Cleaning up our oceans of plastic waste is great, it truly is, but preventing the plastic from entering our waterways is even better. So how do we go about doing it? Well finding and using alternatives to plastic is one way. Incentivizing others to clean up is another. One possible approach to achieving this waste reduction is through the emergence of social plastic.
Great talk from an inspirational human being and photographer. Salgado is renown for having the ability to capture sentiment and substance within his images. This talk however goes beyond merely a discussion of photography and rather speaks to purpose, empathy, and inter-connectivity. He shares with us his insights and reflections, having seen so much of the world through is particular lens, and encourages us all to better understand our environment and the part we all play within it.
This has been one of my favorite TED Talks in pulling together the various factors that currently plague society, and simplifying it into digestible form. The speaker, Michael Porter, is considered a management guru and likely anyone who has taken any formal business classes has heard his name. His biggest claim to fame is the establishment of what is now referred to as the Porter’s Five Forces model. It is essentially a tool for assessing the various external factors that will effect your business. In his talk, Porter basically extents his analytical framework into the social realm. What are some of the biggest problems facing the planet today, and how can we solve them?
Ray Anderson has led by example. As founder and chairman on Interface Inc., he grew his company into one of the world’s largest suppliers of modular carpeting through the awareness and application of an increasingly sustainable business strategy (their aim is zero waste). The switch to sustainability was certainly profitable, and a real win for himself and his company. As Mr. Anderson explains, business and industry have played the largest role in harming the environment, yet they also represent the size and scale best suited for providing solutions and amending the harm done to the natural world. It comes down to a matter of understanding. He discovered this for himself as he learnt more about what sustainability meant, and is happy to share this revelation.