Smart Futures For A Flourishing World

Has the COVID-19 pandemic derailed the global community’s commitment to achieving the UN Sustainable Development Goals by 2030? Are we heading for environmental collapse? Can we avert a climate catastrophe and enable peace, justice, and shared futures for humanity? These questions call for transformational change. This book explores the root causes of today’s failures and lays out a plan for real-world innovation labs using a SMART future design paradigm to achieve the UN’s 17 sustainability goals and 169 targets. SMART futures is a ‘systems literacy’ approach to problem solving that allows us to address challenges of our VUCA (Volatile, Uncertain, Complex and Ambiguous) world as an integrated whole. This new paradigm shifts us from silo thinking to systems thinking. With lively storytelling and thought-provoking analysis, Dr. Claire Nelson opens a doorway to the future, and a vision of what success might look like. Her stories from the future present worldviews of the feminine and from the global South, which are often absent from contemporary global futures discourse.

This book explores the nexus of Sustainability and Information Communication Technologies that are rapidly changing the way we live, learn, and do business. The monumental amount of energy required to power the Zeta byte of data traveling across the globe’s billions of computers and mobile phones daily cannot be overstated. This ground-breaking reference examines the possibility that our evolving technologies may enable us to mitigate our global energy crisis, rather than adding to it. By connecting concepts and trends such as smart homes, big data, and the internet of things with their applications to sustainability, the authors suggest that emerging and ubiquitous technologies embedded in our daily lives may rightfully be considered as enabling solutions for our future sustainable development.

A billion plastic bags a day. That’s how many bags Americans were throwing away in 2005 when Lisa D. Foster first switched to reusable bags. The impacts of all those bags on our environment and our taxes kept her up at night. It was wrong. Morally wrong. She believed that if American shoppers knew what she knew, they would switch to reusable bags too. So, she did what any good English teacher would do. She took the facts about bags and turned them into a story. Over the next 12 years, that story transformed Lisa into the Bag Lady, an eco-entrepreneur on a mission to save the world one reusable bag at a time. Because she was driven by purpose, she did a lot of things right. She sold a quarter of a million reusable bags her first year, 2 million her second year, and 8 million her third year. Each reusable bag had the potential to replace a thousand single-use bags, collectively eliminating billions of plastic bags. Lisa also did a lot of things wrong. One out of ten startups fail, and odds are worse for people like her with no business experience or training. In the end, she built a thriving company, disrupted the plastic bag industry and changed the way America shops. It was a wild ride.

The Palgrave Encyclopedia of the Possible represents a comprehensive resource for researchers and practitioners interested in an emerging multidisciplinary area within psychology and the social sciences: the study of how we engage with and cultivate the possible within self, society and culture. Far from being opposed either to the actual or the real, the possible engages with concrete facts and experiences, with the result of transforming them. This encyclopedia examines the notion of the possible and the concepts associated with it from standpoints within psychology, philosophy, sociology, neuroscience and logic, as well as multidisciplinary fields of research including anticipation studies, future studies, complexity theory and creativity research. Presenting multiple perspectives on the possible, the authors consider the distinct social, cultural and psychological processes - e.g., imagination, counterfactual thinking, wonder, play, inspiration, and many others - that define our engagement with new possibilities in domains as diverse as the arts, design and business.

Think you’ve waited too long to do something about climate change? Think again. Am I Too Old to Save the Planet? A Boomer’s Guide to Climate Action explains how America’s most promising generation allowed climate change to become a planetary emergency - and what to do about it now. A former foreign correspondent and vice president of the World Resources Institute, Lawrence MacDonald shares his journey to becoming a passionate climate activist. Packed with practical advice, his book invites fellow boomers to join the growing global movement to save the planet.

'Finally, a roadmap for working parents seeking to balance meaningful careers, raise good children, give back to society and practice self-care in an ever changing world.' Nancy Cordes, Chief White House Correspondent, CBS News At a time when so many are looking to reset their lives, Rebalance explores what it takes to truly thrive full-circle: as purpose-driven leaders, parents, partners, and citizens. With insight and humor, Rebalance tackles the perennial question of working women (and men) everywhere: Is it possible to do it all well or does something have to give? The authors draw on a decade of no-holds-barred conversations with an ambitious group of women striving to lead in social impact jobs, raise good kids, and build strong relationships and communities. Rebalance distills their hard-earned lessons on balancing - and rebalancing - amid an onslaught of ever-changing demands and priorities. Rebalance takes an unflinching look at the trade-offs, conflicts, and juggling acts inherent in our busy lives, and ultimately illuminates how time-tested principles and practices can free us not just to survive but also to thrive.

'The global food system is sick, and almost everyone knows it. But this bold, big-hearted book doesn't stop at diagnosing the problem―though it does that incisively and with style. If a just, more joyous future is possible, it begins with the ideas in this book.' Joe Fassler, food and environmental journalist and author of Light the Dark Food does much more than fuel our bodies. Food helps us express care, create culture, and connect. But while food today might feed some of us, the growing, producing, packaging, and distributing is also killing us. Trying to ‘feed the world' is accelerating the collapse of environmental, economic, and social structures. The current “solutions” aren't working. By blending research, insights from diverse thinkers, and lived experience, food systems educator Nicole Civita and story justice activist Michelle Auerbach make sense of sustenance. They demonstrate that our lives depend on the relationships we make with and through food, and make the case for a much-needed cultural shift in the way we approach food.

You want to make a difference - to use your passions and talents in the 'developing world' and create a meaningful, lasting impact. But you also know that billions of dollars are wasted on faulty and misguided aid and development projects on an annual basis. While governments, multilateral organizations, and billionaire philanthropists continue to look for the next 'silver bullet', can you be confident that you can make a difference with who you are, what you have, and what you can imagine for the communities you feel called to work with? Yes you can, according to Maiden R. Manzanal-Frank, a global impact advisor with roots in the Philippines and more than a decade in international community development experience. In fact, where larger institutions and philanthropists often fail, you might well succeed by becoming a provocateur instead. Unlike the philanthropists, provocateurs are everyday leaders such as entrepreneurs, teachers, farmers, and engineers. They are ordinary people who make extraordinary personal and professional contributions to making the world a better place. This book distills real-life examples and insights from the experiences of provocateurs in the Global South into practical principles for success that will ensure your impacts will be sustainable and generative.