Happyzine 2015 = exciting times ahead

So word has in on the street that Kiwi businesses ranked pretty close to the bottom of the barrel in a recent international survey when it came to ‘saving the planet’.  Yep.  A mere twenty eight percent of New Zealand businesses valued the state of the environment when it came to the implementation of more ethical business practices.

This baffles me.

Apparently ‘altruistic concerns over the environment have been forced into a backseat role.’  This is due to recent economic down-turn.  As if our economy isn’t just a teeny bit reliant on our environment.

And here I was thinking we were a bright, savvy bunch of entrepreneurs here in New Zealand.  You know, number eight wire and all that.  But perhaps the number eight wire thing is not so much about making the most of what we’ve got, but forcing a pliable piece of mineral into something foreign and bent.

We’re in a bloody good position here in this relatively under-populated island nation where our kids can swim down at the river, and we can eat the food from our soils, and where many of us still know some good places to gather good kai moana.  Do you think it’s just going to stay this way, if we don’t place any value on ‘saving the planet’?

Well?  Do you?

I’ll tell you something interesting.  There are no sacrifices to be made in running an environmentally sustainable businesses.  You may have to change a brand or two, or go to a bit more effort here or there, perhaps reduce the use of a few products and wisen up about ways to get from A to Z.  But the cost of these changes can be offset with the marketing.  Haven’t you heard?  The LOHAS market is one of the fastest growing on the planet?  So’s the organics market.

Sure, it’s easy for me to make that last remark.  I said it so flippantly.  “Why don’t they just sort their s**t out those Kiwi businesses, it’s simple really”.  I mean, what would I know?  I’ll tell you one thing: if we don’t sort it out now, these days of environmental peace will appear pink and rosy in hindsight for centuries to come.  Really, they will.  If we don’t wisen up, if we don’t sensitize now, if we don’t re-connect now – our babies, and their babies will not be very pleased with us.  To put it nicely.

I mean, what are we waiting for? Environmental catastrophe? Or are we waiting for America to say ‘Oh Kiwis!  We love your quaint, clean, green country and you’d better keep it that way, that is if you want to remain friends with us!’

Here’s an interesting suggestion: why don’t we combine a wee bit of foresight, with just a teeny bit of innovation and savvy marketing and commit to becoming a world-leader in sustainability.  I refuse to put a question mark at the end of that sentence.  Why don’t we ride our green edge, just as a model rides on the god given benefits of youth, and build an economy around it?  Let’s commit to casting aside our reliance upon fossil fuels in favour of some very clever, locally produced sources of energy – it’s being done elsewhere right now!  Let’s go carbon neutral.  Let’s go 100% organic and make food treated with chemicals ‘abnormal’ again.  Let’s compost human waste and use it as a resource.  Let’s create living streets bursting with free food all year round!  No this is not utopia.  This is U better wake up and take control now.  Because this is it!

Or perhaps we’d rather wait until things begin to look just a little bit too shabby, and we can’t quite get away with that 100% Pure thing we keep raving about.  And just a few too many tourists go home to their countries and shake their heads about our not so green anymore landscape, business practices, food sources and attitudes.

Why is it that Europe is twenty years ahead of New Zealand in terms of implementation of sustainable living? How come they have whole cities weaned off fossil fuels while over two thirds of our businesses don’t even regard ‘saving the planet’ as worthy of their concern?  I bet there are some really simple changes the owners or shareholders of those Kiwi businesses could make.  If they truly cared.

I liken it to one of those kiwi women who sunbathes every day of summer for forty years and then wonders why her skin went all thin and wrinkly so fast.  She wasn’t protecting it.  And neither are we.

It’s about time we did.

We are a country of the blessed.  We were born lucky.  We have water coming out of every orifice.  Unlike some Chinese people.  Most of us can inhale deeply and feel wonderful because our lungs are full of nourishing, clean oxygen, er … unlike some Chinese people … in China.

It’s already happening you know … the good green stuff.

Whether or not we feel like it right now, we are all being pulled into the green economy.  Why? Not because middle class people are demanding more and more organic bread (which they are).  Nope.  Not because the UK love our organic beef (which they do).  Nope.  Because Eco-Store’s made it big in America.  No, we’re moving into it out of necessity.  Mark my words you young’ns (said the cranky 34 year old who ran the good news site) life will pull is deeper and deeper into a green economy because it will come down to survival.  The survival of our food sources, our animals, our water, our oceans and sea-life, of our children.  So we can either fall into it reluctantly and rate shockingly low on these international surveys, or we can wake up, see the potential, get excited and strive to become a nation of innovative, green: designers, office workers, factory staff, entrepreneurs, writers, parents, teachers, artists and the list goes on.  It’s time to get imaginative and creative.  It’s time to step up, take this economy by the horns and fill it up with common sense.  It’s time to fall back into line with the most efficient operation you’ll ever discover: our natural environment.

Because, in the words of Fred Dagg:

Tags: green economy