Not that long ago, we used to wash ourselves in the shower with soap. But now liquid body washes dominate the supermarket shelves. I use soap from Eco-store. The lemongrass bar smells great. Fortunately the ingredients in the body washes I checked out on the Skin Deep Cosmetics database commonly rated in the low risk range of 0 to 3 (on a 0 to 10 scale).
However the Ecostore package claims that the product has, among other things, no sodium lauryl sulphate. The natural health information website claims that sodium lauryl sulphate damages the skin and is a causal factor in health problems. As a comnsumer, it is hard to get to the truth about these products, but my instincts tell me to go with products are more natural – so its back to bars of soap,
Another major advantage of soap is that the packaging is cardboard, whereas the bodywashes come in solid plastic packaging.
Ecostore products are available in New Zealand, Australia, the USA and Hong Kong. Do you know of good alternatives for other countries?
Just decades ago, the gulf between health practitioners and the many Mäori (the indigenous people of New Zealand), impacted on the quality of health outcomes for Mäori. Bridging this gap is an engagement process.
This is the first of my engagement stories and it is close to home. My wife, Huria works as an educator for Te Poutokomanawa (Mäori Health Services) at Whangarei Hospital in northern New Zealand.
The enlightenment crossroads
My ancestors were European, Huria’s were Mäori and Polynesian. They both shared a world-view that accommodated both the material and spiritual. Both the spiritual and material influenced health practice. For example, monasteries often included a pharmacy. Both cultures relied heavily on herbal treatments.
the Maori herb kawakawa and European herb rosemary
When Europe entered the Age of Enlightenment in the 18th Century science displaced tradition. Scientific truth became synonymous with progress. Like teenagers discovering new capabilities, the followers of science viewed traditional medical knowledge as something to leave behind. Science became increasingly reductionist, and the only thing that mattered was what could be measured. Hopefully the “teenagers” will come to appreciate the wisdom of their elders.
Clash of cultures
Even as a Pakeha (New Zealander of European origins) the medical world seemed unwelcoming and sterile. I still avoid hospitals and medical clinics. Doctors seemed to treat people as objects rather than people, and some still do. To those from an indigenous tradition, the gulf is much wider. Medical practices were alien. People were separated from whanau (family), and hospital culture (individualism, medical jargon, cold and impersonal, command- control practices) clashed directly with Mäori cultural practice. Medical language was even less understandable than English for native Mäori speakers.
Legislative change
Prompted by poor health outcomes for Mäori, the government passed legislation in 1993 and 2000 to ensure that Mäori could, among other things, “contribute to decision-making on, and to participate in the delivery of health and disability services”. The two main changes were the development of Mäori Health providers and the development of Mäori Health Services with the public health system.
Partnership: Working together with iwi, hapū, whānau and Māori communities to develop strategies for Māori health gain and appropriate health and disability services.
Participation: Involving Māori at all levels of the sector, in decision-making, planning, development and delivery of health and disability services.
Protection: Working to ensure Māori have at least the same level of health as non-Māori and safeguarding Māori cultural concepts, values and practices.
To achieve this, in practice, where Huria works the main initiatives are:
Having Mäori staff available in wards to facilitate engagement between Mäori patients and clinical staff.
Ensuring Mäori voice is heard at all levels from the board to the ward.
Promoting and educating in Mäori health and cultural concepts to hospital staff.
Promoting health careers to Mäori in the region.
Cultural practices
For Huria, Mäori cultural practices happened from the start. The image below is from Huria’s powhiri (welcome) on her first day at work. The powhiri is a ritual of encounter. Huria was supported by Mäori elders and family members, some travelling for half a day to attend. The family handed her over to the new employer, with the understanding that they will care for her. The powhiri is an expression of both engagement and appreciation. It was heart-warming to hear people speak so warmly of Huria’s qualities – a great way to start any new job.
Other common cultural practices Maori bring that change the flavour of the work environment are karakia (prayer) and waiata (singing).
Dollars and sense
No doubt there are those who think that this is a waste of money, and it would be better to fund more operations. But ultimately these engagement processes will change both health practice and Mäori perceptions of health practice for the better. Surely, if Maori are more comfortable and at ease in the environment that is attempting their healing, the outcomes will be better.
Health models based purely on scientific practice are deficient. Mäori academics contribute to the engagement process. Mason Durie’s Te Whare Tapa Wha model, for example, positions health as a function of four interconnected dimensions:
hinengaro – emotional and psychological
wairua – spiritual
tinana – physical
whanau – family and extended family
Engagement principles – worldviews
Two engagement principles are illustrated here. The first is the benefit of sharing world-views. If any system of knowledge becomes too insular and too dependent on its own resources, its ability to adapt and develop is compromised. Western medical models can only benefit by learning from traditional and indigenous world-views and vice versa. The more engagement, the better the learning.
Engagement principles – diversity
The staff working for any organisation, should look like the communities they serve. Having a diverse staff is not just a nice idea. People are more likely to feel at home and want to use services if they see people working there who look like them, speak like them and dress like them.
Ultimately there will be no need for Mäori Health Services, because Mäori will be more represented at all levels of staff, and the two world-views will sit naturally beside one-another. Hopefully it won’t take too many years for this to happen.
Muhammad Yunus likens the poor to bonzai trees – they have the same potential as a tree growing in a more expansive environment, but they are stunted by their circumstances. We know people can rise above their circumstances – but if we work to provide better circumstances – we will get better outcomes – what do you think?
Here is a great Harvard Business video featuring Adam Werbach, global CE of Saatchi and Saatchi. He talks about a psp – personal sustainability plan – steps that each of us can take.
This is the first of many posts about steps to sustainability that you can take. Remember small steps + unified action = big results.
Kitchen use
Sunlight soap has many uses, in the kitchen, laundry and for personal use. The major gains using this product are in the packaging and the ingredients. Sunlight soap is packaged in cardboard. If you use it for dishwashing, it will probably replace a liquid detergent in a plastic container. The Skin Deep cosmetic safety database ranks all but one of sunlight soap’s ingredients as 0 to 2 on their hazard score (the hazard score scale is from 0 – no hazard to 10 – high). The only ingredient to score 3 was the yellow colouring. By contrast some ingredients in liquid detergent will probably score 10.
I remember my mum using a soap cage to get sunlight soap to lather up. A soap cage has an advantage of using up small scraps of soap (why not use all of the product you buy). I can’t find a source of these soap cages anywhere – if you can help please let me know. Sunlight soap doesn’t lather up very well in hard water.
Laundry and personal use
I also recall my mum using sunlight soap to clean dirt on clothes. Sunlight soap can also be used to shampoo hair.
A product with a story
Sunlight soap is a sustainable product in another way – it has been around since 1884. William Lever produced the soap in cut bars, wrapped and branded it, and sold it in his dad’s grocery shop in Port Sunlight, England. By 1888 they were producing 450 tons a week, spawning the company Level Brothers (later Unilever). According to Wikipedia, Lever Brothers were socially responsible. “Lever Brothers was one of several British companies that took an interest in the welfare of its employees. The model village of Port Sunlight was developed between 1888 and 1914 adjoining the soap factory to accommodate the company’s staff in good quality housing, with high architectural standards and many community facilities”.
I’m convinced that stakeholder engagement is the leading edge of sustainability, and that those organisations most skilled at engagement, are more likely to survive and thrive. Engagement isn’t a new practice; good communicators have been engaging for centuries – but with stakeholder engagement emerging as a discipline we have a better understanding of both the importance of engagement, and the processes required to formalise it.
The scaffolding
I’m also convinced that formalising stakeholder engagement shouldn’t be too complicated. As with any new discipline, it will require specialised resources until it becomes second nature – patterned into the organisational neural map.
The role of stories
People will engage more effectively if they are able to navigate the engagement universe. I call it a universe here, because it is so broad and diverse. If we can understand the myriad possibilities for engagement, we are better equipped to engage.
This is where stories are useful. I will be scanning for examples of engagement locally and globally, and hopefully getting leads for stories from you. Companies make considered statements about stakeholder engagement in annual reports and sustainability reports, but they are typically “high level” without revealing what people actually do in their engagement.
The examples I have in mind represent a tiny sample of the diversity of engagement. They range from global community and government level, right down to individuals making a difference in the local community. For example there are the agencies set up to bridge the divide between health clinicians and indigenous people, the oil refinery that provides a secure habitat for an endangered bird species, and a teacher engaging in new ways with parents in the first week of a new job.
Engaging the heart
James Kouzes and Barry Posner’s great book Encouraging the Heart told us how stories were so important in motivating and inspiring people. Stories also help to create emotional bonds. When we hear the stories of others we empathise with them and new possibilities can be awakened in our hearts as we learn of their lives and achievements. And engagement involves understanding and appreciating the world of your stakeholders. When you have that appreciation, you are far better equipped to find areas of mutual interest and potential collaboration.
Your stories
My stories will follow soon. I would love to hear your stories of engagement. Who were the stakeholders? Was there a gap to be bridged? What was learned? What were the gains?
Twelve-year-old Severn Suzuki delivers a powerful speech at the Earth Summit in 1992. She states “loosing my future is not like loosing and election, or a few points on the stock market. I am here to speak for all generations to come”.
Shai Agassi outlines plans for the mass adoption of electric cars. One of the more powerful ideas to emerge from this video, is that mass adoption of new technologies will happen faster when the technology is cheaper than current options.
Less than a year into blogging, I am getting a glimpse of its potential. I thought it might be useful for those of you considering the blogging option for personal creative expression, stakeholder engagement, or as an option for a business website.
The free option first
I started, as many do, by opting for a WordPress.com site. This is WordPress’s free option where they host your blog on their site. My stakeholder Engagement blog is a WordPress.com blog – if you look at the name, you can see the WordPress name in the URL.
With what I know now I wouldn’t take that option. But it did give me a great opportunity to learn about blogging and a platform to get my ideas out there. I started with infrequent posts in August 2010 and received an average of two page views a day that year. In February, I started posting more frequently and from January to April the average monthly page views were 4, 6, 13 and 41 respectively. If I maintain the momentum I have established, I will easily clear 5,000 page views for the year. But I fully expect to exceed that acknowledging the steep learning curve I am on. If I compare that to my previous publications – my book Better Business for a Better World in 2000 and articles in academic journals, blogging wins hands down as a publishing platform. Granted, many of the blog visitors might not linger long, but on the other hand, others have engaged and recommended the blog to friends.
WordPress.org
In March, I purchased another hosting plan with OpenHost for $NZ6.99 a month. Just ten days ago, I installed the WordPress software on my own site www.stepstosustainability.com. The WordPress software includes free themes to customise a site, but I chose to purchase a theme from www.elegantthemes.com as I wanted a professional and hopefully eye-catching site. In just over a week, I have the site up and running. It is still a bit rough, and I haven’t customised a logo yet, but it is working very well.
Static and dynamic
WordPress’s versatile software enables a site that is both static, supplying a stable presence for the site, and dynamic, with the inclusion of a blog. It has features important to me – I am able to embed video and, using a WordPress plugin (free third-party software to “plug in” additional features) each blog post has a group of buttons to enable readers to share posts through their social networks. This image shows the main static page in the top row. It includes a link to the blog. The main categories of the blog appear as blog menu items in the bottom row.
Blogging for stakeholder engagement
Large companies such as General Electric are using blogging for stakeholder engagement. In the wake of the Japanese tsunami, GE was in the firing line, as they made the Fukushima nuclear reactors. Many GE engineers have been blogging for some time, and when the tsunami placed GE in the spotlight, those engineers were ready to engage through blogs. Mitch Joel identifies seven types of company blogs.
Using WordPress software for your website
For small and mid-sized companies and not-for-profits, WordPress’s software is ideal as a website to provide those static and dynamic features mentioned earlier. Traditional websites have generally required a massive pre-launch investment, and then typically decay in relevance over time. With a blog website with static pages, the approach can be different, with less investment in the infrastructure, but more investment in engaging and keeping content current. What I don’t know, is how well a blog website can handle databases, but I suspect plugins will take care of that.
Skill required
There are three zones of skills:
Most computer users can reply to blogs or forums and interact with social networking software.
Others get to know how to use software interfaces, such as those of WordPress. There is a bewildering array of things to learn, but there is also lots of online help. I have used Moodle extensively, (a learning management system). This exposure has helped and I can now make sense of html (a computer code).
The more techy stuff requires higher degrees of expertise. If you don’t have these skills, you need to have access to them.
So for a tiny financial outlay, I now have a website I am happy with, and I am confident it will meet my needs as the website develops. Have a look around and let me know what you think.
Steps to Sustainability 