Category Archives: Books

Learning about “Regeneration” 3 recommendations

Regeneration this word/approach/concept/movement is now everywhere. Here are 3 recommendations: a book, a video and an article that provide excellent guidance to understand and follow this important movement.

1.One of the most remarkable books covering this subject is Regeneration: Ending the climate crisis in one generation by Paul Hawken. Regeneration is a radical new approach to the climate crisis, one that weaves justice, climate, biodiversity, and human dignity into a seamless tapestry of action, policy, and transformation that can end the climate crisis in one generation.

The book together with its companion website plot a pathway to achieve the goals outlined by the report “Global Warming of 1.5°C” published by the IPCC in October 2021. The book concludes with a section titled “Action and Connection” showing the solutions in detail and actions to be taken. It also includes an ever growing wiki of climate actions for the most important Nexus. Nexus are large complex issues that intersect multiple institutions, geographies, cultures, and people, but which do not fall under a single category of action or impact. Plastic, global fishing fleets, and palm oil are three prime examples (from the book Regeneration by Paul Hawken)

2. Regeneration Speech by Walmart CEO Doug McMillon (13 min)

A seminal speech by Doug McMillon, CEO of Walmart. The company has been very active with their sustainability efforts since 2005. In 2020 they committed to become a regenerative company and explains in detail how they will achieve this goal.

3. Surfing Big Waves of Regeneration: John Elkington interviews Patagonia founder Yvon Chouinard

An insightful interview by the Godfather of modern sustainability, John Elkington and the founder of Patagonia, Yvon Chouinard, a rock climber, surfer, innovator, environmentalist, entrepreneur and outdoor industry billionaire businessman.

A must-read for business leaders: “Net Positive: How Courageous Companies Thrive by Giving More Than They Take” by Paul Polman and Andrew Winston

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A timely and seminal work by Paul Polman and Andrew Winston. Paul Polman is Co-Founder and Chair of Imagine, Chair of the B Team, and Saiid Business School, a leading proponent that business should be a force for good. The Financial Times described Paul as “a standout CEO of the past decade”. In his 10 years as CEO of Unilever, he proved that a long-term multistakeholder model (ending quarterly reports!) can bring superior financial performance.

I will copy here the first part of the excellent “Exclusive Excerpt” of this book that Paul shared in his newsletter on Linkedin

Exclusive Excerpt

What is Net Positive?

Our vision of net positive is a business that improves well-being for everyone it impacts and at all scales—every product, every operation, every region and country, and for every stakeholder, including employees, suppliers, communities, customers, and even future generations and the planet itself.

This is a North Star. No company can achieve all these aims at once, but it’s where we should be heading if we want a viable economy and planet. To exist as a relevant business today is to enrich the world. The ultimate question is this: Is the world better off because your business is in it?

What it looks like

The net positive company will operate differently from what’s normal today. It will, for example, eliminate more carbon than it produces; use only renewable energy and renewably sourced materials; It will, for example, eliminate more carbon than it produces; us create no waste and build everything for full circularity, and replenish and make cleaner all the water it draws. This excerpt can be read in its entirety by going to the Linkedin link above.

Future of Learning Graphic Novel now Live (Singularity U)

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The output of the workshop, the graphic novel of the Future of Learning is now live! Also SU has created the Exponential Guide to the Future of Learning, which provides valuable content and resources on this topic.
From SU website;

The Future of Learning SciFi DI workshop brought together more than 50 participants, including SU Faculty and staff, startups, mentors, and alumni, as well as local teachers, students, nonprofits and foundations all connected to the field of learning innovation. We explored trends in exponential technologies, took a deep dive into augmented reality and virtual reality, discussed the future of learning and work. Identifying current challenges in the global education system, we tried to re-imagine these challenges after assuming a number of technological and social advances that could occur within fifteen years. Then the participants were led through a process of capturing the life and story of an individual living fifteen years into the future, which artists and writers in the room transformed into the graphic novel. Through the characters of the novel we explore central questions about the future purpose of learning, what it will mean to be a student or teacher in the future, what a school might look like in the future, what a curriculum might look like, and what life might feel like in general. In particular, we imagined a world where a school could follow the student instead of the student attending a school, where today’s learning curriculum and grading system is replaced by students advancing in their learning by solving real-life problems, where the boundary between being a student and teacher blurs, and where adults and children often learn together.
While we hope you’ll enjoy immersing yourself in this particular version of the future, we encourage you to design your own. What will a student, teacher, school, and curriculum look like? What technologies would you incorporate, and how would they help bring about a world where everyone could be inspired to learn and teach, solve real-world problems, and find opportunities to contribute to their community?

Book recommendation: Thrive

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One of the books that I enjoyed reading in 2014 was Arianna Huffington’s “Thrive“. A refreshing book where she makes a compelling case of the need to redefine “what it means to be successful” in today’s world. A timely book in times where people are reassessing their past and current views (on money and power) while trying to define their meaning of life.

Book Tips: 2 books I enjoyed reading in 2011

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2011 …a busy year and one that went by so quickly… I managed to read a few books finally in the second week of December.
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Most fun and inspiring read was Steve Jobs by Walter Isaacson. The 570 page biography is a page turner and a must-read. The subject matter of course is fascinating, a genius, a powerful and intense individual with many contradictions that transformed 7 industries (personal computer, animated movies, music, phones, tablet computing, digital publishing, retail stores) with his passion and pursuit for making great products and making a great company that would last. And it is beautifully written.

Another book which is a useful read for people interested in social entrepreneurship, the future of capitalism and how the silos are breaking between the business and the social world is Sir Richard Branson’s latest book “Screw Business as Usual” I enjoyed reading the second half as it iillustrates many examples of how some of the large global corporations/brands are starting to shift/experiment ways for “doing well and doing good”. I find it powerful that this call for change is coming from one of the world’s famous and admired business leaders.