Veganuary

Out of silos in into a whole systems thought process.

I have been Vegan for I think it's coming up to my 7th Year! I lost count, it matters not, Its one of the first things that I did on the road to working in sustainability. Sometimes finding one thing that we can do in this moment really well towards the next part is useful for us to start on the journey to feel our feet. For me being a vegan was certainly something I could do with nothing, having sat there with my kids realising that I wanted to start working on my road to the future

I could write a whole blog around veganism and I digress --

I indeed wanted to share that this is not the ‘silver bullet’ of sustainability, neither is anything that is in a silo, that is in an ‘ism’ or that isn’t linking thinking, outcomes and inputs together.

I stand to always be in a constant state of learning, growing and creativity – as no one can be in full understanding of everything everywhere on the planet and universe that I know of. Plus, you could try to know everything and be in such an obscure place that no one would listen to you? I feel that It is a bridge we build together, with our collective ‘knowledge’ and I use that term loosely.

Throughout my/our work and understanding so far I have been curious, looking, applying and working with the concepts of many silos, starting with sustainability 101, how to apply at a local level, how to build with ‘Circularity’, how to look at economics, How to collaborate, Design for new futures, upcycle, be vegan/not vegan, work in corporate sustainability or be independent, legislations, SDGs , organic or synthetic, be an activist? and so on the list of silos continues on and on so on and so forth… It can be so conflicting, confusing and darn right annoying sometimes!

I realised the past 3 years that what is needed is a whole systems mentality, to be able to be like a bird of pray and sore above in the sky seeing how everything interlinks, understand if we do this here what happens over there, how do industries start to work together? To see all the silos on the many dimensions that they are and be able to start to work them together, weave them – or indeed see the whole way to apply more effectively in a whole new way.

Much of that work has been done in the creation of The Ecosystem Incubator project on a micro level .. in its infancy yet very telling work in the area of collaboration and how we actively look at economics differently.

The work recently created with Ken Alston in our ‘Real Circularity’ Forum is testament to the synergy that Ken and I have in the whole systems perspective. He even with his vast amount of years inside working with Circularity from Cradle to Cradle does not profess to ‘know’ everything either – yet we can come together and as one with our assistant in Circularity Aya and our secret weapon, we can be a very clever effective ‘one’ or whole indeed.

Try on that you could work also in this manner and seek information with us on your side – welcome along to join us in the next forum – check the webpage for details.. To join the forum is £27 to charity, this time it is for Mind.

It is specifically for SMEs, either starting in sustainability fresh, having applied it already a little or for those wanting to hone their team into action. We look at how you do this with REAL applied Sustainable Circularity.

Try on Real Circularity

Real Collaboration

Real futures

Happy New Year

Rachel