June 04

Pretending to be a person without a cold from the Hades, I went to work today. I had stuffed myself with high doses of D-vitamin and C-vitamin and other stuffings I thought might help (Long Johns, scarfs, make-up and the sense of “I’m a fighter”). Might not have worked exactly the way I wished though, people immediately asked me why I looked transparent.

Anyways, I have a project where I need to interview a lot of people and I had three interviews booked for today. So I sat down with the first person at 8 o’clock.

The aim of the interviews is to help a company to develop a network for Sustainable development. I interview people within this company and try to find out what their needs are in a future network for Sustainability, and how it would be organised.

To be straight – they have no idea. And nor have I. And who would have? It’s like asking someone to organise peace on earth or ask for the solution to make people respect each other’s religion. My point is that there isn’t a way, there is only peoples engagement and understanding when to take the right decision. And this we can share in a network of course. Hence, I’m helping them to build a network for sharing knowledge about sustainability.

Sometimes I think people mix Sustainable development up with subjects that you can learn and become an expert on. Like mushrooms or pikes or cheese. But it’s not. Look at the words: Sustainable development. DEVELOPMENT. How can you predict the development? How can you know everything about that? Simply, you cannot. What you can do is:

•           being grounded in the boundaries of the planet. You have to know about e.g. how the ecosystem works, thermo dynamics, the natural cycle and things like that.
•           knowing how to avoid damage or destruction to nature or people. If you know what causes damage to the nature and it’s ecosystem and people, you can avoid it.
•           being convinced about your room of action. If you know where your room of action is, then you know were your impact will be - regardless good or bad impact.
•           skilled in your subject. If you know your subject, you will find different ways of solving problems. It can be different technics, different materials or other things. Keep your knowledge up to date!

And then, when the possibility comes to take a decision, you need to honestly ask yourself and your companions “If we do this… is this good for the next generation or will it destroy something for them?”

It’s not a network or a subject - it’s a way of taking responsibility for future generations.