Gaia: Business for Life and Earth
Posted in business development communications by on Oct 20 2010
Gaia by Waldo Retamales
Does it sometimes seem that the world’s challenges are too big to solve? That corporate business cannot change and align with more peaceful co-existence strategies? Read on. This post we explore four efforts that bring sustainable concept design to the new business paradigm: we can succeed in the world with fruitful business models rooted in social responsibility and an intrinsic understanding of human rights and environmental awareness.
I had the pleasure of getting to know the below profiled efforts at the World Congress on Zero Emissions, held in Honolulu last month. Timely, no (it’s been a busy month!)…but nonetheless…timeless.
By assigning value to important things that don’t have an assessed market value- including culture, education, community, economics and the environment- systems can change. And in the new business paradigm, they are changing.
Tomoyo Nonaka, Chair of Gaia Initiative, Former Chair and CEO, Sanyo Electric
In 2005, Tomoyo Nonaka became chairperson and CEO for Sanyo Electric. In October 2004, a M6.8 earthquake had hit a Sanyo semi-conductor factory, devastating business and leaving Sanyo in a position of crisis with crashing numbers and a lot of nervous executives.
Upon her taking chairperson position, she created the new corporate vision ‘Think Gaia’ and started to restructure many business divisions under the new vision; for Sanyo to become a leading company to solve environmental problems with its technology. She created a three-year Evolution Plan aimed at reorganizing the business portfolio and improving the corporate financial structure and conditions.
GAIA is the name of the Greek goddess of Earth. The ‘Think GAIA’ vision recognized Earth as a living planet where nature and all life were intimately interwoven. Taking inspiration from this concept, Sanyo vowed to promote a harmonious balance between technology and the environment through all its future products. What can Sanyo do for life and the earth? Provide products in the interlooping “Life and Earth” lifestyle; apply cutting-edge technology, to learn and spread wisdoms of living in sync with nature.
The ‘Think Gaia’ vision was created to make Sanyo profitable by shifting their business platform. They restructured their money losing business (primarily home electronics business) and focused their business powerhouses (solar business and rechargeable batteries, eneloop and hi-brid automoble batteries) to the Think Gaia vision.
Ms. Nonaka shifted a classic two-dimensional return on investment valuation metric; taking the conventional “Efficiency/Revenue” axes and adding “contribution or threat to Gaia” to create a 3-axis valuation grid. It did not take long for the company profit & loss statement to show the benefits, demonstrating a remarkable turn-around and moving towards financial profitability once again.
“My ‘Think GAIA’ vision – people just take it lightly, calling it too naive, or green, or childish, or womanly. But this is a fundamental thing for Sanyo.”- Tomoyo Nonaka, Executive Chairperson and CEO, Sanyo Electric Company Ltd., in 2006
(reference: Gaia Initiative website, ICMR, Case Study and Wikipedia.com)
Javier Morales, Spain
El Hierro, one of the smallest of Spain’s Canary Islands, is heading towards being completely carbon neutral. The island, with a population of around 10,000, will be powered by a combination of wind and hydroelectric power.
Most of the island’s power is taken from its 10 megawatt hydroelectric infrastructure. Excess wind power is used to pump water uphill into one of two reservoirs. The potential energy of that water then becomes a gigantic battery for times when the wind isn’t so strong. This unique system allows for wind power to become a steady, instead of intermittent, source of power.
The wind turbines also power a desalination plant for the island’s population. A diesel generator is maintained just in case the carbon-neutral system fails.
As Javier Morales, one of the masterminds behind El Hierro’s plans explained, the world is a living being and an island is a system: by diversification one becomes more competitive. Community planning must create: diversity, zero waste, dynamic system, and flow and interaction. Wastes should be the basis of the next project.
A balanced system comes from thriving nature, thriving agriculture, healthy people, clean water and leisure time to enjoy ourselves and be spiritually happy. You may not the change the world, but you can change yourself and when you do, everyone around you has to respond.
(reference: www.treehugger.com)
Chad W. Adams, Vice President Sustainable Development
Bio-Logical Capital conserves, restores and develops significant landscapes to sustain people and nature and to produce strong returns on invested capital.
They bring together investors, landowners, local communities and other partners to protect, enhance and responsibly develop large properties with multiple revenue opportunities such as sustainable forestry and agriculture, renewable energy, tourism and recreation, environmentally appropriate real estate development, and payments for conservation and ecosystem services.
As a real estate company, they deal with land, soil, water and human settlement. They look at natural systems for solutions, envisioning peaceful ways to co-exist with nature and addressing systemic problems with conflict resolution, energy, local knowledge and initiatives.
Conventional developers often use a single revenue model to produce short-term gains at the expense of nature, people and long-term economic value. Bio-Logical Capital sees a better way—to enhance property values and deliver attractive investment returns by conducting rigorous project evaluation and design, creating multiple revenue streams and respecting communities both human and natural.
They bring together partners and landowners who share their vision of enhanced, sustainable, integrated landscapes where business, community and nature prosper and thrive.
(reference: www.biologicalcapital.com)
Anders Nyquist, Sweden
“Our impact on the environment and the global growth of the human population demands a change to the ecocycle; we need an adapted way of planning and building. Traditional western infrastructure and way of planning for growth are not sustainable. What is sustainable then? What is the cycle of energy, water, material, air, sound, light and people in a society? Ecocycle design brings happy and healthy living, addressing social, ecological, economical and technical balance. Reduce, re-use, recycle, renew and rethink. EcoCycleDesign is a holistic way to design buildings and cities and it combines beautiful design with system design, high quality, less carbon footprints and energy saving. EcoCycleDesign includes cost efficiency, sustainability, energy saving, recycable material, high quality, good indoor environment and health.”
(reference: www.ecocycledesign.com)
You can access all presentations from the featured presenters at the World Congress on Zero Emissions website, and also see video clips of panel discussions including very noteworthy people in Hawaii’s clean energy future.
