I am the third post in a series of 5 posts on the topic.
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Julian's announcementSiona's Meditation on Conscious CapitalismBrian's The "Consciousness" in Conscious CapitalismI have just emerged from a Conscious Capitalism Retreat. This was sort of a shut in of some great minds; intellectuals, philosophers, business leaders, investors, civil society activists and humble student-me, the only representative of the Millennial Generation.
I am marinating in all of these thoughts over the weekend, and after pages and pages of notes, I am seeing that there is some sort of order arising from this.
We are having multiple conversations on different aspects of Conscious Capitalism and Green Business and pretending like we are talking about the same thing.
It seems essential that we begin with what Conscious Capitalism means as a term, and have a working definition. And yet, as soon as that process begins, it doesn’t take long to notice that we all have different definitions.
Lets start from the basics. Wikipedia gives these definitions for conscious(ness) and Capitalism respectively:
Consciousness is a characteristic of the mind generally regarded to comprise qualities such as subjectivity, self-awareness, sentience, sapience, and the ability to perceive the relationship between oneself and one’s environment. It is a subject of much research in philosophy of mind, psychology, neuroscience and cognitive science.
In common parlance, consciousness denotes being awake and responsive to one’s environment; this contrasts with being asleep or being in a coma.
Capitalism generally refers to an economic system in which the means of production are all of mostly privately owned and operated for profit and in which investments, distribution, income production and pricing of goods and services are determined through the operation of a market economy.
SO here are some of my early musings…
Some want to talk about the philosophy of Conscious Capitalism as an
ideology, or socio-economic structure, and the potential of this concept, if implemented, to “change the world” by solving a lot of the worlds problems. (Or at least upgrading them) Some would like to play with this idea and play out the scenarios in the developed and the developing world exploring what policy is needed to support this, what is the role of government in the first place. This is something I am incredibly interested in and that I know the LEAST about. I need to read A LOT more about Macro Economics, International Policy, and the promises of Free Markets, as well as Communism, Marxism, the anti-globalization movement, the WTO and Free Trade, popular Republican, Democrat, Libertarian beliefs, and then try to asses what dynamics are at play in my culture and those of our Global neighbors, before pretending like I can have some sort of educated discussion in this space. But I want to outline it as a vital topic of discussion.
Some want to talk about what a
Conscious Business looks like. And from here you can dissect it even more, looking at what would the creation of a business like this look like and then what would it take to transform a business. Within this bucket we have a LOT of terms like: Green Business, Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR), Sustainable Enterprise, Good Businesses, Purpose-driven, Values Driven, Mission Driven, Triple Bottom Line (Profit, People, Environment) Multiple Stakeholders, Whole Systems Approaches to leadership.
(Perhaps Jeff will write more about this?)
Another thus-far proven world-changer in this domain in
Micro-finance/credit:
The extension of very small loans (micro loans) to the unemployed, to poor entrepreneurs and to others living in poverty who are not considered bankable. These individuals lack collateral, steady employment and a verifiable credit history and therefore cannot meet even the most minimal qualifications to gain access to traditional credit. Microcredit is a part of microfinance, which is the provision of financial services to the very poor; apart from loans, it includes savings, microinsurance and other financial innovations.
Muhammad Yunus won the Nobel Peace Prize for his role in using Micro-finance to alleviate poverty in Bangladesh.
And then another sub-category (which lately has been very popular) of discussions here about
Business and Spirituality: Meditation in the workplace, the Soul of a business, The Meaning of Money, Money as Energy, The Metaphysics of Money, Manifesting, Right Livelihood (good for me, good for you, good for all living beings) Enlightened Enterprise, Enlightened Entrepreneurs.
The arguments for this are that businesses that are more “Conscious” are more profitable. And this is the proof in the pudding.
Another sub-category here is the culture of a business, and whether the leadership cultivates a workplace in which the health, well-being, and actualization of employees are considered.
And then the role of business in the world: Business as a force for good, a force for change. Business is the Hero! Here to save the day!
Some want to talk about the role of the
individual, and the upward flow of human consciousness, and each of us living to our highest potential, our connection to our higher purpose either as entrepreneurs, work-as-service, right livelihood, or in our role as consumers, shopping in alignment with our values. Or as conscious investors perhaps, helping provide “conscious capital” to fuel the future. (
This has been the majority of our discussions so far)Some of us want to talk about the
cultural “paradigm” and the role of the media in perpetuating a consumer culture and abusing the collective unconscious by targeting their marketing efforts towards our desires for beauty, indulgence, and plain old entertainment (and primal desires for food and lust.) Consumers are the Sleeping Giant (a metaphor which works well with the current definition of consciousness denoting "being awake." Much of the efforts of NGO's are focused here, on creating a Demand for Consciously produced goods by educating/ bringing awareness to the impact of our purchasing choices.
Green Business summary and how it plugs in:
When we refer to Green Businesses we are generally referring to the small but rapidly growing market for products or services that may consider some or all of these factors:
Sourced from Rapidly renewable resources, sourced from recycled materials, produced without toxic by-products, does not off-gas toxins within its lifespan, uses energy efficient manufacturing and transportation practices, improves the efficiency of the consumer’s energy use, reduces the toxicity in the consumer’s environment, can be recycled or biodegrade, has multiple functions, has a high quality or long life span reducing the need for replacement, does not contain or use pesticides or petrochemicals in production, was produced locally minimizing transportation costs, provide a sustainable livelihood for the producer (fair-trade)
Buzz words: Eco, Organic, Natural, Environmentally Friendly, Sustainable, Fair Trade, Conscious, Cradle to Cradle, Holistic, Free Range, Compassionately Raised or crafted, Hand made, Sweatshop free, sustainably harvested, Carbon Offset, Chemical free, Locally Produced.
What is GREAT about these businesses: These products are available today because of a reaction to the care-less-ly produced goods that have become common practice since the age of the industrial era, but much expanded since post-World World 2. There has been an increasing availability of goods to the consumer. It is possible to manufacture goods extremely cheaply because the cost of managing the 1) the cheap energy fueling production (coal, nuclear, oil) 2) waste or bi-product from production (such as CO2 being released into the atmosphere, Dioxins from the production of plastics entering the air and water stream, Livestock waste being washed into the watershed) being put onto the commons.
So, even if these products are not perfect, many of them are carrying the banner and proving the point that business CAN be done while minimizing or reducing their impact on the environment.
Many of the producers care about the impact of their practices on the planet, on the health and livelihoods of the people involved in the production of these goods. They CHOOSE to internalize the previously mentioned externalized costs.
And I will also mention here
Green and Socially Responsible Investing- (are there are distinctions between the two, but i will lump them together for now.) SRI funds, Windhill Climate index, Venture funds specializing in Green companies,
Community investing,
Spectra,
Calvert, Green Bull Fund,
Social Venture Network. And then conscious wealth Mangagement services available to help one sift through all the options, like
Abacus Wealth. And
Green Finance-
New Resource Bank is a Green Bank. It redefines community as a boundary-less network of folks with shared values. People who choose to bank there know that their money is going toward loans being given to Green Businesses, often providing the start-up capital to get them off the ground.
RSF Social Finance- has been providing socially responsible investors, donors, for-benefit organizations, and social enterprises innovative investing, lending and philanthropic services to promote environmental social, and economic sustainability for over 20 years.
BUSINESS CHANGING: Can a company transform?Can a company previously founded and operated with a single bottom line (ahem, $$$$) BECOME conscious? In this case, lets keep the word conscious in this case meaning, aware of their impact on the environment? Will Walmart go green? or BECOME conscious? What about Nike? HP? Does a company have to be 100%green to be considered green? Does it have to be socially/envirnonmentally responsible for the "right" reasons? Or does it earn them any brownie points if it just makes good buisness sense. Many Corporate Sustainability Consultants have had great success at getting businesses to make significant changes by making the business case. Want to increase efficiency, reduce energy cost and increase profits? Increased profits as well as PR are motivators. But many Big Businesses these days are "waking up." Not just
GreenWashing. (a term that is used to describe the actions of a company, government, or other organization which advertises positive environmental practices while acting in the opposite way.)
So, I have no prescriptive here as of yet, more of a collection of observations.
I could launch on a long stream of ideas for each of these categories. But I wanted to introduce the idea that Conscious Capitalism means different things to different people, and I believe that it is important to outline these different idea “buckets” if you will so we begin to have a framework from which to communicate.
These are a few questions have emerged for me so far:What is the goal? To change the world! Yeah- ok, but can we get a little more specific?
Do you have to be spiritual to be conscious?
Are Conscious Businesses necessarily Green?
Are Green Businesses necessarily conscious?
(If ya wanna play the Spiral)- Are we talking about asking what do Integral/ or Turquoise Businesses look like manifest?
Do Green Businesses tend to lack healthy Orange Business language and acumen?
Do Orange Businesses lack Green Values, or at least have less expansive/ inclusive values?
That if you believe that there is an upward flow of human development, then as consciousness evolves it naturally becomes world centric and takes the charge of including the impact of all world citizens in all of its decisions. This will naturally occur as we evolve.
If only 15% of the world’s population (max) are considered to be at a world-centric level of consciousness, then is it enough to have 15% of the world’s citizens participating in Conscious Capitalism? Or is it up to those Pioneers to create the patterns and embed them in culture for any and all to use regardless of incentive? (example for this- John creating WFM, but if others copy his biz practices just because they result in high quality product and profit, not necessarily because they have any interest in Love and Service…)
The relationship of Green Business to Conscious Capitalism I will summarize with a wiki definition:
Free Market Environmentalism is a theory that argues the free market is the best tool to preserve the health and sustainability of the environment. This is in sharp contrast to the most common modern approach of looking to government intervention to prevent destruction of the environment.
MY PERSPECTIVE:
I think the most essential element for me comes from the wiki definition of Conscious(ness)
“the ability to perceive the relationship between oneself and one’s environment”
(Think of Brian’s
Spoon Example)
The more aware I am of the relationship between myself and my environment, the more responsible I feel to care for and work for the flourishing of the life-support systems of the earth that support all other sub-systems. (Although increasing awareness does not necessarily assume care, or taking action to do something about it for everyone….)
Ahem.. we are all connected. Through the web of life (biosphere), web of the Market (where did that cheese come from, why does your rent cost what it does?), web of social ties (I think I’m getting closer to Kevin Bacon…), web of digital representation (cybersphere—uh, internet)
Most of the people in the world have a very limited ability to perceive these relationships. Acting from these contracted perspectives in what has become a global marketplace, does not serve the flourishing of our species, our planet, and the quality of life on our planet.
I am not an economist. I am not even a college graduate. I am an autodidact with a passion that moves through me for change. What does change mean to me? It means that I have suffered, and witnessed suffering. That my heart is open. That I hold within that open heart an ever-expanding sphere of care and compassion for those I hold dear, for those far away, for those without voices, without power. And I am determined to do all that I can within my lifetime to work for a more just, safe, clean, peaceful world for myself, my family, my country, mankind, and all other beings alive today as well as future generations.
I believe in taking responsibility for my life choices. I try my best to ensure that my choices have positive consequences. I bring an awareness of interdependency to all of my choices, be they lifestyle, work, purchases, and then trust that it will make a difference.
poetry
October 2007 
christiana
Access: Public
