Negative Space | Inspiration - I'm a sucker for good design. So here are some great logos effectively using negative space. Be ready to get in awe. I especially like the gecko logo at the end. I guess it's the environmentalist within me ;)Dagens Flip – ett nytt sätt att få koll på svenska nyheter | jardenberg unedited - Ett vackert sätt att aggregera nyheter på. Detta tar jag med mig. Kudos till Joakim som delar.The Coming Decade of Radical Transparency | Fast Company - How transparent is it possible to become? How do you cope with the competition in the industry while being transparent? Is it better to find ways of cooperating instead of competing? What do you then do to avoid monopoly or oligopoly situations? There are a lot of questions here.Engensa launches exclusive FREE solar campaign under the UK feed-in tariff - Solar Power Portal - I would like to see this happen to nuclear power ;). Small-scale renewables are much easier to leverage. Decentralized for the win.Giving What

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Lucy Warin on Futerra asked some good questions regarding sustainability communications on her recent blog post this snowy friday. Questions are often more important than the answers themselves, so in my answer I hope that I will come up with some intelligent questions as well. I shall also add that, there was quite a lot of thoughtful comments over there well worth a read.

1. Does social media have the power to hold companies accountable?

I definitely think that the possibility to hold companies to account has increased. Because of social media’s fluid communication more transparency of the corporate world emerges. The companies that screw up are simply put under more scrutiny by a huge number of people calling out on their wrong doings. Essentially a self-organized collective action often driven by our feelings of injustice or anger.

To some extent it really is self-organized, but for this chain reaction to start it needs a spark. I would argue that this spark consists of two things. First a clear picture of what the problem is. Secondly, someone that frames this problem in a compelling way. If it fulfills both of these two criteria and is eventually found by people influential enough to spread the message to a large enough network there will be a backlash for the given corporation.

However there is one certain thing that is pervasive in many environmental problems: they are diluted amongst many actors. Identifying who the perpetrator really is therefore becomes difficult, which makes it difficult to hold anyone to account. It also seems plausible that the transboundary character of these problems also contributes to distance and less engagement in many of these issues. Used creatively I think social media can bridge some of these issues as well.

2. What does social media mean for a company’s relationship with its customers and consumers?

First of all, I don’t really like the word consumer, it’s a word of the past. It essentially dichotomizes the world into a producer – consumer relation. Active and a passive part human beings. On the other hand, with customers there is give, and there is take.

I think Andrew Sleigh captures this pretty good with his comment on the post:

Because everyone involved in the community was a co-owner, debate was – on the whole – constructive, and people accepted that the energy company wasn’t going to get everything right.

Deliberation is a powerful tool, that I think should be utilized more. In meeting the other side both will be able to re-evaluate their preferences. I’m not sure that social media always will be able to facilitate such a deep deliberation but it will certainly help towards it. Indeed this conversation we’re having with these blogposts is a kind of deliberation.

For this to succeed both need to have an open mind about it, my feeling is that if the one that has the most power comes with an open mind it will help to drive deliberation deeper. Although even deliberation has it’s demerits. It doesn’t scale very well. A great example of this is the current Q&A with wikileaks founder Julian Assange. He got more than 900 questions and could only answer a few, in answering these he could effectively frame his answers to suit his needs and get his message out. A power imbalance if you will. This power imbalance is of course also recurring when customers slams a corporation on a given issue. But these moments can on the other hand lead into a more thoughtful deliberation as things calm down.

3. Who is doing social media well?

The first question I ask myself is, how do we define well? Is it by how many followers we’ve amassed? Is it with how much engagement we’ve succeeded in? Is it by any other goal that we set up?

In this example, a twitter sweepstake, trying to encourage people act towards preserving natural resources for future generations. Through twitter 150 000 people participated in the campaign, was it a success? In terms of social media engagement it certainly was. But in this case, maybe the outcome is more interesting, whether it translated to real-world activities or not.

But as communication is so inherent in social media, maybe we ought not to try to create this kind of flash campaigns but rather try to create communities. These are also much more difficult to create than a single campaign because they need someone to nurture them at all times. Look at the profession as a digital gardener if you will.

If one starts to look for these kind of long lived campaigns you recognize that there are a lot these all over the place. Futerra’s swishing, to exchange clothes. #skjutsgruppen / @skjutsgruppen on twitter to get a hitchhike in Sweden. The newly started Jumo. Another interesting example would be Old Spice commercial, although not trying to promote social change it shows that the kind of conversational videos which did turned out to be wildly successful and in some sense created a community around the product. When these kind of communities emerge it lowers the threshold to actually participate in collective action, because everybody else is doing it, aren’t they?

These are some of the thoughts I had, chime in because there is a lot more to say.

Lucy Warin on Futerra asked some good questions regarding sustainability communications on her recent blog post this snowy friday. Questions are often more important than the answers themselves, so in my answer I hope that I will come up with some intelligent questions as well. I shall also add that, there was quite a lot of thoughtful comments over there well worth a read. 1. Does social media have the power to hold companies accountable? I definitely think that the possibility to hold companies to account has increased. Because of social media’s fluid communication more transparency of the corporate world emerges. The companies that screw up are simply put under more scrutiny by a huge number of people calling out on their wrong doings. Essentially a self-organized collective action often driven by our feelings of injustice or anger. To some extent it really is self-organized, but for this chain reaction to start it needs a spark. I would argue that this spark consists of two things. First a cle