Happy Earth Day 2010!!

I would like to take a few moments to say that I am thankful for this planet. It goes to tremendous lengths to nourish me. When my actions are not very green, I make mother nature work way too hard. Generally, when this happens I take note. I vow to do better. I wonder about what I can do differently, and I take action. I ask that my everyday responsibilities not be so at odds with how I want to care for the planet. Most of all I have hope. Go green!!

Thank you to everyone who supported this blog in 2009. For the time-being Savvy Success Unlimited's eco-conscious voice is still alive and well. Right now, it's just resting.

Happy Earth Day!!

Your Voice and National Environmental Policy

Previous blog commenters mentioned that having the U.S. government involved in the green movement gives it a push and stamp of approval that no other organization in this great country can give it. This September as it did forty years ago with the National Environmental Policy Act of 1969, the Senate will review revolutionary environmental legislation, that could change the way we live and do business. The current Act will be negotiated, poked, prodded, and harangued; going green has indeed gone governmental!

Two significant questions are: Will individual voices from communities all over the U.S. make Senators aware of how they feel about this bill? Will people tell their hometown politicians what they need from this legislation?

The American Clean Energy and Security Act of 2009 sponsored by Henry Waxman (D-CA) and co-sponsored by Ed Markey (D-MA) was passed by the narrow margin of 219-212 in the House of Representatives on July 24, 2009. This might signal a governmental tipping point for reforming how we do “green” business in America.

This bill is a serious issue. Some of its different subsections will affect various industries that we come into contact with daily. The banking, automotive, and energy sectors are all headliners in this piece of sustainability legislation. Every politician will need to hear from their constituents to stay clear on what is important to the people. For this, there are several organizations around the country dedicated to the green movement and to ensuring that individual voices are supported and heard throughout these processes.

Greenpeace is one of those organizations. Under the “Take Action” section of their website (www.greenpeace.org), people can submit a story of how they are involved in the environmental movement. Greenpeace will forward the story along with a photo of the story’s author and a quick blurb from the organization to one of the writer’s Congressional Representatives.

We can all work to make monumental strides towards a sustainable planet. Let the people in tandem with the U.S. Senate guide America on this important part of our journey towards going green!

Lorraine Lyman, MS, is the founder of Savvy Success Unlimited, (http://www.savvysuccessunlimited.com), and the author of several papers on global sustainability, consciousness, and community. A business and life coaching company, Savvy Success Unlimited, specializes in the organizational embodiment of the green movement’s values and practices as well as utilizing our inner strength to transform the world around us.

Consciously Choosing Change

Consciously choosing change can often be quite a courageous feat; it is not for the meek or the faint of heart. Today, one of the greatest calls
to change heard around the globe is for sustainability. The transformations needed to move forward in this quest are on par with some of the greatest movements in history. The green movement, from an American perspective, has the potential to be as monumental as the founding of this country, the Industrial Revolution, or the Civil Rights movement. Each occasion changed the manner in which individuals interacted with one another and had effects that reverberated around the world. As people everywhere consciously choose to support the wave of green movements far and wide, the resulting crescendo of new ways to relate to each other, the land, and our monetary systems has the potential to create a healthy, sustainable planet.

The business sector is a key actor in consciously choosing change for sustainability. Joel Makower, well-known for his perspectives on business and the environment, highlighted some of the difficulties of the sustainability movement in his book, Strategies for the Green Economy: Opportunities and Challenges in the New World of Business. In connection with what Makower has written about sustainability, to consciously choose change, we must take on the challenges of seeing the world and ourselves as they are; we must take responsibility; and we must choose to act in ways that are win-win for all involved. What compels more and more people every day to stand strong in the face of these challenges and begin to cooperate for positive change?

The green movement is, in part, humanity’s conscious response to destruction of the only planet we call home. Through our somewhat sophisticated evolution of how we relate to one another and use nature’s resources, we have moved adventurously from a foraging, agrarian world culture to one that becomes more and more industrial every day, as described by American philosopher Ken Wilber in his book, A Brief History of Everything. The growing industrial framework continually brings a larger and larger percentage of the masses in touch with the business sector. Holistic principles aligned with the eco-conscious green movement can transform the field of business to a significant portion of the population, going from a devastating often energy draining system to one that thrives on individual and group levels and leads us toward global sustainability.

Individual businesses can choose to adopt holistic, sustainable practices in many ways, including utilizing a company’s impact on nature in its valuation and supporting employees in developing their own in-depth personal connection to the green movement. In a greener business model, when companies are valued among all that is taken into consideration including products and services and real estate, their environmental impact will also be added to the equation. I am positive that this is probably a scary proposition for many businesses, especially those that manufacture tangible products which create harmful byproducts in the process; however for the sake of the planet, all people, and global sustainability this action must be taken. Yes, under this model some companies will lose value. If they do, I would like to argue that this means currently they are over-valued. This speaks to the fact that under the current model their value is not reflective of the company as a whole. Greener models will theoretically work to value companies from a holistic approach.

As a high profile field that affects the lives of such a large portion of global citizens on a daily basis, the field of business is positioned to consciously lead us into a sustainable future. Adopting holistic green practices can transform the business sector from the destructive beast of burden that it often behaves as to a life sustaining entity that helps people and communities world-wide tap into the renewable resources of self, spirit, and soul that all employees have to offer. By valuing all that they are including their environmental impact, and supporting employees through workshops and seminars geared towards embodying the green movement companies can help to create a new day. By choosing these changes, perhaps we can consciously create a new sustainable economy that can withstand the natural ups and downs of existence via creative expression and valuing all that is!

Lorraine Lyman, MS, is the founder of Savvy Success Unlimited, (http://www.savvysuccessunlimited.com), and the author of several papers on global sustainability, consciousness, and community. A business and life coaching company, Savvy Success Unlimited, specializes in the organizational embodiment of the green movement’s values and practices as well as utilizing our inner strength to transform the world around us.

Celebrating You!

Earth Day 2009 has become a memory in the landscape of the human consciousness. Now, we can look ahead to the wonders of Earth Day 2010. The fortieth anniversary of this spectacular celebration for the planet, that we call home, can serve as a reminder of how we need to celebrate ourselves on a daily basis. For what is an awesome party, if you do not have an awesome host? It is imperative that we all take on the challenge and the responsibility of celebrating who we are, which allows us to celebrate the Earth in proper style, with a deep respect and love that the planet has not seen for decades.

As indigenous people, we were all in tune with nature and understood its power and self mastery. Living to its rhythms was instinctual and necessary for our survival. Then, along came marked periods in human history that gave us a greater objective understanding of ourselves such as the Scientific Revolution and the Age of Enlightenment. Simultaneously, increasing one aspect of our awareness while leading us away from the knowledge that though we are all individuals we must remember to live as one with each other and the planet. The green movement guides us back to living in harmony with nature; the music of re-connecting can support the celebration that we each hold for ourselves and others. How will you choose to celebrate you? How will you choose to celebrate your connections with other people and the planet?

While pondering the details of our grand party and how our individual growth has brought us to where, who, and how we are now, we can reflect on the green movement. Described through an American lens, in-line with the maturation of the United States, this movement has evolved through several distinct phases. Building on Van Jones' work regarding waves of environmentalism as explained in The Green Collar Economy, I posit seven phases. In brief, they are redaction, conservation, preservation, restoration, regulation, and investment. Today as we transcend and include all previous phases, we are becoming fully entrenched in the investment stage in multiple ways. Our time and our money are being poured into green governmental policies, green jobs, and green products and services. None of these colorful renditions will create the strong lasting impact that so many of us desire, if individuals at the center of this great change are not respected and celebrated as an integral part of the new era. The touchstone for our latest mass transformation can be how each and every one of us celebrates who we are.

Earth Day 2009 marked the start of the Green Generation™ campaign, which will be in full swing for Earth Day 2010. One of its core principles, discovering and creating sources of renewable energy, is highly aligned with celebrating self. From a decidedly anthropomorphic vantage point, we are the most precious renewable natural resource that we have. What does this understanding mean for you? How will an ongoing celebration for your self help you feel renewed, energized, and present in every moment? From a deep ecological perspective, such as that of Joanna Macy, how can you celebrate you and honor the world, simultaneously? Rely on your heart and soul for some of the answers. Ponder the questions with others. It is certainly my hope that we all take up this cause. Celebrating you! No one else… can do it better!!

Lorraine Lyman, MS, is the founder of Savvy Success Unlimited, (http://www.savvysuccessunlimited.com), and the author of several papers on global sustainability, consciousness, and community. A business and life coaching company, Savvy Success Unlimited, specializes in the organizational embodiment of the green movement’s values and practices as well as utilizing our inner strength to transform the world around us.

Be Your Own Visionary

There is no doubt that we are in a time of monumental change. Banking experts and government leaders are paving the way for a new tomorrow, many of us hope. However, what we need are new voices, new visionaries. All we have to do is look in the mirror. Who knows what any of us might be able to add to the mix? Thought leaders, such as Albert Einstein, have throughout the ages understood that we cannot solve the problems of today using the perspectives that created them. It is time for those who have been quietly keeping to themselves or the ones who have long gone unnoticed by popular culture to step out of the shadows and infuse the main stream with a new energy and consciousness. This wonderfully creative process can start with each one of us, being visionaries for ourselves.

Perhaps you have been wanting to do things differently. Take a few minutes. Make some quiet time for yourself or go above and beyond and focus in the midst of chaos. Let that desire for change sink in. From its depths allow the ideas that are unique to who you are and your experiences to spring forth. Innovative visionaries such as Paul Hawken, Peter Senge, and Jacob Needleman have for decades espoused the ideals that can help each individual create collective, positive change. Their work is aligned with the burgeoning green movement. It has been happening one person at a time. Men and women, young and old, and people of all racial and ethnic backgrounds hold the key to creating a sustainable Earth. Listen to your own voice. Be courageous enough to share your thoughts with others, as the men listed above have done. They have taken up the challenge. What valuable insight can you add to the times of today? Perhaps you can add a feminine perspective? Do you have some great ideas on how to breathe new life into your rural hometown’s economy, or would you like to create new ways to support change through inner-city programs?

Paul Hawken, co-founder of the company Smith & Hawken, wrote Natural Capitalism: Creating the Next Industrial Revolution, calling for industry and government to transform the way we do business now by using biological and social frameworks to inform our decisions, which is a key part of going green. Peter Senge wrote The Fifth Discipline: The Art and Practice of the Learning Organization, positing that businesses are dynamic learning organizations. As companies re-create themselves for a new era, this understanding will be crucial. While Jacob Needleman has authored numerous books including The American Soul, which among other interesting ideas describes how the uniqueness of the American spirit can guide us to greater awareness and transformation. These visionaries know that they have not gone it alone. They observed the world around them. Took into account their own needs, values, and desires as well as those of their communities and created seeds of change. What have you observed? What do you need? In this time of deep reflection, listen to your heart and articulate your vision with your own voice. Then, be sure to share it with the world!

Lorraine Lyman, MS, is the founder of Savvy Success Unlimited, (http://www.savvysuccessunlimited.com), and the author of several papers on global sustainability, consciousness, and community. A business and life coaching company, Savvy Success Unlimited, specializes in the organizational embodiment of the green movement’s values and practices as well as using our inner strength to transform the world around us.