Building Communities

4 Comments Posted on Accountability, Boards, Building Communities, Requisite Enterprise, sustainability, Uncategorized

Feet of Cement in a New Corporate Age. PPC – a case of Green wash.

The rural, peaceful villages of Riebeek Kasteel and Riebeek West may soon see heavy duty trucks rumbling through our streets every eight minutes.  We may also experience waves of job hunters descending on the community in the forlorn hope of finding work as this mega new project kicks off.  Do we need a similar experience to the Saldanha Labour Bureau experience, which created a problem that did not exist before?  This unaccountable corporate mining company is  also extracting local limestone deposits, sending profits to distant shareholders without improving the community or the infrastructure within which it is embedded.

How is that?

Pretoria Portland Cement ( PPC) plans to build a new R3-billion integrated cement plant in the Western Cape in our valley.  This state-of-the-art plant will replace and increase existing capacity.  The new plant will enable PPC to supply the lowest carbon cement in the country, resulting in substantial improvements in energy efficiency, reduced coal consumption, and lower emissions per ton of cement produced. This PPC say, will contribute to meaningfully lowering production costs, thereby making PPC significantly more competitive and profitable.

That’s great.  For shareholders, no so much for stakeholders.  Despite requests,  there has been no stakeholder consultations with the local ratepayers association, the Riebeek Valley Ratepayers Association.  The Deputy Chairperson, Mr Basil Friedlander, was not even allowed access to their office but had to meet in the car park.

PPC have shown a complete lack of interest and disrespect in meeting with the group.

After pressure they organised a meeting on the start of the long weekend, with an RSVP email that did not work and with no public broadcast systems.  The minutes from that meeting are still outstanding. On inquiry, The Ratepayers Association were told that the person accountable was overseas. On their website PPC say;

We play an active social role in the upliftment of communities in which we operate to create and maximise shared value for all.

 Really ?

The feasibility studies for the plant have reached an advanced stage, with construction rumoured to start next month.    Most alarming is that PPC has not shown ratepayers an approved Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA). They had one under the under the previous scope for the plant.  This 2019 EIA was flawed, the transport report was done in in-house, which is a bit like marking your own homework!  It said the roads were sufficient for the traffic, but no comments were made on environmental impacts. Ultimately it was accepted.

This EIA needs to be reviewed and updated to reflect any changes in the project plans and scope.  The construction and operation of the cement plant may lead to environmental concerns, such as air and water pollution. The increased industrial activity could also disrupt the daily lives of residents and impact the infrastructure. PPC will need to address these concerns through a required updated Environmental Impact Assessment, plus ongoing stakeholder consultations, to ensure that the benefits outweigh the downsides. This has not been done.

PPC claim the new R3-billion cement plant is expected to create job opportunities, both during the construction phase and once the plant is operational, but this limited in scope and may at most be 100 -200 menial roles, with many of the skills coming from China. PPC says they are committed to using local suppliers and services which will help circulate money within the community.  THey say this will  boost the local economy, but is this so?  Where are the studies?

Time for the CEO of PPC in South Africa, Matias Cardarelli, and Chairman Linhe Zhu to move into the modern world of accountability, sustainability and stakeholder engagement and not rip out minerals without any thought of the future of the communities. ripping out minerals without thought to the consequences to local communities is not acceptable.

We understand this will go ahead, but let’s use best practices. Operating in good faith, through genuine collaboration is in everyone’s interest.

References

1:  The Saldanha Bay labour bureau experience is often cited as a cautionary tale in labor management and employment services. It highlights the challenges and pitfalls that can arise when systems are not effectively implemented or managed. The bureau faced criticism for inefficiencies in registering work-seekers, matching them with job opportunities, and ensuring compliance with labor regulations. Minister Engages Saldanha Bay Stakeholders in Labour Summit – Labour Guide South Africa

2.PPC to build a new R3-billion integrated cement plant in the Western Cape – Quarrying Africa January 17, 2025.  https://quarryingafrica.com/ppc-to-build-a-new-r3-billion-integrated-cement-plant-in-the-western-cape/

3: MEDIA RELEASE – ppc.co.za https://ppc.co.za/media/z2vp22mw/ppc-announces-new-r3bn-cement-plant.pdf

  1. PPC plans Western Cape mega plant. https://www.iol.co.za/business-report/companies/ppc-plans-western-cape-mega-plant-12190136

5: Local economic development (LED), challenges and solutions – https://www.sun.ac.za/english/faculty/economy/spl/SPL%20Library/BER%202021%20SAs%20Municipal%20Challenges_Final.pdf

Leave a comment Posted on Boards, Building Communities, Ecovillages, Global Ecovillage Network (GEN), Neos Delta Retreats, Organisations with Purpose, Worker Empowerment

Empowerment is the Only Way to Go.

 After thirty five years, I am back, full circle.  I saw this T-Shirt last week, worn by a worker on a  Fair Trade certified Banana Plantation,  employing 700 workers on a permanent full time basis in Ghana.  I was deeply moved by the T-shirt. Here is the story…

Forty year ago when working for De Beers Mines, just before the end of Apartheid, we formed the Limes Acres Discussion group,  a partnership between Mine Management and the National Union of Mine workers to explore post Apartheid South Africa.  It was part of the mine’s Strategic Five Year plan to empower and develop workers. 

 A Five Year Plan which changed so much for so manyThe Lime Acres discussion group were my first steps in discovering the power of people and what is possible through genuine collaboration, inclusion and focused dialogue. Well done Robin Mills, Rudolf De Beer, Godfrey Oliphant, Rupert Besent (deceased), Jeremy Wyeth and Archie Luhlabo.

As part of the Strategic Plan we started looking for leadership potential among workers.  The idea of finding potential in youngsters led to a venture much later in Australia aimed at identifying and developing young high potential individuals at risk youngsters. Thanks Kate Madden.

Looking for young high potentials who are at risk

With the march of time I became deeply involved in the business world.  Many of my clients were high tech financial services such as banks, insurance, ITC communications, and high profile individuals.  As we restructured, right sized, brought in hi-tech solutions and worked with elite talent pools,  I lost sight of worker empowerment.  

I forgot its critical importance for humanity’s development.  I fell into the trap of thinking trickle down economics worked, that the modern workplace had any other real interest then profits (market driven profit and short termism) and that technology would help solve the big problems of overpopulation, and climate change. 

However, let me give credit to some visionary CEOs and Chair who took the risk of shareholder displeasure with the bigger picture view.  It is a pleasure to have worked with Gareth Ackerman, Mike Hawker, Guy Winship and Prof Muhammed Yunus

Now as the debate shifts to AI, billionaire and fascist autocracy, climate change, plus conspiracy theories, workers become increasingly lost in the noise.

Time as a board trustee for the Global Eco village Network (GEN), helped restore reality.  I helped pioneer and market first world European eco-villages (Narara Ecovillage, Tasman Ecovillage) and made regular visits to Findhorn and Damanhur. I recall Kosha Joubert, then CEO of GEN saying there are millions of villages in the global South and North who are not first world, who needed help to reinvigorate their village and the rural landscape.  So sad all her work at the COPs to make Eco-villages center to rural generation failed due to leadership at the wrong level of complexity.

Full Circle

Protecting People at Work – 35 years ago this message was as relevant as today.

In 2022 the then Chair of Fairtrade International,  asked me to work with the board. This opportunity gave me a chance to visit workers in farms ranging from small producers to plantations.  Thank you Lynette Thorstenson and current Chair, Laurence Tainty.

I have just returned from a board meeting in Ghana and was privileged to visit farm workers near Accra and Kumasi.  It was here I saw the ‘Empowered Worker, Productive Worker‘ T shirt.  I heard from the workers first hand how Fairtrade’s certification has made a difference to their lives. I experienced this in Sri Lanka, Mexico and Kenya.

I do urge you to consider buying Fairtrade products, its direct action that helps workers. If your retail outlet doesn’t stock them. ask them to do so.  It gives workers dignity, opportunity and the ladder for self development, both for themselves and their communities.

In 2024 I formed Neos Delta with a circle of influential and caring friends.  Our aim is to foster long term thinking, empowerment and accountability to living our best lives.    That’s why we are run interesting and eclectic workshops for Boards who see different visions of the future,  Leaders who want to work with a Long View and for all of us, Living your Best Life.

Conclusion

If you are in the position of leverage, be it an organisation or a board, consider how you can make a difference to people’s lives and planet health.  If you are working for an organisation, choose one with a purpose for greater good.  It is not only rewarding, its empowering and provides a sense of greater purpose, both for you and workers.  Remember doing good is good business.

2 Comments Posted on BECause, Because fiction thriller novel, Building Communities

F*cked we are… so just carry on

This blog post looks at some of the author’s travel observations and outlines the actions he has taken in response.

Having traveled extensively over many years what struck me most was the following;

#1. People. We are a virulent virus across habitable space.

#2.  Waste. It is pervasive. Our legacy is plastic. Not the magnificence of Petra, or Antioch or Caesarea, but instead fields of plastic and rubbish.

#3.  Desires / Aspirations. I like talking to people, asking what are your aims/goals?  Inevitably responses are about Maslow’s fundamentals.  Makes sense. For those who are in the red (struggling to put food on table, roof over head, clean water, security and safety) it is impossible to be green, (unlike those in the top 8% who produce 90% of emissions), but behind the need lurks a strong desire for… stuff, more stuff, = success.

Sadly, this ‘more’, is, hey “good for business”.

Business becomes agile, leaner, embracing new technology, shedding jobs.  Profits rise and that helps the 1% get even richer.  Market capitalism is now saying business needs a vision beyond mere returns – it needs to have a social purpose – see NAB Chair’s latest revelations   (if you can, but you have to pay to read it). Even top-of-the-rung are now disenchanted with corporate and shareholder greed.

Muhammad Yunus, is a Nobel Peace Prize visionary and well worth listening to.  I have just read his new book – Three Zeros, which is inspiring. He is coming soon to Sydney, Melbourne and Adelaide. Read more at Grameen Australia. and attend his sessions.   His vision of everyone being a entrepreneur (god help us) has helped, but even if  social business’ were to rule the future economy; it doesn’t matter, f*cked we are.

Why?  Simple answer, too many, wanting too much and driven to instant gratification!

I saw a sign recently at a war memorial  in Malta; ‘we gave our today for your tomorrow’ They did,  but what are we doing to secure the future for tomorrow?

We talk about sustainability, give great speeches, focus on corporate values, customer centricity  and building ‘ecosystems’, while universities add new course on sustainability.  We now have social businesses. Great, part of our evolution you may think.

Truth is, we continue as we are; maybe now more aware and caring, but unable to influence the big ticket items because they are too big and too complex.  The basic unchanging bottom line is we need our economies to grow; so buy, make, sell.  Maybe our sign  will be ‘we’ve had ours, so you have none tomorrow”

That is why I wrote BECause... we need a revolution.  If we want to save our planet and ourselves we need real change, not a few cats tinkering with peripheries. Bec in my book represents real change.  And do you think it will be peaceful?

but if you decide to play a small part, what would it be?

I can’t talk for you, but I started small in 2009 and now attempt to do the following;

  1. Ride, run, walk, public transport
  2. Share my accommodation, services
  3. Buy stuff that lasts
  4. Fix, mend, reuse, recycle.
  5. AVOID PLASTIC;
  6. Don’t vote for morons (difficult to find candidates with current climate at home)
  7. Use solar and gas power – (No wind sadly where I live)
  8. I support our community bank (we developed our own community bank at our  eco-village, without recourse to the banks).
  9. We are planing a local currency so as to remove ourselves from the traditional banking system and its greed.
  10. Offset my travel by planting and growing my own food.
  11. I avoid global brands, supporting local business and community.
  12. I support a cause and try and do services that help the common good.

So what will be your legacy? Take action.

1 Comment Posted on BECause, Building Communities, Enough, Prime legacy blogs, Requisite Enterprise, Uncategorized

The mind once enlightened, cannot again become dark

During our lifetime we may be fortunate enough to receive lenses that provide deep understandings of how things work. Those insights provide models of continuous learning that inform, nourish and sustain us. As a Noble Peace Prize winner said, “It felt like god had revealed a small part of how the universe worked’ adding he was not a religious man.

The point is what has been seen cannot be unseen.  Such meta understandings help us on our pathway towards enlightenment.  Of course, humility and openness are key ingredients to ensure ongoing learning, otherwise we run the risk of becoming dogmatic zealots.

The meta model of understanding human capability, work and the evolution of human value systems were such lenses. What a fantastic journey that has proven to be –  it led me to interview and analyse the most interesting people, and allowed me to assist many and diverse enterprises.  These lenses have stood me instead over multiple decades.

I also know that those lenses have been shared when I hear others encouraging their teams saying these lenses will alter their worldview and help their careers.  Mark Milliner, Ian Stone and Jacki Johnson were the most recent. Thank you for the affirmation in understanding.  Now as Billy Boyd says, I must bid you farewell and in closing I would like to offer you the following insights;

  • Work is a treadmill, but with different and exciting carrots on offer. Fast, fun and challenging.  Our work journey is driven by our deep need to actualize.

    Our need to be of value is enduring.

  • Work can be very satisfying, but while our capability is the driver, our current mode of transport is an old outdated dinosaur called capitalism. There are no free rides, and no one is exempt from travel. It is not a felt fair system and is a value detractor. As Muhammad Yunus says, future business will need a social license to operate.
  • A consultant is a role with accountability and no authority.
  • Work that detracts from planetary, regional and local sustainability cannot be tolerated or supported.  Irreversible damage is caused by companies and governments that have lost their ability to regulate for the common good of all -we need right work.
  • Consulting has allowed me to travel and work in many different and exotic places.
  • As a road warrior I have been equipped with the latest tools of the trade as they evolved… but the problem is my e-wastage mound grows. Full value chain accountability is needed.
  • Consulting has given me time to lead a personally rich lifestyle and get to know my kids – a real blessing… there was a financial sacrifice, but it was worth it.

    “My partner (also a consultant) and I agreed that one parent would always be fully present for the kids (we now have three beautiful adults).  We took it in turns.”

  • It has allowed me to write and publish two books, the third an adventure which sits on the cusp of the new journey and provides a segue to the new future.
  • The right mentors come when the pupil is ready for them.  Gillian Stamp, Don Beck, Malcolm Hollick, Robin Mills – thank you for believing in me.
  • It has led me to renounce the “short-termism” of the free market system, especially greed.

     The word ENOUGH does not exist in business vocabulary.  There can never be ENOUGH!

  • I have lost faith in accountability. I see too many overwhelmed, overpaid and incompetent leaders escaping censure.
  • I am grateful to all my clients who believe in us and were willing to experiment with us.
  • Relationships are frail and need constant tending, trusting and sometimes clear tasking.
  • Look after your networks, friends and family.  Also members of the same family are often not born under the same roof.
  • Thank you to my current team, I am privileged to work with Adam Thompson, Tim Levett, Verena MacLean, Bruce Whitby, Samantha MacDonald, Tanya Brockmeier, Amanda Johnson , Brent Sheridan and Sam Wilkinson.
  • In retrospect, although it did not feel like it at the time, I have learnt more when I have failed or been in conflict.
  • My corporate consulting journey has driven my need to understand other ways we could better organise, for fairer and more just outcomes for all, not just a select few.

 The transition beckons.

I have seen a different world, running on a different operating system and that is now my Call to Adventure. What is seen, cannot be unseen.

Aluta Continua!!

 

Leave a comment Posted on Building Communities, Enough

GEN=Plan B

A exciting, sustainable, and bold parallel universe exists in our current time and dimension.  And we can all find out about it and be part of it if we choose.

Have you heard of the Global Eco-Village Network  (GEN)?  Well I am an ambassador for this movement and I really value my role.  Why?

Because I am privileged to be able to offer another viable option to an overheated world that allows humans to live differently, sustainably and far more happily.

I am not an ex-hippie, nor do I even hail from a community background. Quite the converse in fact. Elon Musk offers humanity another option as well, a plan to colonise Mars, because we stuffed this up so badly.  Global Leaders have no answers to the wicked problems that overwhelm them.

Their mantra is the same;  growth and jobs (never mind business is cutting jobs and AI looks to replace 35%+ of known jobs).  Market capitalism and the consumer model is terminally ill and will never deliver what we so badly need which is not more jobs or more growth.

GEN is a global body, representing the regions of the world in a loose affiliation of networks.  It is a parallel world that has developed independently and runs counter culture to the consumer, market driven economy.  Its focus is not growth but about mindful living at a human scale and creating sustainable, resilient communities in the process. It is innovative, resilient and its teachings and practices are increasingly becoming known.

You may not know that GEN is a UN recognised body. Since 2000, GEN has had consultative status at the UN-Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC) commission, and is represented at regular briefing sessions at UN Headquarters. GEN is also a partner of the United Nations Institute for Training and Research, UNITAR.

GEN is concerned not only with supporting and developing ecovillages, but urban eco-communities. It represents a range of diverse communities, some very advanced and some still forming, some in the rich old millions and some in the hungry billions.  At its heart each community is bound in one or more ways to the following values:

  • food, water, energy access and security
  • sustainable environments – through restoration, management practices
  • Land use and permaculture
  • education for sustainable development
  • developing circular economies
  • community health and wellbeing
  • stakeholder participation and community management skills
  • women and girls empowerment
  • technology innovation
  • acting locally, reaching out

I  want to draw your attention to two powerful large scale change initiatives.  The first is the  Pan African Ecovillage Development Programme, a model to change the dynamics of developing regions, and the other an educational model, a true ecotourism opportunity.

My new book (Enough) is coming out in December 2017 and I mention this because, back in 2007 when I started to write it, I envisaged a programme for the rejuvenation of Africa, which I called the African Ecovillage Development Project (AEDP).  Little did I think then that in 2017 GEN would be asking for funding to help send delegates from the Pan African Ecovillage Development Programme to COP 33 in Bonn.

What a wonderful and powerful initiative.  Astute leadership in some African nations have seen this as an opportunity to build resilient and self sufficient communities. Let’s look to help it grow and to hope to see such programmes emerging elsewhere, rather then putting faith in the old broken paradigm of growth.

The other initiative emerging from GEN Australia is an educational initiative. We want to make our GEN member’s assets available to people to visit, to share, to be part of community and to experience a different way of living.  We are, with GEN International and our network, going to present a wonderful and thrilling GEN eco-tourism experience from a once off trip to a world tour from which you can return and start living differently, in a community or not, but as a member of a different human destiny.

Next steps

CHOOSE LIFE.

Think differently, take a dare to be different.

Life is short. Remember, we all have all the time there is.

Life LIFE!

 

 

Leave a comment Posted on Building Communities

Local Governments and Communities need to take a bigger role in the future

A HUGE shift is coming in society – like that of the Industrial Age. I did a public talk recently and spoke about coming job losses as technology wreaks havoc on industries (while governments desperately seek job creation). In the Australian this week was an article on expected industry job losses through technology. Grim reading. Elon Musk is right, do we want the future we are creating? In my talk I asked how will local governments create conditions for prosperity in their communities when employment and meaning (‘flow’) from work dries up? Certainly not from the old economic model. Yesterday, The Australian (pg 2), Ken Henry starts to hit the right notes with article "Locals urged to DIY big projects" – right next to article of keen youngsters wanting apprenticeship, but there are NO jobs. We need to recognise there are NO answers coming out of the broken, squabbling political system, here and globally. Local Communities need to reinvent and reinvigorate themselves!! There is much work to do – a huge transition is coming.