A little over a week ago we received an e-mail message from sustain-0-preneur, Gunter Pauli - keynote of The Global Summit 2008- announcing his new book-both launching- and -titled, “The Blue Economy”. Since then, we’ve been following his global message and tracking down related events.  Days later, Dr. Antonia Neubauer, Founder of READ Global which has ongoing projects in Bhutan wrote in with praise for Gunter’s local involvement and thanks for meeting him at The Global Summit 2008 where she was Collaborating Nonprofit Chair and presented READ Global’s exemplary community development model. Nice to see the spiral of connection to impact.

Now, I know you’ll enjoy Gunter’s words.  Don’t miss purchase link and Bhutan Article link below for a taste of innovation from “The Blue Economy”.  NOTE: Purchase his book by April 1st and receive 10% off(links below).  Better yet, catch him live if you can at one of the events listed below in Santa Barbara, LA, Hawaii, and the Bay Area.  And stay tuned to www.BlueEconomy.de for updates!

__________________________________________________

from Gunter Pauli 3/21/10

“Hello!

If you have the time take a look at www.BlueEconomy.de.

After 5 years of research, sifting through a lot of scientific data, meeting scholars and academia, discussing with entrepreneurs and financiers, journalists and policy makers I summarized my findings and impressions with a vision that I call “The Blue Economy”.

The book went through a lot of vetting and debates, not the least with the Club of Rome which accepted it as a report. However meetings with UN delegations in Vienna, and Kenya, roundtables with leading companies in Japan, Sweden, France and Brazil, exchanges with NGOs in the US and India offered me a clear insight on how we can go beyond the best of “The Green Economy.”

Last Friday (March 19) I had the opportunity here in Thimphu, Bhutan to brief for the first time ever a government on the opportunities for developing new industries, creating jobs, building up social capital, responding to basic needs and establish competitive enterprises that put society on a path towards sustainability building on what the nation has in cultural and natural resources - working with what is locally available.

I had selected 16 potential industries for development and an audience of officials including the UN representatives left the room enthused, seeing that another development is possible, a development that I call “The Blue Economy” named after this beautiful mother Earth who is blue as can be when we admire her from the universe. Those who would like to call is the Green Economy 2.0 - are free to do so.

We are now working with a group of architects in Bhutan, building a strategy to avoid the disasters that struck Haiti and Chile. Bhutan suffered from its own earthquakes last year, which went by rather unnoticed in the rest of the world. However, this country has left its traditional building techniques and embraced reinforced concrete and cement as the standard unknowingly preparing the nation for a disaster when the next earthquake hits.

Thanks to Anders Nyquist, the pioneer in green building design who created his own eco-village in Northern Sweden already in 1966, we are designing a pathway towards a building system for Bhutan that is based on its traditional designs with centuries of embedded wisdom, while blending this with the latest principles of “Design with the Flow” as already imagined by Leonardo da Vinci in de 15th century! It is a platform that would allow the integration of about 50 innovations, which could support the local economy beyond what anyone imagined.

While Bhutan is at crossroads, bringing the world its National Happiness Index, the world is at crossroads as well. It is in this context that I am delighted to be able to contribute to the debate - but more important - that I am capable of bringing inspiration and action to the entrepreneurs who are prepared to take the risk and build up that new economy from the grassroots up - with passion and enthusiasm.

Here in Bhutan we now have more interest in “The Blue Economy” per capita than anywhere else. However in the next months I will venture into India, Japan, Korea, USA, and Sweden in order to share these insights and offer my enthusiasm. We have such a wealth of opportunities to make a difference. In the mean time I will keep on releasing one after the other the examples from around the world so that we can see that the ideas and innovations formulated are not simply an inspiration, but that somewhere in the world, it is already being implemented.

If you wish to follow the implementation of these innovations around the world, check periodically on www.zeri.org and if you like to receive a weekly update on the new business models, subscribe to  www.BlueEconomy.de. There are several language versions. UNEP - a great supporter from the outset has placed a series of video clips on its YouTube site produced by my friends of Virgin Earth in Japan.

Wishing you good reading, inspiration for action, and desire to share.

kindly,

gunter”

–
Prof. Gunter Pauli
Founder of ZERI  www.zeri.org
Author of The Blue Economy  www.BlueEconomy.de

The Blue Economy
10 Years; 100 Innovations; 100 Million Jobs by Gunter Pauli To pre-order the book, please go to http://www.paradigm-pubs.com/catalog/detail/BluEco. You will receive a 10% discount if you order before April 1, 2010 and key in the promotional code: TBE4110.

Read / Download PDF of Article: From Myth to Reality:
A Journey through Modern-Day Bhutan and Reflections about its Future

Upcoming EVENTS:

~ April 23, 24, 25, 2010 ~
Santa Barbara City College Campus, Santa Barbara, California

Hosted by the SBCC Center for Sustainability

~Evening Talk & Book-Signing, Fri, April 23, 7:30 - 9:30pm, SBCC Fe Bland Auditorium $15~

~Building the Blue Economy Workshop with Gunter Pauli, plus guests*** ,
SBCC Campus, Sat, April 24, 9am - 5pm, $120 ($100 early registration/April 3)~

~Retreat with Gunter Pauli, Sunday, April 25, 10am - 4pm  $300 ($250 early registration/April 3)~

How a new generation of entrepreneurs can bring
innovations to the marketplace, secure basic needs for all,
and make sustainable businesses competitive.

***Saturday Workshop with Gunter Pauli/Afternoon break-out sessions with:

 Woody Tasch, President of Slow Money Alliance

 Kreigh Hampel, City of Burbank, Public Works, Recycling Coordinator

 Randy Grissom, Director of the Santa Fe Community College Sustainable Technologies Center

Sponsored by the Santa Barbara City College Center for Sustainability
Co-sponsors: Santa Barbara Permaculture Network & SBCC Scheinfeld Center for Entrepreneurship & Innovation
Event Info, www.sbpermaculture.org, margie@sbpermaculture.org, (805)962-2571

**April 26, 2010 – Burbank, CA**

Arid Lands Inst @ Woodbury University

Woodbury University and the Arid Lands Institute will host a reception, talk and book signing for Dr. Gunter Pauli, April 26, 2010, starting with a reception at 5:30 pm, talk at 6:30 pm, and a book signing at approximately 7:30 pm.

7500 Glenoaks Boulevard Burbank, CA 91510

http://aridlands.woodbury.edu/

Please contact Kreigh Hampel at (818) 238-3900 for more information.

+ On April 27, 2010

An Evening with Gunter Pauli (Fort Mason in SF) [see full EW event post]

 **Oahu, Hawaii, Sept. 13-17, 2010Please check out the conference, Launching The Blue Economy, at http://www.zeroemissionshawaii.orgTHE WORLD CONGRESS ON ZERO EMISSIONS INITIATIVES
LAUNCHING “THE BLUE ECONOMY”
HAWAII CONVENTION CENTER
HONOLULU, HAWAI‘I FROM SEPTEMBER 13-17, 2010

Date/Time: WED February 24th 2010 ~ 8:30AM – 4:30PM

Location: Kipahulu Community Center (better known as the Triangle)

Mail Box 160 Hana Highway, Kipahulu District, Maul, Hawaii

*Farm grown, organic lunch provided by Chef Krissta Caldwell

$25 all fees included -

Call 808-268-9161 to RSVP / camping info.

Join sustainability entrepreneur, Melanie St.James, and co-facilitator/chef, and permaculturist, Krissta Caldwell for a special day of solutions in action!

Tap into your unique passions and talents to create the change you wish to see in the world, earn and Introductory Social-permaculture Certificate from Empowerment Works! (EW) and nourish your body with da kindest cuisine in the jungle!

8:30am ~ Visualization 

9:00 ~ Exploration to Co-creation 

11:30 ~ Farm Grown Lunch!

1:30pm ~ Mutual Sustainability

4:30 ~ ALOHA

7SS One Day Seminar

Embraced by the fertile native lands of Kipahulu, we embark on a rediscovery of our deepest passion- if money were no object—or let’s say it didn’t exist at all- what would you most love to be, do, and create in this lifetime? 

What is SOCIAL Permaculture? 

Just as Perma-culture (~permanent agriculture) integrates the most synergistic plants for lasting, healthy crops and soil, SOCIAL Permaculture sees and weaves people, organizations, and businesses — across six sectors of Partners in Empowerment (PIE) — into a thriving eco-system of human society.

7 Stages to Sustainability (7SS) was created in 2001 as a process for grass-roots communities to co-create sustainable solutions, through honoring and protecting indigenous heritage. Developed into a curriculum in 2009, it now offers an opportunity for mass-global collaboration amongst participant/students.  

Harnessing the Power of Innovation for Sustainable Development

Starting in 1946, Soviet engineer and researcher Genrikh Altshuller and his colleagues, through comparing 250,000+ patents, identified the 40 common principals of human innovation.  This and other findings became the foundation for what is known today as the TRIZ theory–literally a Russian acronym for “theory of solving inventors problems”.

Through practicing 7SS, in addition to aligning with our inherent capacity to innovate, we will realize our highest purpose by using practical, hands on tools to create change.

Learn more about 7SS: www.empowermentworks.org/approach.html 

About facilitator, Melanie St.James, http://www.empowermentworks.org/aboutuspeople.html

A little background: Empowerment Works was recently introduced to the following model by Common Good Banks™ Community Organizer, Tober Schorr who EW’s director, Melanie St.James first met via speaking in his youth panel about AIDS and sustainability at the  2004 Sustainable Resources Conference in Boulder, CO.  Remarkably, they crossed paths again by staying in the same guest house in Mali, West Africa,January 2008!  After Tober’s 5 month trek across Africa, his enthusiastic involvement in Common Good Banks™ caught our attention-Good thing.  After an inspirational talk with President of Common Good Finance and Project Director, William Spademan, EW became a formal Bank partner and is actively advancing Common Good Banks as an economic foundation of EW’s flagship 7 Stage approach to building sustainable local communities. Please read on and let us know your thoughts!

Common Good Banks™ - A New Model for Economic Justice and Sustainability  by Common Good Banks™ Community Organizer, Tober Schorr

I consider myself to be a conscious, concerned citizen of Planet Earth who is willing to put in my time serving the greater good and make the necessary sacrifices so that my grandchildren will inherit a beautiful and just world.  But there are many social and environmental issues in our time, so many in fact that the sheer volume of work to be done can seem paralyzing.  I have noticed that all of these issues share one common thread: they are short on money.  One of the deepest-rooted problems in our society seems to be the way that money itself is created and distributed, and how this creates a profound imbalance in wealth and opportunity.  

Awareness is growing about the inequities of our current economic system.  There are many aspects of the way in which we exchange goods and services and the way we accumulate wealth that are problematic, and various new paradigms have been proposed to address the problems we face.

For example, local currency systems have been implemented in various communities.  Credit unions and other alternative sources of financing offer lower interest-rate options for major expenditures like purchasing a home.  And various community investment projects already exist to enhance the functioning of important public services. 

With all of this activity already going on in a complex world, why then another new model thrown into the mix? 

The common good bank model is a unique approach that combines scores of previously existing good ideas into a new, holistic model that uses grassroots community organizing to address several of the systemic shortfalls of our current economic paradigm simultaneously.  Organized as a stock bank, these new community banks will have the flexibility that credit unions lack.  However, all profit will be channeled back to the local community and deserving projects abroad.  Participants will be able to create money at the community level, providing stability in the face of constant inflation of the dollar.  And all of these community-based banks will be directed in a highly functional democratic process by the local depositors, with voting based on a one-person-one-vote principle rather than by amount of stock held.

Sound good?

Help make it happen!  Through May 15th we are hiring Community Division Organizers (CDOs) all over the United States at $10 an hour and up. CDOs work in their own community to form partnerships with local businesses and nonprofits and sign up future depositors. They also raise funds critical to the creation of a charter so that the first common good bank can be opened soon.

For more details, please visit our website:

http://www.commongoodbank.com/job

Serial award winning film-maker for change, Holly Mosher who is executive producing the EW project Vanishing of the Bees (www.vanishingbees.com) just got back from her latest trip to Bangladesh where she was following the work of Nobel Peace Prize winner Muhammad Yunus and the Grameen Bank. 

The documentary, which profiles the array of diverse women’s triumphs and challenges is called

“Small Change - World of Difference” - with production company & website appropriately titled, Passion and Grit.

Holly Mosher reports:

“Spending time in Bangladesh has been eye-opening for me in so many ways.  It has been inspiring to see the work of the Grameen Bank and the potential to change lives with micro-credit loans, but it has also been so rewarding to get access into the lives of such open hearted and welcoming people. 

I was amazed by the success stories and also the level of patience and sharing I would see all around.  I was trying to understand how people in a place so overcrowded (it is the most densely populated country on earth) and susceptible to so many natural disasters could be so open and caring.

I was also so pleased spend time in a Muslim country and see how welcoming they were to Americans.  And I could see how in this country people might actually be better off having the arranged marriages, so that they would have a support system as soon as they leave their own families.  It started to all make a lot more sense for me.

 
The biggest thing I’ve been proud to witness is how the Grameen Bank is truly helping to bring equality and a higher status to the women of Bangladesh.  I felt that for women in Bangladesh, it must be how it was for women here in the early of the 19th century.  But whenever a Grameen borrower took out a housing loan, she’d have to get the title to the house first.  

It was also impressive to see how the bank made sure that all borrowers started making weekly deposits into their savings accounts.  I think we could learn a lot from the entire process of the bank and how they are teaching very simple money management skills and as a result raising women’s standards of living and helping them forge their equality.

If we are listening, we could learn a lot from the Grameen Companies, who are finding creative solutions with everything from banking to healthcare to alternative energies.”

To learn more/ see project updates, visit:  www.passionandgrit.com