I am not doing anything this year

My whole program is put bake by four weeks to better organise the year. I am out in the next two weeks raising the funds to print 10000 copies of the newsletter. The next About People newsletter will be out at the end of February.

The main part of my program this year is to get About People to a magazine by the end of the year, organise and run a "Sustainability Challenge" for small to medium business (more info in the next About People newsletter). The walk is no longer a walk but an electric bicycle ride so now instead of 6 month it is is sixty days.

So other than fitting my family into the schedule I am not doing anything this year.

Ian Cleland
Toward Sustainable Futures
The not so walking man

What is sustainability.

Lets start of by telling a story.

Last November I ran a workshop where the lead question was, "what does sustainability mean to you"? This was with a group of businesses that are directly or indirectly involved with the renewables industry or had very strong green credentials. The discussion was broad and varied with different businesses showing how they were part of the a new sustainable economy.

The final outcome of the workshop was for our business to be sustainable we have to be PROFITABLE. This more than anything in business is creating an outcomes that generate profits.

Yes, there are lots of people who think that making a profit is a dirty word but then most of those are working for a business to earn their income. In Australia of all people employed # 81% works for private industry and of those 36% work for business with less than 20 staff. So whether you are a one man business or have up to twenty staff your business employs over one third of the workforce. The impact SME have on the a societies sustainability is substantial. # ABS

In the business of sustainability
If business is about making a profit how does that fit into being sustainable. This is the new opportunity as the worlds economies move from a carbon based energy system to renewables the number of opportunities will increase. This is not just about being a support industry to the large companies but to have a large chunk of the pie. This is not just about the energy we use it is also about the trend of people wanting to move back to a cleaner environment and healthier living and lifestyles.

If you are in business, what is your plan for next five years is your plan going to give you the sustainability advantage.

What can help you, take up the sustainable challenge. Over the next four weeks I will be talking about the sustainable challenge and how you and your business can be involved.

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