A view on the future

From 20 to 28 October, the largest designer event of the Netherlands took place in Eindhoven: the Dutch Design Week. A large-scale international event where 1800 designers, spread over 85 locations, made their appearance. A mere 180,000 visitors from all over Europe visited the DDW and drew inspiration from it. The DDW proves that sustainability and efficiency make a perfect combination with beautiful design.

Practical Palm Leaf

The PalmLeatherSandals project was one of the Green Design Competition winners, and therefore DDW's eye-catcher. The idea: sustainable flip-flops, made of palm leaf. A well-considered concept according to the jury: 'In an enormous market, plastic is being replaced by biodegradable materials. Moreover, the product is so well-designed that people won't throw it away that easily.'

Edible Insects

The other The Green Design Competition winner was titled Ento: a roadmap to edible insects. Ento anticipated to the worldwide increase demand for food. The jury applauded the project with the following words: 'This concept can have a major effect on Western people's diet. The design and branding create the potential to reach a large group of people at the same time.' 
         

Source: www.cargocollective.com

Dynamic Coffee Bar

The Noorderparkbar was established in Amsterdam this March, located in the park with the same name. A modern coffee bar that looks brand-new, but is only made of second-hand building materials made available by private persons and small merchants. An online marketplace turned out to be the perfect spot to purchase materials.  Because the online offer changes every day, it was impossible to determine what the bar would look like in advance. The design was changed to the materials they could buy throughout the entire process.

  Source: www.raamfolies.nl

Creative Chimaera

The Dutch Design Week presents an attractive melting pot of creative chimaera every year. Surprise and amazement are always on the look-out, regardless of this being an industrial or spatial design, textile or architecture. 'Sustainability' clearly managed to secure a position in the design landscape. Or, as the organization states: 'Designing with sustainability in the back of your mind is the future.'

Get into action!

It starts with awareness. Change is impossible without understanding the relevance and possibilities of sustainable management. The practical conversion takes place after the awareness; how will you implement sustainability? Where do you start? What means do you deploy and how do you create a basis?

Fundamental

The basis of the 'sustainability' subject is getting wider for companies in the Netherlands, as proves research by the BZW (Brabants-Zeeuwse Werkgeversvereniging). Sustainable management is in the top 3 of many priority lists, but how do you take care of it? Incorporating sustainability always means change management, it is therefore fundamental and mostly leads to a hesitant start. This is where we come across the first pitfall; endless talks, discussions and thinking without making concrete steps. It is better to just get into action and start the process.

 

Improvements & Savings

Those who know their company processes, also know what their impact is on the environment; what raw materials and resources are used and how much waste they create. Make 'more efficient working' a main goal. This often leads to quick process improvements and savings, which motivate you to continue. Expand your knowledge of sustainability, and you will soon notice new areas for improvement. A positive cycle in the right direction has been created.

Embedding

There is no standard blueprint that paves the way towards sustainability. There are a number of logic steps though, and implementing structure is the first one. Set goals, work on certification and consult with customers. Make this a policy and give your staff members the space to make their own creative contributions. The entire organization is to embrace sustainability; it has to be embedded in the 'hearts and minds'...

 

Inspiration & Motivation

In contrast to what most people think, sustainability is not something large departments necessarily have to implement. Just take a look at ASML, one of the world's most sustainable companies. A company with a 5.7 billion Euro turnover (2011) that made the conscious choice to take its responsibility for both the social and environmental part. A team of only 4 part-time staff members started mapping sustainability. 
Not by enforcing it top down, but by inspiring, motivating and securing. Sustainability is given a practical interpretation at the departments of the company itself, for example by working with an environment management system (ISO 14001).

It is clear: sustainability does not have to be unnecessarily difficult. It is just a matter of choosing and doing.

Go with the flow or stay behind

The EFQM Forum 2012 was organized last October 9 and 10. Under the name 'Fit for the Future', the challenges and chances that await us over the next 20 years were discussed. We are living in a dynamic, changing world where both raw materials and time are scarce, so how do we deal with that? How do we create excellence for our organization?

New base
On behalf of the European Commission, Reinhard Buescher had a shot: 'There is no easy solution available for the current crisis. We need a new industrial base in Europe, a strong, sustainable and solid one. Mainly technological innovations enable us to structurally change society.'

Futurologist Peter Cochrane even heighted this: 'We cannot get any smarter or work harder from a biological perspective, we have reached our max.' Luckily, he was there to offer a solution as well: 'Technology can help us save the world.' A beautiful example of such innovation is the 3D printer. We can already use them for medical goals.

Flexible life
‘Research proved that 92% of all creative work-related ideas are invented outside the office', as says Marc Buellens (Professor of the Vlerick Leuven Gent Business School). The mind is flexible and needs a flexible organization. Or: it's finally time for 'The New World of Work'. Finally indeed, because not much has changed since its introduction in 1954 (Peter Drucker - Management by objectives), not counting the small number of exceptions.

But in the year 2012, we live in a time where smartphones, tablets and laptops have become common property. We live in a global village, can work everywhere and it's therefore unnecessary to join the traffic jams every day. Moreover, employees don't see the point of it, generation Y leading the pack. This generation – that first thinks of a virtual meeting place when they hear the term 'social network' – is exceedingly suitable for flexible forms of labour based on autonomy and own responsibility.           

Remarkable results
The Belgian Mobistar has now embraced The New World of Work, as became clear at the Work@Home,Home@Work Bbest Conference at October 8 2012. A large part of the staff was offered the chance to (partially) work from their own homes. Of course a number of rules was set, but there was more than enough space for one's own initiative within these rules. This lead to more motivation, less 'traffic jam distress' and a better 'work-life balance'. The results were also positive to Mobistar: there was a significant improvement of both productivity and cost efficiency.

Network society
Regardless of being an employer or employee: it's time to open your eyes. Only 5 years ago, Twitter and Facebook were still relatively unknown. In 2009, only 10% of the Dutch inhabitants had a smartphone, in the year 2012 over 60%. In only 2 years, the knowledge recorded on the web will double every eleven hours(!). A network society based on premium technology is the future. It is just a matter of going with the flow, or staying behind... 

  

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On our way to a sustainable earth

People, Planet, Profit… Practice?
It has become a true vogue word by now: sustainability. The press regularly publishes on our planet's vulnerability, increasing food prices and the scarcity of raw materials that is drawing near with rapid strides. An appealing story, because it relates to all of us. But are all these reports really effective? What, for example, are our ladies and gentlemen of the cabinet actually doing? 'Sustainability' is even a scarcely used term during election time...

Work to be done
Also in the Ltd. The People, Planet & Profit triangle made its entry into the Netherlands, but how about the Practice? More and more small-scale concrete, useful initiatives take place, but to what extent is this relevant for companies with profit as their main target? Research performed by Deloitte proved that only a handful of multinationals 'succeeded developing and preserving a sustainable company strategy'. So there's work to be done...

The sun's power

Heads up for the small group of people that do succeed. An inspiring example is Bertrand Piccard, he set up a unique project with Solar Impulse; an aeroplane driven by solar energy. Plane constructors didn't see the point of it - 'it is impossible' - but a man like Piccard doesn't really care. So he was the first to make an intercontinental journey with a 'solar plane'. The videos say more than a thousand words.


Hearts and minds
It's no surprise for those who follow my blog; I've been engaged in management improvement by means of the EFQM Excellence Model for years now, and - as a result - sustainability. Because only when the internal management is settled, we control the effect of our actions on our environment to the max. That is important, because the cliché really is true; sustainability has an effect on the future of us all.  So I keep fighting to get sustainability in the hearts and minds, both on the business and private area.

Surprises
The day I write this blog, it's ‘10/10’, or Sustainability Day. A perfect moment for a fresh start; I will use this weekly blog to report on current developments, special meetings and interesting events. From Veldhoven to Abu Dhabi, and from inspiring gurus to the greengrocer around the corner; the way to a sustainable planet is full of surprises. I would love to share my experiences with the world, to Improve4All.