Fabian Pattberg

Monthly Archives - December 2009

Back in the New Year

December 31, 20099:48 am

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2009 – What an amazing year.

2010 Back in the New YearI would like to take this opportunity to thank everyone that visited, commented and subscribed to my blog over the course of this year. I will be back posting articles next week. Until then I would like to wish everyone a Happy New Year.

2010 Back in the New Year2010 Back in the New Year

2010 Back in the New YearAnd make sure that you take the time today to make your list of things you want to achieve in 2010. I found that this kind of list really helps to guide you during the tough times of the upcoming year.

2010 – Here we come!

Picture Credit: Patrick Hoesly

After Copenhagen: Key Questions to Answer and the Possible Way Forward

December 22, 20097:21 pm

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I believe that most of us are disappointed that the Copenhagen Climate Change conference did not deliver more then the so called Copenhagen Accord.

This outcome in my opinion will have an effect on the Sustainability professional and movement as a whole.

road After Copenhagen: Key Questions to Answer and the Possible Way ForwardTodays post is about the key questions everyone in the Sustainability movement now needs to be able to answer and what a possible way forward could be from my point of view. There are more questions to answer on a more detailed basis obviously but I believe everyone working or participating in the Sustainability sector will have to find answers to and draw consequences from these following questions.

Key Questions we now need to be able to answer
1) What credibility does the Sustainability movement have left now that the bare minimum consensus was reached in Copenhagen and not much to follow up on?
2) What are the next steps to tackle Climate Change? Should we just simply wait and trust in our leaders to come up with a solution? We are always saying that we have little time left to slow down Climate Change. If we will have reached the tipping point at around 2015 what will our time line be now?
3) How much do we want to rely on our politicians to get us out of this mess we are in?

The possible way forward
I am a practical and forward looking person. So what is our way forward realistically?

Lets put it this way. We have no other choice but to work constructively and with as many people as possible to find a way forward now.

Now you might say: ”Yes sure, we have done that before and it did not work.”  My answer to that would be. that we have not tried hard enough. We need to do more, be louder and more professional to include as many people as possible to spread the word, make a difference and help others to be more confident to understand us better and support the Sustainability movement.

We simply have not been effective enough to work together across different professions and cultures to get through to the key decision makers that still have the last word.

Radical Activism will not help
Another aspect of our possible way forward is that radical activism will not help the progress of the Sustainability movement and the goal to slow down Climate Change. Many people I have talked to expects more radical activism now since in the the eyes of the radicals the result was an absolute disaster.

Working constructively is the only way to reach these key decision makers and nothing else. This is what we now need to figure out together over the course of the next months and then build up to the next key decision point in our quest to make the world a better place.

I am very positive about this and our future as a whole but we where unsuccessful once and we need to make sure that we are successful next time and all work together to promote Sustainability and slow down Climate Change.

Picture Credit: blue_quartz

The Result in Copenhagen

December 19, 20093:23 pm

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earth The Result in CopenhagenTodays post will be a rather short one as I am still in the States but back in the UK on Monday.

We have all been looking to Copenhagen to get a result that will change the direction our world is going at the moment with regards to Climate Change.

The reactions so far are really not good or mixed to say the least. I have summarized my opinion and some links to the most relevant reactions as I see them. This is the link to the news item on the SustainabilityForum.com:
http://www.sustainabilityforum.com/news/reactions-copenhagen-climate-change-accord

This is what I thought of the result (from my SustainabilityForum.com news post):

“This result is not good enough. We needed a result that initiated change to curb carbon emissions and showed that we as humans can work together to secure the future of us all. This has not happened and we are left with a result that does not satisfy anyone.

What are we left with now dear world leaders? As the Brazilian president Lula da Silva said yesterday. “This conference is not a game where you can hide cards up your sleeves. If we just wait until our partners place their bets and discover we will be too late, we will all be loser”. And he is absolutely right and unfortunately everyone hid their cards and did not act but rather decided to wait and do not nothing. And this leaves us with absolutely nothing. A very sad day for all Sustainability professionals and people that believe that we need to take care of our planet.”

I will post a more extensive post in the next few days but let me know what you think oif the result and how this might effect you and your outlook into the future with regards to Climate Change.

Picture Credit: aussiegall

A Sustainable Future: Our Cultural Common Denominator

December 18, 20096:04 am

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The recent Copenhagen Climate Change Conference talks have one clear message other then the obvious agreement on Climate Change targets. The cultural differences and similarities of all of us make it really hard to come to an agreement. Especially if this agreement will have long term effects and involves compromises such as tackling Climate Change.

Why is that? Well because all cultures across the globe are different and finding a common denominator if you do not know each other personally really well is really hard work sometimes.

A planet full of different culturessun A Sustainable Future: Our Cultural Common Denominator
So lets us remind our selves how man different cultures we have on our planet as per Wikipedia. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_national_cultures. I am not totally sure about the numbers but we have many different cultures. There are so many different cultures that it will be hard to find similarities between all of them other then that we are all living on one planet right?

Common denominator: The basic need for economic prosperity and security
Well, there is really one key thread that runs through all the cultures in my opinion. And that is that all cultures are all looking to have a prosperous economy and a secure environment to live in. This means continuous economic growth, no poverty/diseases and obviously no war. Just the possibility of living a normal life really.

But the recent changes in our climate and and natural environment in general has in my opinion shown us a new common denominator: Achieving Sustainability
But not everyone has realized and accepted this new global culture denominator.

Achieving Sustainability is our new common denominator
My point here in this post is that we need to promote all aspects of Sustainability as our basic cultural common denominator and that we need to take a step back from our cultural constraints/differences that we feel are the norm for us and look to strengthen this common denominator in order to help us further on the patch towards living a more sustainable existence on our planet.

I know that this is easy to say but I have been lucky enough to experience the way many cultures see and promote Sustainability. This is definitely a very strong possible bond between us.

Our cultures are unique and they help us to make sense of our surroundings and let us feel part of a greater community. But we need to work hard to preserve this. Being more sustainable is part of this responsibility and we need to work together to keep our way of life and adapt.

Picture Credit: glennharper

On the Possibility that Copenhagen Fails

December 14, 20097:39 pm

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I know that this is the third Copenhagen Summit (COP15) post in the last two weeks but I feel that there is so much to say at the moment on the problems and bad news of the COP15 that now is the time to write about them.

A quote I have provided for a Sustainability / CSR newsletter today got me thinking about the effects of a possible failure of the COP15 by Monday of next week. We all do not want to think about this if we are really honest but todays news about the walk out of the developing nations during the day session is really a worrying sign in my opinion.

cop15 fail On the Possibility that Copenhagen Fails This is the quote is was providing to the newsletter and I would really like to hear what your view is on this:
“The current Copenhagen Summit is the pinnacle of our efforts to find a solution on how to tackle ever rising carbon emissions and the worsening effects of climate change to our ecosystem. A failure to agree on targets and future actions will not only be an opportunity lost but it will mean that the world will have to look at bilateral agreements for individual countries to take action on climate change. And bilateral agreements are not the best way to coordinate a global reduction of our emissions. They can work in some circumstances but not for something as important as climate change.
Practitioners in this field will have to take this situation into account while maneuvering these treacherous waters of Sustainability, CSR and Environmentalism. Without a global agreement the life a practitioner will not be easier after Copenhagen. Quite the opposite I am afraid.”


Do you agree with this assessment? It could be that my view is too gloomy but we need to be realistic about the results of the COP15. There is not much to progress to report after a week of negotiations. Just lots of news of problems and revelations of one kind or the other.

It will be very interesting to see how the rest of this week will turn out. I am hoping that our elected leaders will do more then just nodding heads and play nice. The gloves are off, this is what today news of the walk out has shown. Some say these are just negotiating techniques by the developing nations. If so, then fine. But once thing is clear. We need more pressure from all sorts of people and groups to change the face of our future during the cause of this week. If this is one way, then let it be so in my opinion.

Picture Credit: america.gov

A sustainable business blog you do not want to miss

December 11, 200910:14 pm

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This is the second post in the new category called “Recommended Websites”. This weeks recommended website is the ChristineArena.com written by Christine Arena. I am usually giving the blog owner the opportunity to present their blog instead of me trying to explain it the best way possible.

c arena A sustainable business blog you do not want to missThis is how Christine describes her blog “Case in Point”:
“Now more than ever before, the public needs to understand the importance of investing in, buying from and otherwise supporting corporations that authentically embrace sustainable business models. People also need to know which companies to avoid, which industries are failing to meet stakeholder demands, and how to tell the difference between true and false corporate responsibility.
Christine Arena’s “Case In Point” blog raises awareness of these key issues and also encourages a higher level of transparency from some of the world’s largest corporations, including Shell, Dole, Nestlé Water Corporation and many others.”

I am a big fan of Christine’s blog and if you are really looking for extensively researched blog entries, insightful commentary and great writing you need to visit this blog.

These are some of here latest posts and the blog RSS feed:

Christine is can also be found in other places on the Web. Here are two more places where to connect with Christine other then visiting her blog:
http://twitter.com/christinearena
http://www.linkedin.com/in/christinearena

Video: Silencing the Climate Change Critics

December 9, 20099:51 pm

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Some of you might have heard of the so called “ClimateGate” email scandal where 13 years of private emails from leading climate scientists where stolen and disseminated.

The main story here was that in a very small proportion of those emails scientists expressed their doubts about whether Climate Change is actually happening and that some scientists actually manipulated data to fit their research.

This was grist for the mill of the Climate Change critics of course which immediately reinforced their message that Climate Change is the biggest hoax of the century.

More information on the whole development, etc. can be found here:

The Climatic Research Unit e-mail hacking incident and here Hacked climate change scientists receive death threats.

Bu isn’t it an interesting coincidence that we currently have the biggest and most important Climate Change summit in Copenhagen going on at the moment? It seems to me that this publication of emails was not deliberate at all but rather planned for a long time to influence of the outcome of the summit.

In any case. The science is clear and I do not believe anyone can honestly say from their personal experience that Climate Change is not happening.

This video here is one of the best answers to those Climate Change critics I have seen so far.

So come on dear critics, be critical of something else please. What about our political leadership, human right abuses by some countries or the lack of investment into education for a start. That criticism would actually help for a change.

Climate Change is happening and we need to find a way to stop and reverse it now. And that is a fact.

The importance of the Copenhagen Summit (COP15) for Sustainability

December 8, 200912:38 pm

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I guess most of you know by now that the two-week Copenhagen Summit on Climate Change or COP15 in short has begun yesterday.

cop15 The importance of the Copenhagen Summit (COP15) for SustainabilityThis blog post is about why this summit is so important for the concept of Sustainability and three possible impacts on Sustainability if a deal is made or not. This is purely my opinion of course, but I believe that we are at a decisive point in time now. Not only with regards to tackling Climate Change but also with regards to credibility and support for the concept of Sustainability as a whole.

Importance for Sustainability
We are living in an unsustainable way. There is enough evidence that supports this. However Climate Change is by far the biggest threat to life on this planet and to us. Climate Change is one key aspect of the concept of Sustainability. If we can stop our planet from warming then we are well on our road to living sustainable, ie. living in harmony with our planets resources and wild life. This is the definition of Sustainability if you want to dive deeper into this subject.

COP15 – At the crossroads
We have two possible roads to follow now after Copenhagen. 1) We can make a deal that will change the way we will tackle Climate Change now and in the future or 2) we will fail to make a deal and need to live with the consequences in the years to come, knowing that we could have changed something but did not manage to agree.

How the face of Sustainability can change if a deal is made:

  • Increased Credibility: The concept of Sustainability will have gained credibility and its critics will have sen that we can make change happen.
  • Sustainability Institutionalized: Possible legislation to tackle rising global temperatures that will lead to a change in our climate in the long term will have been introduced. I know that there are a lot of skeptics with regards to mandatory legislation. The reality unfortunately is that most organizations will not change their ways significantly without mandatory legislation.
  • Motivation: The motivation to make even more progress. A positive experience and feeling that we pulled ourselves together and got over our egos for the greater good is often underestimated and essential for future success.

What will be the impact if a deal is not made:

  • Believability: The Sustainability movement will have lost credibility. Maybe even beyond repair.
  • Encouraging the Skeptics: Climate Change skeptics and denouncers will feel encouraged and get an even larger audience despite the damning facts and science about Climate Change.
  • An Uncertain Future: We are in deep trouble because we have lost the biggest and best chance to change our ways of limiting our carbon emissions. Just imagine how long and how much work it took to get everyone to the COP15 and this close to agreeing a common goal. The future will be very uncertain going forwards.

This is OUR opportunity to change the way we take care of our planet and make smart climate decisions for a change. Will we choose to evolve in order to make smarter decisions for the future of our children or are we going to be the old selfish short term sighted humans that we currently are?

We have a decision to make and the time is now. And in my view this is not only about Climate Change but Sustainability as a whole.

Video: Ancient techniques of harvesting our most precious resource – Water

December 5, 20098:52 am

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I am aiming to post one interesting video each week. This weeks video is about the most precious resource of our planet. Water.

This is a fascinating video from TED.com on the ancient techniques of water harvesting. Maybe we should look into the past more often to find solutions to our current problems instead of aiming to find new ways continuously.

Enjoy.