A Call to Arms

 “Business is the only mechanism on the planet today powerful enough to produce the changes necessary to reverse global environmental and social degradation”. ~Paul Hawken

A Call to Arms (from Merriam-Webster)

1. A summons to engage in active hostilities
2. A summons, invitation or appeal to undertake a particular course of action

First known use: 1791.  Other uses found on Wikipedia and Google: British made plastic action figures (fitting, considering that plastic pollution is choking our planet); an episode of the television series Charmed; the first book in a sci-fi trilogy by Alan Dean Foster about interstellar war; or an album from hardcore punk band Sick of it All (well, that sounds about right).  And from Urban Dictionary: An event that causes people to become militant or vigilante, often, against the feel of the majority, or a large number of people. 

I found these Merriam-Webster and Urban Dictionary definitions both interesting and contradictory.  On the one hand, the phrase outlines a sure path to conflict, “active hostilities”; on the other hand, an invitation for collaboration.  I believe we are faced with both. 

Ray Anderson has given us a call to arms.  He calls out business for being a “major culprit in causing the decline” of our ecosystem.  He so eloquently states that we need a “clear, demonstrable alternative to the take à make à waste process of digging up the Earth and converting it to pollution.”  He urges us to take nothing from the Earth that the Earth cannot replenish, and to do no harm.  He has clearly demonstrated through the success at Interface that this is a very smart and lucrative business strategy.  We haven’t listened. 

Ray Anderson isn’t the only one urging business to change.  Organizations like 350.org and the Biomimicry Institute have come into existence because of the crisis we now find ourselves in.  Paul Hawken, in The Ecology of Commerce, outlines a change in the culture of business that includes quality of life and the restoration of human and natural capital; not that business needs to stop operating to save the environment, but that business is the only thing that can save it.  I’ve used this Paul Hawken quote for years; it’s actually the opening sentence on the business plan I wrote for YBP’s UnCommon Sense sustainable operations leadership program. 

Major corporations across the globe are recognizing not only the positive economic benefits of sustainability, but also the very real threats to the existence of their businesses if they choose to stay on the “business as usual” path.  Nike, once under fire for using sulfur hexafluoride (SF6) as the “air” in Nike air—SF6 is a greenhouse gas 22,000 times more potent than carbon dioxide—is now on a path to achieve zero waste, zero toxins and 100% recoverable product by 2020 (coincidentally, spurred by an epiphany after a presentation by Paul Hawken in 1995). 

Beyond business, the significance of our President-elect isn’t lost on me.  Obama has an opportunity to either seize or to squander.  He is serving his final term, so will (hopefully) not be timid in the face of potential re-election.  He may be timid for other reasons, but at least that obstacle is off the table.  Will we see Obama focus more intently on environmental issues, despite his radio silence on climate change during the campaign?  Let’s hope so.  Obama did say in his acceptance speech: “We want our children to live in an America that isn’t burdened by debt, that isn’t weakened by inequality, that isn’t threatened by the destructive power of a warming planet.” 

Adam Lowry, founder of Method, wrote in a recent article on what the election results mean for climate policy: “Obama’s #1 priority should not be policy change, but cultural change in Washington.  Obama needs to focus his leadership on fighting obstructionism on both sides of the aisle, and I believe his success or failure on green business and broader climate issues rests almost entirely on his ability to be effective in driving this cultural change that will eradicate obstructionism from Washington.  This is something that a single individual can do, but it will require a shift in Obama’s leadership from where he’s been focused (on policy, and the American people policy impacts -- a noble pursuit) to leading his colleagues in Washington much the way a CEO leads his company, by exemplifying the behavior he/she wants modeled, and making it unacceptable to bicker, fight, or undermine progress in the name of partisanship or personal gain.  If he’s successful in that, then the policy change we need on climate and green business issues is possible.  Without it, unfortunately, it is not.” 

I believe that Mr. Lowry is correct.  If we don’t do something to change our political culture, we stand next to no chance of making meaningful change in this race to prolong our time here on planet Earth.  Or is it Eaarth?

Bill McKibben, in Eaarth, outlines a bleak picture, not of our future, but of our present.  For decades we spoke about global warming in the future tense, and the importance of saving the Earth for future generations.  But the stark reality he outlines clearly demonstrates that climate change is not a future concern; it is a current reality.  And the damage done may not be reversible.  “We’re not, in other words, going to get back the planet we used to have, the one on which our civilization developed.  We’re like the guy who ate steak for dinner every night and let his cholesterol top 300 and had the heart attack.  Now he dines on Lipitor and walks on the treadmill but half his heart is dead tissue.  We’re like the guy who smoked for forty years and then he had a stroke.  He doesn’t smoke anymore, but the left side of his body doesn’t work either…No one is going to refreeze the arctic for us, or restore the pH of the oceans, and given the momentum of global warming we’re likely to cross many more thresholds even if we all convert to solar power and bicycles this afternoon.” 

So, back to business.  What can business do?  What will business do?  We’ll find out.  Grateful that we’ll all be on the front lines, changing business for good. 

“Unless somebody leads, nobody will.”  ~Ray Anderson