Peter Burgess Dialog
Matt Polsky

Matt Polsky ... 'Latest Writings--Plus' Continues ... June 2013

Burgess COMMENTARY

Peter Burgess

'Latest Writings--Plus' Continues 1 message
matthew polsky
Thu, Jun 20, 2013 at 2:12 PM
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All:

The 46 of you all (out of the 250 or so originally met in a many-year sustainability journey) “opted-in” to receive these, so I’ll continue to do and send them—to you.

(Nine of you, in contrast, are seeing one of these for the first time. Let me know if you would like to continue to.)

I speculate this must say something about this group. I’ll leave it at it shows you have the quality of curiosity, which I’ve said before is one of the rarest things around, typically one of the first to go after college, and a legitimate (and usually missed) element of “leadership,” a term often cavalierly thrown around.

I’ve softened my desire for “comments,” as a number of you said you don’t necessarily get to these for a while, but keep them around for when you can. Not bad to hear that.

And a few of you said some very nice things, which were nice to hear, too.

My Latest Publications & Thought Pieces

“New Era: Can Profit-Seeking Approaches Protect Natural Capital?” EarthPeople, June 6, 2013.
http://www.earthpeopleco.com/blog/2013/06/06/61-new-era-can-profit-seeking-approaches-protect-natural-capital-

“Why Complexity Matters When Measuring Sustainability: Part IV,” with Claire Sommer, GreenBiz.com, June 18, 2013.
http://www.greenbiz.com/blog/2013/06/18/why-complexity-matters-measuring-sustainability

“Missing Sustainability Topics in NJ,” done at the request of Randy Solomon of Sustainable Jersey (SJ). See the attached “Missing Sustainability Topics.”

What we still haven’t done in NJ (or gone backwards), and some of the attitudinal and institutional obstacles to sustainability.

Question: Having done this for SJ, what else could I do with it?

“Range of Subjects/Articles Collected on Sustainable Agriculture (Broadly Conceived).” See the attached “Sustainable Agriculture Range.”

This is something different: a pre-hunch to try to understand the full range, from a multidisciplinary perspective, of what makes up the sustainable ag field. Don’t quite know what this is telling me other than the broadness of the range, different philosophical approaches to sustainable ag, and degree of innovation in so many areas (which I had not seen before in this sector).

Question: Having organized this, what do I do with it? Any thoughts?

Comments on Others’ Articles (Including going beyond the usual sustainability beat) & Initiatives

A Response to Iman Bibar’s (one of the 46) “Why I Love Nasser,”
http://imanbibars.wordpress.com/2013/05/23/why-i-love-nasser/

See the attached “SBI1,” “SBI2,” & “SBI3” for my comments on the NJDEP’s in-development Sustainable Business Initiative that ISE has been advising. This is a response to their current thinking about launching a Registry of small NJ businesses implementing some sustainability measures. (Contact Athena.Sarafides@dep.state.nj.us if you want to see their current proposal. They would like to receive more comments on it.) You will note I would like them to be much bolder.

The best things I’m reading or viewing (these tend to be contrarian or show new, unexpected possibilities)

• Stephanie Strom’s “Seeking Food Ingredients That Aren’t Gene-Altered,” The New York Times,
  target = _blank > http://www.nytimes.com/2013/05/27/business/food-companies-seeking-ingredients-that-arent-gene-altered.html?pagewanted=all
• Stephanie Strom’s & Steven Greenhouse’s “On the Front Lines of Food Safety,” The New York Times,
  target = _blank > http://www.nytimes.com/2013/05/25/business/a-program-to-combat-food-contamination.html?pagewanted=all
• Alec Applebaum’s “Techs and the City,” The New York Times,
  target = _blank > http://www.nytimes.com/2013/06/02/opinion/sunday/the-limits-of-big-data-in-the-big-city.html
• Thomas Friedman’s “Egypt’s Perilous Drift,” The New York Times,
  target = _blank > http://www.nytimes.com/2013/06/16/opinion/sunday/friedman-egypts-perilous-drift.html?hp

Environmentalism, and what it represents, as a solution to Egypt’s problems. A return to the concept of “the commons.”

James Murray‘s “Richard Branson, Puma's Zeitz Kick Off 'Plan B' for Business,” GreenBiz.com, http://www.greenbiz.com/blog/2013/06/13/richard-branson-pumas-zeitz-kicks-plan-b-business

A new initiative to “…redefine…its (the private sector’s) responsibilities and its own terms of success” “to help get on top of some of the world's seemingly intractable challenges.”

Frank Jack Daniel, Serajul Quadir, & Fiona Ortiz’s “Good Intent a Casualty of Factory Crash,” The New York Times, http://www.nytimes.com/2013/06/18/business/global/good-intent-a-casualty-of-factory-crash.html?pagewanted=all

Unfortunately, having ethical motivations is no guarantee, either.

Rebecca Henderson’s “Why Culture Trumps Technology in Moving Markets,” GreenBiz.com, http://www.greenbiz.com/video/2013/06/12/culture-trumps-technology-changing-markets.

Great 9-minute video. Example theme: “Becoming Rational About Emotions,” a partial reconciliation of a difficult paradox.

Any comments (which are still welcome)?

Matt 5 attachments sustainableagriculturerange.docx 19K MissingSustainabilityTopics.docx 16K sbi1.docx 19K sbi2.docx 15K sbi3.docx 16K