The future sustainability event

Now, obviously the substance of the panel is extremely important, and I am genuinely happy to see there are hard working people focusing on this issue. That said, as far as "culture awareness" goes, I must say I probably learnt a different lesson during that event.

The event was hosted by two leading female entrepreneurs, listing the achievements they had in the rehabilitating industry, green housing industry, their outlook of solar energy industry and more. All very exciting topics. But to be honest, I just can not feel the energy.

I had high hopes that the event would be a far cry of raising the awareness of the importance of having environmental friendly designs in all aspects of our society. To be fair, they did remark about how North Europe countries already have tax codes to punish wasteful product packaging and have had major moves to shift to clean energy. But the whole meeting was conducted in a "lecture" fashion, which reminds me of the "meeting culture" in the business world. Remember those commercials we see on TV that mocks the inefficiency of business meetings with the boss talking all the time? Well, that was pretty much it.

The big take away here for me, is not that how important environmental issues are. Indeed they are, but if we cannot advertise a good cause in the right way, the message will not be received well. In another word, we should reject the culture of being the "lecturer" and embrace the idea of being a story teller. Instead of listing what we have done, we should focus on why we do it. That is also a culture. A different culture. And if I may, I'd say that is a more successful culture.



How so? Look at the culture in Silicon Valley. Look at the success of Apple. People don't buy iPhone because it is a good smart phone. They buy it, because it stands for something. To many of us, it stands for the pursuit of art and perfection. It is the purpose, which the phone represents, elevates it into a higher ground than being a commercial product. People buy it, because they are inspired by it.

So maybe instead of talking about how we dealt with the 2008 Iowa flood, talk about the lives we have saved. Instead of talking about how we secured funding to do more project, talk about how the fund will fuel our dreams of bringing a green American into reality. And boy, if that was how the message was presented, wouldn't it be amazing?