Women in Sustainability Part I

*Work of textile designer Marit Fujiwara,  graduate of Chelsea College of Art and Design via Behance

I asked a handful of thought leaders about the top women in sustainability.  Answers came from marketing expert and author of “Don’t think Pink” (Andrea Learned), the award-winning social entrepreneur and innovation strategist who launched the Creative Graduate Prize and now New Frontiers (Melissa Sterry), and an agency CEO who left it all to better the world, giving inspiring TED talks and most recently launching a plan of action in the form of ifwerantheworld.com defn worth a look (Cindy Gallop) — Here’s what they said:

First, former head of BBH NY and internationally recognized creative superstar

Cindy Gallop

1) What is your definition of sustainability?

A virtuous circle.

2) Why does it matter?

Because everything should work that way.

3) Name 1-3 women on the forefront of changes in the way we approach business and innovation?

June Cohen, TED
Rosabeth Kanter, Harvard Business School
Ursula Burns, Xerox

4) Name one sustainable product or service that you’ve come across in your research.

SHE, a fabulous example of what I’ve recommended to founder Elizabeth Scharpf which she calls Ragonomics

Elizabeth Scharpf created ingenious sanitary napkins out of banana leaves for women in Africa

Find her at cindygallop.com

Next: U.K.-based social entrepreneur extraordinaire:

Melissa Sterry

1) What is your definition of sustainability?

My definition of sustainability is an approach which acknowledges and addresses both environmental and social challenges using informed, intelligent, innovative, interdisciplinary and inspired solutions. Truly sustainable concepts are developed when the interactions between humans and their environment are fully understood. While many goods and services are labelled ‘sustainable’, ‘green’ or ‘environmentally-friendly’, in reality few actually are, some are the result of deliberate greenwashing, others are the result of a lack of research and due diligence in the design process.

The best design solutions are built on the most robust research, not off the back of cliches and assumptions. But at a time when most investors are focused on ventures that can potentially provide a quick return, significant R&D will be compromised. Until such time as the international investing community acknowledges the fact that stable and ‘sustainable’ future markets will be built engaging pioneering and at times radically innovative ideas that have been carefully crafted to meet both society’s existing and future needs, the world’s most promising sustainable innovators will find the tide is against them.

2) Why does it matter?

It matters because if we don’t act now and act to the very best of our ability, our species may not walk this Earth by 2150. (read the rest of Melissa’s passionate and articulate answer after the jump.)

3) Name 1-3 women on the forefront of this issue?

Naming just one or two is difficult but three inspirational women from the UK are:

1.) Multidisciplinary scientist Dr. Rachel Armstrong , a senior research fellow at University College London exploring the potential of living architecture and self-repairing buildings with their own metabolisms

2.) Joanna Yarrow, one of the UK’s most senior green living experts and a presenter, broadcaster, journalist, writer and founder of sustainability consultancy Beyond Green.

Joanna Yarrow

3.) Servane Mouazan – founder of Ogunte – the UK’s foremost organization for women leading the Social Economy.

All three are working hard to develop a blueprint for a sustainable society – all thinkers and doers with the creativity, commitment and courage to throw out the rulebook and set out on a journey to find the new frontiers. Often facing adversity and opposition to their ideas, these three women innovate their way around the obstacles, no matter how overwhelming or great they may be.

4) An insight on the future and advice for the female creative entrepreneur.

My insight – the future isn’t going to be easy, whichever way you look at it, the challenges are enormous. My advice – never under-estimate the value of the role you have to play in creating a better future.

5) One sustainable product or service you love or that caught your eye

.

The Aptera epitomizes what sustainable innovation is all about. The Aptera is uber efficient – achieving 300 miles or more to the gallon through minimized air resistance and drag, as a result of having a bullet-shaped body and three wheels, not four. The vehicle has interior and exterior LED lighting and a solar assisted climate control system. The Aptera also features recycled materials and comes in both electric and hybrid versions, achieving a top speed of 90mph and 0-60 in around 10 seconds. While it’s the most sustainable vehicle coming to market in the foreseeable future, it’s founders have pledged to continuously improve the sustainability of the vehicle as more innovations become available to them. Beyond it’s environmental credentials the vehicle is iconically beautiful and a design classic destined for the history books. My only regret about The Aptera is I wont be able to drive one in the UK any time soon.

Find Melissa Sterry at About Me.

Next Expert in Female Insights and Marketing:

Andrea Learned

1) What is your definition of sustainability?

To pursue a state of life/work in ways that mean what you do now will flourish and develop without taking away the resources that others, in future generations, will need to do the same.  I love the awareness raised by something Paul Hawken wrote – there is a difference between “growing” and “developing.”  Developing/development is the sustainable approach.

2) Why does it matter?

It matters because we’ve hit a brick wall – the perfect storm of bad economy, huge environmental problems due to waste of resources, and an emerging more relational, less linear (all about me) way of thinking by citizens.  People are starting to face the facts that endless growth and consumerism for the sake of it doesn’t really feed and nourish our daily lives – and greatly harms the environment.  If it continues, we will actually leave hugely negative effects for our children and grandchildren to deal with.  Now – that’s a realization to contend with!

3) Women on the forefront:

Eileen Fisher – Fisher and the women’s apparel company she launched in 1984 have been successfully (and fairly quietly) operating with a sustainable approach.  The materials and supply chains used in manufacturing her clothing and the way the company treats employees and contributes more broadly to women’s empowerment has become what I’d call “best practices” long before “sustainable” or “socially responsible” were trendy terms.

Joyce LaValle – Some have heard or read about Ray C. Anderson, CEO of Interface Inc., and his evolution toward sustainability (he is now considered a pioneer in the “movement”).  LaValle is the former Senior Vice President of that company and is credited for originally inspiring Anderson’s vision on the topic.  She also co-founded the Women’s Network for a Sustainable Future, which should get more notice (in my opinion) because it brings sustainability thought leaders and best cases to light so conventional businesses might learn (and it is not just about and “for women”).

Kira Gould – By way of the interviews conducted and synthesized in Women in Green, the book she co-authored with Lance Hosey, Gould’s influence has been key in my personal move to study and promote the concepts of sustainable business development.  She is an architect and the director of communications for McDonough + Partners (founded by another quite recognized sustainability pioneer/author, Bill McDonough).

4) An insight on the future and advice for the female creative entrepreneur

Businesses can do well and still “do good” with regard to people, planet and profit – the oft-mentioned socially responsible, “triple bottom line.”   The future is already here in that consumers have become very savvy and are much more intentional/deliberate in their buying.  Businesses, however, have been slow to catch on to that.  So, entrepreneurs that authentically believe and commit to the journey toward more sustainable business practices – in materials, supply chain, human resources, community support, energy use and so on – will have a significant advantage.  Women, in particular, have a natural tendency toward a more holistic perspective.  “Just business” really doesn’t exist, because they naturally know there’s a lot more to it.

Find Andrea at http://www.learnedon.com/

Continuation of Melissa Sterry’s answer on ‘why it matters’:

Professor John Beddington – Chief Scientific Advisor to the UK Government, summed up the situation when he said we are facing ‘The Perfect Storm’. Dr. Richard Leakey – one of the world’s foremost experts on mass extinction events, said of the environmental challenges facing humankind that it would be complacement to assume that humans are not on the ‘extinction list’. We are currently in the midst of a man-made worldwide mass extinction event, having already destroyed an estimated 1/3 of all biodiversity on Earth since 1970 (source WWF).

It took 65 million years for the planet to recover from the last mass extinction event, yet within one generation humans have put such strain on the world’s ecosystems that many are starting to collapse, some possibly beyond the point at which they could ever fully recover. Simultaneously the world’s natural resources are fast dwindling, as many in the west consume several times the level of resources that our planet can sustain – the average American citizen consumes so much that if everyone on the planet did the same it would take 5 Earth’s to supply the natural resources required to meet the level of consumption.

An estimated one in three in people on the planet live on or below the poverty line. The governments of developing world nations, such as China, understandably want to improve the living conditions for their citizens and those nations that can, are developing their infrastructures and economies to try and ensure that they eradicate poverty within one generation. Additionally, the world’s population is fast rising and, assuming no major multinational disaster occurs, such as the outbreak of a life-threatening pandemic for which there was no cure, or a super volcanic eruption, or an asteroid impact, we can expect to hit a global population of 10 billion or so by 2050. Somehow humankind has to make a lot less go a lot further, because if we cannot achieve this, in coming decades we will see suffering on a scale not yet witnessed in human history. Many of the basic commodities which we rely on to exit and which we take for granted are either running out or in increasingly short supply – there isn’t enough to go round. It’s life or death for humankind and for many other species at our mercy.