what we're reading Archives - Falcon Water Free

WHAT WE’RE READING: GREENTHINK

A culmination of decades of being at the forefront of national sustainability initiatives, Greenthink by Rick Fedrizzi, CEO and founding chair of USGBC, puts forth an argument that is as controversial as it is clear: leverage the motive of profit to save the world—and its humans—from environmental catastrophe.

For decades, he notes, environmentalists and the private sector have been at odds. Activists have decried the impact of industry on the environment. Business leaders, meanwhile, resent environmentalists for “job-killing regulations.” But in Greenthink, Fedrizzi turns conventional wisdom on its head by showing how profit can save the planet, and how sustainability is the biggest business opportunity of the 21st century.

To prove his point, Rick calls on his decades of experience as a marketing executive for United Technologies Carrier Corporation, then as head of USGBC, where he pioneered the green building sector, an industry that has had an immediate and measurable impact on reducing greenhouse gas emissions and driven vast innovation in architectural design, engineering practice and materials development in product manufacturing. The creation of USGBC’s LEED, the most widely used green building rating system in the world, helped create a market that didn’t exist 20 years ago and now anchors an industry expected to be valued at more than $3 billion by 2020. Rick has spent nearly his entire career working to bridge the polarized divide between environmentalists and business, because, as he rightly puts it, “they both will share the same fate.”

Original article published on the USGBC’s blog and you can read it here.

WHAT WE’RE READING: THE BIG THIRST

Open “The Big Thirst”, by Charles Fishman, to any page, plop your finger down at any spot at random, and you’ll probably come across something about water you didn’t know or hadn’t thought about. It’s well-reported and well-told and we hope that ultimately it’s going to have an effect on how readers think about water.

The thesis is straight-forward. The golden era of water is over. Abundant, cheap, clean water no longer will be available, even in developed nations. Even though it is the most vital substance in our lives, water is also more amazing and mysterious than we can appreciate. The author does a brilliant job at showing how we’ve left behind the century-long era where water was thoughtlessly abundant and have entered a new age of high-stakes water.

As dramatic as the challenges presented by Charles Fishman may seem, the ultimate truth is that we have more than enough water. We just don’t think about it, or use it, wisely. However that is rapidly changing. With places like Atlanta, California and Las Vegas going through major water crises, companies are making breakthroughs in water productivity. Knowing what to do is not the problem, ultimately the hardest part is changing and implementing our new relationship with water.

Our favorite quote: “Many civilizations have been crippled or destroyed by an inability to understand water or manage it. We have a huge advantage over the generations of people who have come before us, because we can understand water and we can use it smartly.”

WHAT WE’RE READING: LET MY PEOPLE GO SURFING

In his long-awaited memoir, Yvon Chouinard – legendary climber, businessman, environmentalist, and founder of Patagonia, Inc. – shares the persistence and courage that have gone into being head of one of the most respected and environmentally responsible companies on earth. In Let My Poeple go Surfing, Chouinard tells the story of how the success of his company has forced him to invent a whole and balanced way of doing business. He takes a longer term view focused on real sustainability and in doing so he does away with conventional business paradigms where the goal is growth at any cost.

Patagonia, a fellow B Corp, is an example for the rest of the world with a dedication to the highest level of quality and the lowest amount of side-effects, environmentally and socially. The principles that drive Chouinard’s company are really his own. He focuses on quality, durability and doing more with less. He is a committed environmentalist and believes businesses should be responsible for the damage they do to the Earth.

Our favorite quote: How you climb a mountain is more important than reaching the top.

Have a great weekend!

WHAT WE’RE READING: PLANNING FOR SUSTAINABILITY

“How can human communities sustain a long-term existence on a small planet?” This is the main question that resonates throughout Stephen M Wheeler’s book. We are all aware that many existing urbanization patterns are unsustainable in the long run, however our generation has pulled up their sleeves and has started to initiate a change. Green buildings and labels such as LEED (throughout the world) and EPBD (in Europe) have become a predominant building standard in many urban centers, expanding far beyond just skyscrapers and office buildings.

Planning for Sustainability presents a wide-ranging, intellectually well-grounded and accessible introduction to the concept of planning for more sustainable and livable communities. The text explores topics such as how more compact and walkable cities and towns might be created, how local ecosystems can be restored, how social inequalities might be reduced, how greenhouse gas emissions might be lowered, and how more sustainable forms of economic development can be brought about. Only by weaving together planning initiatives and institutions at different scales, and by integrating efforts across disciplines, can we move towards long-term human and ecological well-being.

Our favorite quote: “Moving towards a better, more sustainable future is above all a planning challenge, in the broadest, most creative possible meaning of the term. It is a challenge of envisioning future directions, carefully evaluating and studying them, and then working in a variety of creative ways to get from here to there.”

Here is to the challenge; we know we are up for it!

WHAT WE’RE READING: GLOBAL THIRST

On a crowded shelf of books on water, one name stands out – John R. Wennersten. In his new book, “Global Thirst” (SchifferBooks), this seasoned scholar of environmental history has turned his eye from local issues of the Chesapeake Bay and Anacostia River to water across the globe and throughout the centuries.

Global Thirst offers a critical perspective on water, its uses, and access, as a major global issue in the 21st century. John R. Wennersten turns an unflinching eye on todays global water problems, critically analyzing pollution, drought, dying rivers, and the privatization of water utilities. He also offers commentary on what kinds of sustainable water options we should be pursuing in the near future. The author also touches on some of the less conventional aspects of the history of water. For example, Wennersten provides an extensive discussion of water’s role in culture, spirituality and religion, mythology and human speculation of the origins of life. Water not only provides a mean of survival, but it is also ingrained our culture. “Rivers appear frequently in the world’s sacred traditions as symbols of divine influence and life’s interdependence. They evoke an image of spiritual-intellectual energies cascading through the manifold planes of cosmic and intellectual life.”

Wennersten is a bit more historical than most water writers that we have read, and a bit less concerned with policy recommendations, however this comes as a breath of fresh air. When our focus is primarily on consuming water as a way of survival, we forget how much it affects other aspects of our life. Humans have always used water as a part of religion, entertainment and relaxation, and this continues to be an important aspect in our culture. We shouldn’t shy away from this or hope water supplies will be enough for the rituals to continue. On the contrary, “hope is not a strategy,” but solutions that require planning and work is what we need to focus on. “Carelessness and failure to plan have been the biggest enemies in the face of natural weather events. Our water catastrophe (the complete global scarcity of water) will not be a product of Mother Nature – it will be human-made.”

WHAT WE’RE READING: WATER – THE FATE OF OUR MOST PRECIOUS RESOURCE

The underlying premise is simple: water is life. It is a necessity that flows through every part of our day, every day of our life. We depend on water for everything from basic survival to generating the energy that lights our homes and fuels our businesses. Therefore it is very important that we take water conservation seriously and start to innovate new ways to make what limited resources we have last.

In Water, Marq de Villiers tours the world to examine the state of its most vital resource. What he finds is not encouraging. From Africa to Asia and Australia, from Europe to the Middle East and the Americas, too many people depend on too little — and increasingly limited — water. Despite engineering schemes constructed to water deserts and to store and deliver water where it would otherwise not be available, demand for water will almost surely continue to outstrip supply unless we dramatically alter our behavior.

In addition to the problems of supply and demand, the book describes the ecological damage incurred by the use and abuse of water sources. Through pollution, diversion, and degradation, industrialization of the world has taken a heavy toll on water quality.

The author creates his narrative based of childhood memories. Growing up in an arid and rural South Africa, de Villiers is aggressive with the value of clean, uncompromised water. The book brings both ecological and historical knowledge alongside his frank criticism of how the world’s water resources has and continue to be managed. He states that, “Humans consume water, discard it, poison it, waste it, and restlessly change the hydrological cycles, indifferent to the consequences: too many people, too little water, water in the wrong places and in the wrong amount. The human population is burgeoning, but water demand is increasing twice as fast.”

Thanks to de Marq de Villiers’s humane tone and unique curiosity, Water ends on a positive note. There is much to be learned here and even though it takes a long time to change a mindset, with education and awareness we go from just talking about it