Monthly Archive for March, 2011

Planned obsolesence.

Published on March 24, 2011 in Economy. Closed

I absolutely hate that term.  The very idea of it in fact.  In two words you have described all that is crappy about our modern day throw away society.  I wasn’t always thus.  I love my gadgets and things.  I loved the periodic iterative updates that manufacturers made to their products which I had lusted after and eventually purchased.  And repurchased.  And repurchased.  Then I became cynical.  Who needs an iPod Mini, an iPod Touch and an iPhone?  I can only use one of them at a time.  By allowing planned obsolescence to even exist, not to mention functional obsolescence, we allow ourselves to be led around by the noses by companies and their marketing departments, and we will never be happy.  Now I value quality above all else and will happily pay extra for something which I know will last for God knows how many years and which if it every does break for whatever reason, I can return it to the company to be repaired so that it’ll last another very very long time.  Isn’t that sustainable?  Build less, of higher quality and which don’t end up in a container bound for some poor third world country where people will spend their lives eeking out a shitty existence trying to recover some precious or rare earth elements from the item in a totally unhealthy environment.

I feel however that some of this behaviour falls into a classical chicken and egg scenario.  Companies conduct R & D to improve their products or if it’s marketing led to create a new product or an updated version of an existing products.  Obviously this incurs a cost to the company.  In many cases quite a substantial cost.  This cost needs to be recouped by the company before they can make a profit on the product.  But, depending on the type of product, the life cycle before the next update is introduced is only a year. In that year they have to sell as many of the item as they possibly can, without impacting sales of the next update or alienating customers who bought the last item and who are now being told that the item they bought last year is inferior in every way, so that they can recoup the investment in the existing product, make it pay for itself before they introduce the next updated version and the cycle begins again.  And they do.  They perhaps make the item with components which will only last some incremental time more than the life cycle of the product creating a ready market for the next updated version.  CYNICAL, ain’t I!?  Anyway, why are they doing this?  Because the measure of a company’s worth, and by extension it’s CEO/MD etc. and their salaries & bonuses is the profit and growth of the company.  In order to keep their profits growing in a market that at some point must become saturated, they need clever marketing departments and R & D departments.  Where did this all start?  With the consumer wanting more choice?  With an advertising campaign introducing us to choices we didn’t know we needed but now feel we can’t live without?  With a shareholder demanding to know why the company’s turnover didn’t grow 10% in the last year?  By a greedy society that expects everything to grow year on year, quarter on quarter?

Where have we come from?

Published on March 22, 2011 in Sustainability. Closed

Sustainability and Sustainable Development are nothing new, just a new name for common sense activities that have been happening since the 1800′s.

When the industrial revolution began there was little concern for the environment or the people who lived in it. Primarily the drivers of the industrial revolution appear to have been the ability to produce more for less thereby increasing a company’s or individual’s profit levels exponentially. With little concern for the environment, some places must litterally have looked like hell on earth.

The scene depicted in de Loutherbourg’s painting, “Coalbrookdale by Night”, painted in 1801 gives us an insight in to what it must have been like to live near these new hubs of industrialisation.  The air quality must have been very poor indeed.  Water quality and sanitation were also extremely poor and the cause of significant disease.  Not very good if you are a company depending on your workers being healthy in order to extract maximum productivity out of them.  Beer was popular for a reason – it was safer to drink, because of the brewing process, rather than the water of the time.

Thankfully even at this time there were individuals who were concerned about the environment and had the money and influence to do something about it.  A social conscience.  Preservation and conservation were seen as key issues.  The Royal Society  for the Protection of Birds and the Sierra Club  in America are two examples of early environmentalism. 

In the decades leading up to the second world war things gradually improved, however most people were living a life of relative frugality.  People grew their own veg, raised animals etc.   I firmly believe that society was better of.

Grow it Yourself

Published on March 21, 2011 in Food. 1 Comment

I just purchased Michael O’Kelly’s book Tales from the Home Farm.  I’ve long harboured a desire to follow in Hugh’s River Cottage footsteps of becoming a small hold farmer, growing my own veg and rearing my own animals for meat.  This has become even more important to me since the birth of my daughter, Eve.  And now thankfully there’s an Irish book on the subject.  Along with his first book Trading Paces, I should have some interesting reading for the summer.  Watch this space, I could have some livestock and a polytunnel before it’s all over ;o)

More EV’s

Published on March 21, 2011 in Transport. Closed

I’m really beginning to love EV’s. Regardless of how they are powered (hybrid/battery only etc.), the humble electric motor seems to be well up to the task of propelling us. In fact it is extremely well suited for use in transport applications as the motive source. An electric motor develops it’s max torque pretty much from the get go, meaning excellent acceleration potential, provided the size of the motor is suitable to it’s task. And that it get’s enough juice. The technology available nowadays, both battery and electric motors, in the hobby (as opposed to toy) side of R/C cars is really stunning in comparison to only a few years ago. In fact there are a lot of committed hobbyists who formerly only raced with petrol engines who have now converted to purely electric set-ups. Will this shift be mirrored in full size cars? Already we’re seeing some interesting cars available now, not just prototypes or showcars. And thankfully they’re a million miles away from the G-Wiz/REVA  . 

Tesla and Fisker are making EV’s sexy, Honda have made a huge step in the right direction with their CR-Z.  Then there’s the more radical side of EV’s which is more towards the cutting edge and also more centred around personal transport.  At the cutting edge side of things we have the TTZero – it’s the Isle of Man TT motorcycle race except on battery powered, electric motorcycles.
http://www.dailymotion.com/video/xds1lx_tt-zero-iomtt2010-isle-of-man_auto

Whilst not exactly pretty you know when you’ve been Tango’d.  This vehicle addresses the fact that most of us when driving anywhere, except on a family outting etc., usually drive alone.  We have a four/five/seven seat vehicle to carry one person……Stupid.  The future of the automobile lies in making in occupy a significantly smaller footprint to accommodate one person only and their luggage.  The majority of car journeys can be made in vehicles like that.  Their production would consume significantly fewer resources, they’d be lighter so need less motive power, would place a lower demand on the road infrastructure and would allow people to get around, in the absence of a credible public transport system, in a much more sustainable fashion.

The ultimate in EV’s – electric bicycles.
[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tzsHFka92X8?rel=0&w=480&h=390]
Recumbent trikes fitted with an electric assist or all out electric drive could revolutionise personal mobility.  Or better yet, just buy a good old fashioned bicycle and pedal damn it.  The ultimate sustainable form of personal transport.  And it’s good for you.

* Disclaimer – Please note I’m not affiliated to Niner Bikes or Unicycle.

Critical thinking

Published on March 21, 2011 in Uncategorized. Closed

The 5 Why’s is the best tool ever for making people think about a process.  Having conducted and mentored a large number of projects using six sigma process improvement methodology, I can honestly say that the thing that used to make senior managers stop and think about what it was that they were doing wrong was the 5 Why’s.  Process mapping ran it a close second in my mind.

GM Crops? What about our meat?

Published on March 17, 2011 in Food. 1 Comment

I just watched a program on BBC called Great British Food Revival.  Continuing in the current saving traditional cooking/food tradition of Hugh, Jamie et. al. (a great initiative in my book btw as it introduces the current generation to real food and reminds the older generations of what they’ve forgotten), tonight’s program featured Clarissa Dickson Wright of Two Fat Ladies fame speaking about pork and what classes as pork in our supermarkets.  Basically, following a report in the mid 50′s which, for the sake of economies of scale, recommended that the diversity of pig breeds in the UK be dramatically cut to a handful of breeds.  Subsequently these breeds have become specialised and bred to suit the requirements of the supermarkets, namely fast growing.  This ensures a pretty tasteless meat when it hits the shelves.  Now you might say that the pork chops you recently purchased at your local supermarket tasted great and the cost was quite reasonable.  Tasted great compared to what though?  Have you ever had a pork chop from a traditionally reared pig (nowadays they’d probably be called organically reared – so they can sell it to you at a serious premium, even though that still doesn’t live up to a traditionally reared animal)?  A pork chop from such an animal simply tastes out of this world.  The supermarket stuff isn’t even in the same general classification.  And it’s not just pork chops.  No no.  Look at chickens – we now have broilers and layers, a distinction which never existed in the past.  I won’t even go in to how they’re reared or selectively bred, again to suit the needs of the supermarkets as opposed to the stomachs of the consumer.  Back in the day (BITD) you didn’t have the broilers/layer distinction.  You simply had a few hens scratching around a patch in your back yard, consuming the food waste from the dinner table.  Probably next to the pig, happily mucking around in it’s pen (if you were very lucky).  The thing is we’ve forgotten these things.  It’s too problematic, doesn’t fit in to our life style.  How difficult would having a few hens make taking two weeks in the sun every year?  There’s no such thing as boarding kennels for hens.  Unless you count the local fox population. They’d certainly look after your few hens for you.  So in the quest for convenient meat which we can have on our dinner table every night, we’ve slowly surrendered the notion of quality, good tasting, healthy food for selectively bred animals which produce the maximum amount of saleable product in the shortest possible time.  And people are worried about GM crops.  The meat you eat tonight has in all probability been manipulated in some fashion, probably through selective breeding, at the very least, to suit the needs of the supermarkets.  It certainly isn’t as tasty or naturally nutricious for you as meat you would have traditionally reared yourself.  In your own backyard.  I’m not going to worry about GM crops for the moment.  That threat is coming to a store near you soon.  I’m more worried about the meat that’s on my plate right now.  Eat less but eat better.  And stay away from monoculture or highly specialised, highly bred items as they haven’t been bred with your best interest at heart.  Only the profit margin of the company that sold it to you.

Again, I think that looking to the past needs to be part of the solution for the way forward.  Just don’t let them sell it to you as something new and amazing.  It’s not.

Paradox of Choices

Published on March 15, 2011 in Sustainability. Closed

I really enjoyed watching this video from Barry Schwartz about having too many choices.

It ties in neatly with the idea I previously mentioned in connection with Maslow’s Heirarchy of Needs and how modern consumerism actually makes us more and more unhappy.

Advertising Ireland

Published on March 13, 2011 in Economy. Closed

Good IDA Ireland advert.

http://www.idaireland.com/news-media/videos/index.xml?bclid=66038357001&bctid=819825751001

Happiness is……

Published on March 1, 2011 in Happiness. Closed

What is true happiness and what does it have to do with sustainability?  While I don’t expect everybody, or even anybody, to subscribe to my particular understanding of happiness I think a basic appreciation of one of the mainstays of college psychology, Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs, can’t hurt.  I remember when I first encountered this theory I felt it was pie in the sky.  This, along with the theory that money wasn’t important to a person and didn’t motivate them only meant for me that psychology had gotten it all wrong.  However as I’ve gotten older I’ve come to believe more in the fundamental message contained within this theory.  Basically the theory goes that once we take care of our basic needs we can move higher up the pyramid and seek to satisfy other, higher or nobler, psychological requirements.  The higher up the pyramid we go, the happier we are.  Simples.

So once I have food and a roof over my head, I can start to worry about forming friendships & relationships and once I have ticked that box I can continue developing until I reach a self actualized state where I’m interested in things like creativity etc.  Very good in theory. 

What happens however when you add in capitalism and marketing?  Our society is driven by consumption.  Marketing tries to sell us products by basically telling us that the product will make our lives easier or safer or happier.  So now in to this pyramid of needs you have to insert a layer of consumption of goods and services which don’t lead to a self actualized state.  In fact, the constant bombardment of consumers by adverts and other forms of marketing driven by the relentless, short, product cycles which require large sales volumes in order to recoup the investment in R&D in them by the companies before the next product refresh is released mean that we are, in my opinion, never happy with our consumption of goods and services.  How can we be if as soon as we buy something we are told about the next new must have item or worse still simply an update to the item we have just purchased, which renders the item we have just purchased obsolete.  So we only end up wanting the next big thing, we’re actually unhappy on some level at having bought the item we did buy because it is no longer the best of it’s kind out there.  In thinking about our next purchase we forget about the higher levels of happiness and their pursuit, thereby never having any hope of reaching a self actualized state.  Balls.  So far from making us happy, our relentless, marketing driven, consumption of goods and services make us miserable.  Most of us wouldn’t see it that way obviously, much to the relief of the marketing people out their.  They need an unsatisfied customer base in order to constantly sell their products to.  This sustains the beast that is manufacturing and consumption.  And consumes the planet’s natural resources at an alarming rate.

If we were truly happy and could pursue a self actualized state do you think that we would have the level of greed and consumption that we currently have which is threatening the ability of the earth to sustain it’s every growing population of inhabitants.  Of course that would mean the collapse of our growth based model of business.  No bad thing in my opinion but the practicalities of a steady state economy need to be worked out before we pull the plug on constant, unrelenting economic growth.

It must be noted at this point that I’m a sucker for anything from Apple, gadgets, cars and bicycles.  But for once I’m not eagerly waiting with baited breath for the next iPhone update.