The ANH is an a-political, non-ideological and plural initiative promoted in 2003 by ten founding members and presided by Deepak Chopra. Today, it is a group constituted by people from all over the world with a common goal in mind: to create and reinforce a more sustainable, pacific and empathic humanity.
From the 7th until the 9th of November the ANH organizes its first forum/conference in Barcelona. There will be a lot of high scale speakers and a lot of people interested in:
To create an alliance of people based on the awareness of humanity’s interconnectedness. We believe that if enough people share the value of peace, war can be brought to an end. If enough people shift their awareness toward social justice, human rights, and environmental sustainability, then injustice, oppression, and the destruction of the ecosystem can be stopped.
Such a shift is already occurring - now it needs critical mass, which in turn needs organisation. The Alliance aims to connect individuals, caring communities and groups at a global level.
Unity isn’t fought for and won. It is realized one person at a time.
‘Art, Ecology & Education provides pathways to an integrated and sustainable way of living. We participate in the development and integration of an ecologically conscious and systemic worldview.
Using a holistic and transformative approach in our work, we support individuals and groups in the process of transition towards a life sustaining society.’
The Global Oneness Project is a web-based video initiative exploring how the simple notion of oneness can be lived in our increasingly complex world.
We’re traveling the globe interviewing creative and courageous people who base their lives and work on the fundamental understanding that we are all connected and thus bear great responsibility for each other and our shared world. Our living library of films is available for free from our website or on DVD for events and educational use.
We are committed to documenting what is being born during this time of planetwide transformation. While we are confronted with unmistakable signs that our current way of life is no longer sustainable, inspiring and innovative people and programs are blossoming in all areas of our collective society. From a pay-it-forward café in Ahmedabad, to a youth program that brings African wisdom to Los Angeles, from the General Secretary of the Andean Nations, to the spiritual guardian of Ayers Rock, our film subjects live and work with many of the following values, attitudes, and beliefs:
* We are responsible to each other, the earth, and future generations.
* There are enough resources for us all, if we share.
* Free exchanges of information allow for greater, collective creative potential.
* Love, care and compassion have the power to transform the fabric of society.
We hope that by showing the diverse ways oneness is expressed—in the fields of sustainability, conflict resolution, spirituality, art, economics, indigenous culture, and social justice—others will be inspired to create solutions to personal and community challenges from their own lived understanding of oneness.
My main point would be the sense of community, of culture and music that exists in Cuba. Wonder what that cultural base would be in European countries or the US…
It’s about style, it’s about status and it’s about opportunities deriving out of a ‘consumer-oriented look at the next 12-18 months’:
“Eco-friendly goods and services sporting bold, iconic markers and design, helping their eco-conscious owners show off their eco-credentials to their peers.
At the heart of ECO-ICONIC is a status shift: Many consumers are eager to flaunt their green behavior and possessions, because there are now millions of other consumers who are actually impressed by green lifestyles.”
For those of you who are not familiar with this stuff: This is called a trend-briefing. Here you find the whole thing of may/june 08: www.trendwatching.com/briefing/ Have a look where we’re heading…
People working in this field are called Consumer-Ethnographers. And sometimes I get the feeling that they look at ‘consumers’ a bit like the old ethnographers were investigating ‘the brutes’ back then…quite similar notions and quite similar blindfolds sometimes… Interesting species, these ‘consumers’, aren’t they. And if investigated properly the knowledge of their behaviour will make you rich (first and foremost) and better than the others.
Doesn’t change much, the way of perceiving and thinking, does it. I figure, burned down to the basics, again you’re at growth, competition and expansion oriented folks, manipulating, instrumentalizing and exploiting people and nature. As eco and sustainable you call the development, as ‘eco-embedded’ it would ‘have to become’ - in my book there won’t be any sustainability as long as there is an ethnographer investigating a consumer in order to…
This is nowhere near an understanding of our interconnected nature with our surroundings. This is repeating the same patterns.
But check the trendwatching site - and see for yourself how you feel about this stuff…
Die Energy Watch Group veröffentlichte im Mai ihren neuen Bericht. Ausserdem ist heute, am 22.5.08 der Rohölpreis so hoch wie noch nie. Und in den letzten 12 Monaten ist der Preis um 100 Prozent gestiegen. Eigentlich ein guter Grund sich entsprechende Sound Of Sirens Artikel nochmal durchzulesen.
Hier ein kurzer Auszug aus dem neuen Bericht der Energy Watch Group:
Seit einiger Zeit tobt eine heftige Debatte um das weltweite Ölfördermaximum („Peak Oil“). Institutionen mit großer Nähe zur Energiebranche, wie etwa das Consulting-Unternehmen CERA, betreiben eine Kampagne zur „Entlarvung“ der „Peak-Oil-Theorie“. Die vorliegende Studie gehört zu einer langen Reihe von Arbeiten, die innerhalb und außerhalb der ASPO (Association for the Study of Peak Oil and Gas, etwa: Vereinigung zum Studium des Fördermaximums von Öl und Gas) entstanden sind und zeigen, dass das Ölfördermaximum keinesfalls mehr als „Theorie“ bezeichnet werden kann, sondern eine Realität ist, die sich bereits vor unseren Augen abspielt.
…Den Analysen unseres Szenarios zufolge ist das weltweite Ölfördermaximum 2006 eingetreten…
…Die wichtigste Erkenntnis ist, dass die Ölförderung nach dem Peak einen steilen Rückgang erleben wird.
Please be aware of that. And please be aware that socalled free trade is an invention that destroys lifes, cultures and our planet.
Also we do not have to go to the rain forest, to India or North America, the same thing is happening in Finland, where indigenous people are being marginalized and robbed of their rights, land is being taken and robbed of its resources, governments are backing corporations.
Watch this documentary: Last Yoik In Sami Forests?, check the website: www.elonmerkki.net
The shift, the change will come through us, through people who speak up, who demand their rights, who create lively cultures and lively democracies, who think and act as an interdependent world family, looking for ways from being dependend consumers to responsible producers.
We have to replace the well being of corporations again with the wellbeing of real people and real societies. We have to create and build new self-governing economies. Connect which each other, learn from each other.
Know more: Vandana Shiva on zmag.org
Connect: CivWorld Interdependence Day,
Find support: Post Carbon Institute (Assists societies in their efforts to relocalize communities and adapt to an energy constrained world.) Transition Towns (Local responses to the challenges of climate change and peak oil. Relocalization, Network and Support)
Thoughts about reclaiming the culture into sustainable business plans.
“[...]These days, when people in business talk about sustainability, they mean environmental sustainability. Traditionally, the environment was an externality that was ignored. More and more, with the conversations of “carbon neutral,” people are starting to think about what it means to environmentally sustainable. At the same time, a company can be environmentally sound and completely destroy local economies and other aspects of culture through their moves.[...]“
You’ll find an interview with Esther De Jong from Sustainable Dance Club now in the Interviews Section. It’s about planning and running the world’s first sustainable night club. We talk about the people behind, their challenges, sustainable culture and technologies (i.e. an energy-generating dance floor). Enjoy!
By the way - do you know a project or a company you think it’s worth beeing featured in an interview? If so, feel free to use the submit button to the right! :)
Sustainable Dance Club (SDC) is a new project of creatives from Holland, which has no less ambitious goal than to redefine the world’s club culture. It all started in Rotterdam… but read for yourself!
The Interview was done with Esther De Jong, SDC press spokesman, in the end of february 2008.
Hi Esther!
Thank you for participating in a Sound Of Sirens interview and thanks a lot for your time in advance.
In the beginning, please tell us what Sustainable Dance Club is all about and who stands behind it!
Having fun and doing it in a sustainable way, that’s the vision of the Sustainable Dance Club. The Sustainable Dance Club is a creative concept of Rotterdam based organizations Enviu – Innovators in Sustainability and Döll – Atelier voor Bouwkunst. The idea focuses on integrating sustainable design, technologies and entrepreneurship in a club environment. The goal is to introduce sustainability to a large and
young audience by making it sexy and profitable. In 2006 the concept was developed and presented during a completely sold out sustainable club night called The Critical Mass in Rotterdam’s club Off Corso. Since then, SDC has been overwhelmed with questions for presentations and interviews. Their goal is to realize the first edition of SDC this year, and this is going to happen in Rotterdam’s club MyTown, opening in September 2008.
Opening in September 2008.
In 2004 the idea of a sustainable dance club came to life in Stef van Dongen’s mind, the founder of Enviu. In the beginning of 2005, Enviu involved Döll –atelier voor bouwkunst, to help them with the technical aspects of creating a sustainable dance club. In September 2006 a graduate student called Anouk Randag, started to develop an energy-generating dance floor. Besides the idea of the Sustainable Dance Club as a permanent sustainable dance club, in parallel an organically growing ‘toolbox’ was developed in February 2007. This toolbox contains innovative modules that address the central themes of sustainable clubbing. The toolbox is an open database where people are invited from all over the world to contribute their ideas and experiences and try out ideas and share their experiences with other ‘toolbox-users’ to create a worldwide sustainable dance club community.
Section of a sustainable Off_Corso by Döll
One month later, Michel Smit (of Cultural Development and former director of Off_Corso) is installed as project leader of the SDC Company. In May 2007 the city council has plans to rebuild club Nighttown, and SDC gets included in these plans. The club Nighttown is going to be called MyTown and will be the first Sustainable Dance Club in the world!
Besides the energy-generating dance floor, plans are to build an environmental-friendly bar, include trees4dance (calcualate and compensate your dance-footprint), flush the toilet with rainwater, create a relaxingroof and more. The final concept will be shown in MyTown in September.
Spreading a sustainable message.
But what’s so sustainable on a night-club?
OK, you’ve got the energy-producing dancefloor, the rainwater-toilets, the environmental-friendly bar and so on…
But isn’t a club the mother-of-all consumption temples? Isn’t reduction of consumption one of the main keys to a sustainable lifestyle?
Yes clubbing is one of the most consuming activities, but people will keep on doing it anyway (compare it with flying an airplane). The aim of SDC is to reduce the waste in the clubbing scene for 30% and make the youth become aware of sustainable activities. In this way you have 2 matters in one: you reduce the waste and try to make young people get more active with sustainability.
If they ask you directly, will SDC actually help people in making their lifestyle more sustainable, instead of “just” being a role-model and building up awareness?
This is an interesting question since I am researching that at the moment. I am a graduate student and Im trying to find ways to let the visiting people change their lives into a more sustainable way. We would like to make a difference and not only show them how it could be.
Running a nightclub isn’t an easily affordable business. Most of all clubs all over the world are being sponsored by major brands. Will you work with sponsors, and if yes - is there any kind of selection procedure? Or will you accept cash from everybody, because the main point is: Take the money and do good things with it, even if it comes from a questionable corporation?
I do not totally agree with the fact that running a nightclub isn’t an easy affordable business. Usually most of the clubs get there money out of the ticket and consuming income of the customers. In the case of Sustainable Dance Club we might use companies that support our goal (for example organic drinks or sustainable energy etc) and display their goods in the club. But again with the clubs, there isn’t a lot of sponsoring going on, probably more in the event business.
Isn’t that very optimistic?
Most of the clubs in Holland might get partial subsidies from the government otherwise, the pay it themselves or may corporate with big liqueur brands. In the case of a sustainable dance club, it has a big chance that the government steps in and we can cooperate with organic or sustainable brands like described down here. However, we will only work together with brands that support our goal and that are sustainable!
That sounds promising!
To what extent must the company’s policy/culture of the possible sponsor-partner be sustainable?
I.e. would SDC accept Pepsi, when they offer you Pepsi Raw?
Didn’t hear about Pepsi Raw until now! But it looks promising and it could be our sponsor for example. The same as we will be working with Gulpener which is the producer of organic beers. It’s hard to say how deeply sustainable a sponsor should be, as long as it is in the spirit of young, trendy and caring for the environment
But don’t you think Pepsi isn’t just greenwashing its other activities with that particular line-extension and that they try to ride the eco-trend-wave, too?
I guess you never know what a company’s intentions are, I don’t think you can say everybody is truly caring about the environment and not trying to gain an image or money out of it. Anyway I think it’s good when a company is doing something for ‘ sustainable’ people, from what intention they do it, is hard to say.
What if someone wants to open a SDC in another country? Would you support them and / or sell him them concept in a kind of franchise-way?And are there any plans to spread the sustainable message to other clubs, like a SDC-club-tour or something like that?
Garden of Delight at the Critical Mass party, october 2007 (photo: Frank Hanswijk)
Of course it is great if other people are having the same idea of being sustainable, but it would depend on the kind of company and their ideas about it I guess. I can’t give you a concrete answer about that now, we would have to see at the moment, but I don’t exclude franchising. There are in fact plans to spread the sustainable message and make a sort of SDC club on tour. Our ultimate goal is to make every club in the world sustainable, but of course at the moment we are still building on the first so we have to take one step at a time and first make sure all the attributes are finished.
Green Culture in Holland.
Nice dream! :) But maybe one day we’ll see a sustainable club-world like that, because it seems to be the only option in a world of such critical energy and resources descent.
Let’s talk a little bit about the dutch sustainable culture in general! How much are people aware of the situation and would you say that there are kind of green and responsible vibes to be felt inside the society?
I think there is a big awareness for sustainability in the Dutch culture at the moment. For example Rotterdam is trying to be the greenest city in Holland so there is a lot going on in this area. Of course it is one thing to say that you care about the environment and actually doing something about it. This is what SDC wants to achieve, also for clubbing youth. Besides that, it could be that sustainability is a trend right now, so this is a good time to focus on it before the attention starts to drop.
Well said!
We wish you a very nice opening and an even more successfull future!
What kind of music and style will us expect?
And at last - will you spill the beans for our readers about the club-opening schedule?
(Secrets are sooo exciting…)
The clubs we will work with can decide on their own what kind of music they want to play, for the first club in Rotterdam it is going to be a mixture of dance music & club nights, band performances and an open stage for creative young people. The assumption is that MyTown will open in the beginning of September, it can change depending on the progress of the club and its assets.
Thank you for your time and maybe we’ll see us in september at MyTown!
Projection of the gas meter shown at the Critical Mass party (photo:Frank Hanswijk)
See also Trees for Dance (unfortunatly only in dutch)
“Trees for Dance gives clubs and festivals the opportunity to calculate the amount CO2 they (will most likely) produce. Also individual clubbers are able to measure their CO2 footprint of an all-night-long clubbin’ night. Trees for Dance offers everyone including big festivals the opportunity to compensate for the CO2 consumption by planting trees.”
See, the thing is: I like gathering things I consider beautiful. These ‘things’ can be objects or images I saw, thoughts I found, ideas, activities, whatever. And then I like to go and share what I find…This project by Åsa Sonjasdotter is many things at the same time: It is about art and activism, about self-empowerment, about agriculture (past and future), about the beauty of diversity, about the beauty of people, about questions of sustainable living and cultivating, about the preservation of indigenous knowledge and culture, about europe and regulations, about personal experience, engagement and learning…you name it.
I find her work with this project deeply inspiring, educational and beautiful.
Hi Friends!
Hi Esther!
Having fun and doing it in a sustainable way, that’s the vision of the Sustainable Dance Club. The Sustainable Dance Club is a creative concept of Rotterdam based organizations 
