Home » Posts tagged 'AiREAS' (Page 3)
Tag Archives: AiREAS
STIR Academy goes online and worldwide with the Sustainocracy challenge
Sustainocracy can be seen as “the next step” in the evolution of humankind, one that we can initiate ourselves, engage politics and economics with, make institutions transform and solve many world crises together. Our alliance with learning environments, students, teachers and online platforms helps us to inspire you, other people and institutions across the world to use the ideology and methods for their own empowerment and sustainable development.
The challenge we announce through the link is the first of an entire learning platform to be developed over the next few years. It is meant to get those who engage to develop and experiment with the Sustainocracy mindset for sustainable human progress. Maybe you feel inspired to join and become part of the movement and evolution?
https://www.learndesk.us/class/6608651009654784/introduction-sustainocracy
If we want to live in a healthy environment we will have to organize ourselves in a healthy way…
In the picture below we see the many parties that are currently involved in the AiREAS challenge and the commitment to achieve a healthy, unpolluted living environment. We call the circles the 4 legs at the table of the local society. These are drawn as “overlapping islands” where we all converge into the center for the overarching commitment. But a large part of the islands also lie outside that center which is referred to as the AiREAS context.
When we look at the drawing, the different areas of overlap speak their story. I have written a characterizing text in it to form an image. Where we adapt our behavior to each other in the center and make choices together that directly contribute to the quality of our living environment and our health, other interests often play a role or even prevail further away from the center. In the fragmented, money driven society where we come from, that AiREAS center did not exist. There, the islands interacted on the basis of financial dependencies, objectives and regulations.
All reports show how important it is for everyone to do this together. This approach is also praised at the administrative level (such as aldermen, deputies, boards, etc.). Only that field of tension emerges again and again between “taking responsibility together” and the way in which the islands themselves work with the varied mixture of old interests and new wishes. If you find it difficult as a person or as an institution, then defining a common project is even more difficult. We are so used to reasoning from within our own island and self-interest with critically pointing to the other islands, that we often conveniently omit ourselves and our own requirements to change.
The various authorities are trying to bring all sorts of things into the center. One has come up with a product that it would like to sell or try out from within the AiREAS 4 x WIN context. The other has books full of knowledge from research or expertise to share. The governments have pooled money to make “the invisible visible” through measuring instruments (air pollution, noise) in the hope that through awareness raising citizens and companies will participate and take responsibility. Ultimately, it is about our health that we can directly influence through our behavior.
The center area of AiREAS is growing. Nowadays there are also institutions and people who reside permanently in that center. They have grown with the value-driven commitment and have linked or derived their behavior and authenticity from it.
There we find citizens who no longer have a car, do everything by bicycle, public transport or partial transport, who buy locally, live together and share costs. They have often made it their business to help others achieve better health, more self-confident and cooperative living. We find companies that pursue the 4 x WIN principle in the field of cooperation with nature, food supply, water, energy saving, local basic facilities, care for and with others, etc. New school systems and collaborations are emerging that involve as many children and young people as possible in their awareness of nature, their self-awareness and acquaintance with the essential values of our existence, often in collaboration with the STIR Foundation and Sustainocracy. Certain departments of the local government can be found here. They still clash internally with other departments that do not show the same commitment or have learned to function based on different interests and priorities.
In the drawing we see the gradual transition that we go through together in an evolutionary way. When the STIR Foundation started experimenting with Sustainocracy in 2009, we only saw a few freelancers trying to survive by developing new ideas in their island of interests, inspired by the ideas of the healthy City of Tomorrow. In 2011 AiREAS was born. The intended collaboration between the 4 legs (government, entrepreneurs, education and citizens) soon came to life thanks to an initial financial support from the Province of North Brabant. There was no real overlap between the islands yet, but the foundation had been laid to make that a reality.
Now, in 2023, AiREAS as a functional shared responsibility and context can no longer be ignored. The format and challenge are greatly appreciated by all participants. “It's about something real” is often said and people are willing to step into the field of tension within their own organization to make the best of it. Two islands prove very slow in response and connection. These are the somewhat larger companies that originated in the old 1 x WIN context and linger there with their lobbies and financial tunnel vision, often supported by old legislation. These have shareholders and interests that are only compatible with the higher purpose of AiREAS if the organization goes through a fundamental transition.
And then there are “the citizens” who have made unhealthy behavior their comfort. Behavioral modification requires more than awareness. It requires a cultural adjustment in which health and safety is leading for everyone even though people tend to find it abstract if not confronted with illnesses. Many young people do recognize themselves in this new mindset, but older generations are "programmed" differently with their lifestyles. They find it difficult to let go of their established comforts (such as the car, status, purchasing behavior, etc.).
Anyway, the center of AiREAS is growing. It is heart-connected, warm, co-creative and innovative, full of people, functions, commitments and ideals. It is growing steadily. It is an example for other targeted local communities and essential values such as FRE2SH (food resilience), COS3i (social inclusion) and others that are emerging. Also internationally clusters based on Sustainocratic insights are emerging and can be helped on their we with the expertise accumulated in STIR, stepping up their potential with a positive learning curve without having to go through all the pitfalls.
Becoming part of sustainable success in challenging times
The 4 x WIN community of level 4 core human values driven engagement is growing, becoming a modern success factor for all institutions, not just business. One can become part of it by committing to its mindset and action driven clustering.
4 x WIN
The tradition of business education made the positive financial bottom line the only measure of success. The possible negative consequences of such an approach were left to society, the planet or humankind (3 x LOSS). In the 21st century we realize that such a mindset is destructive beyond repair. Government regulation and largely ineffective, expensive remedial measures are often financed and suffered by the entire community, not the entrepreneurial perpetrators of the losses. Paradoxically the development of shortages, speculation, destruction, debt increase, dependencies, etc are wrongly presented as an economy of growth instead of one of deterioration. This is blindly immoral, unethical and unjustifiable for our present and future generations.
4 x WIN business develops an authentic multiple contribution to society in which the financial result is a logical consequence, not at the expense of humankind, society or the environment yet serving all three in a meaningful and measurable way.
- WIN for humankind measured in terms of the essential values for our existence as described in Sustainocracy.
- WIN for society in terms of developing social cohesion, reduced costs, shared wellness, equality, trust, circular economies, participatory societies
- WIN for our environment, through circular, regenerative processes, collaboration with nature, non destructive use of resources
- WIN for financial continuity, which may include growth if the value creation is desired elsewhere but content prevails, developed in a 4 x WIN environment..
4 x WIN entrepreneurship is not only reserved for business. It also applies to the government, citizens´ cultural and behavioral evolution, education, science, etc. In fact, the 4 x WIN mindset develops a sustainable wellness driven (local) interactive ecosystem and eco-nomy (rules of nature).
Eco (Nature) – Nomos (rules) = Eco-Nomy (rules of nature)
Shared commitment
The 4 x WIN environment does not fit in the traditional arena of exchange of products, services or policies. It represents the engagement with our essentials, using our innovative powers together with public funding, scientific knowledge and a results driven attitude. We coincide within the spectrum of developing, recovering or sustaining the essential human and natural values for our sustainable existence within the local demographical, cultural and historical complexity. The sum of all 4 x WIN Sustainocracies will form a 4 x WIN global wellness driven society. This level of society is also called the awareness driven co-creation level (Harvard) or layer of shared responsibilities for sustainable wellness (Sustainocracy). It is the incubator of values driven innovations, breakthroughs and new knowledge development. Apart from being a measurable, integrally positive contribution to society, a cost saver and proactive problem solver, it also feeds new success stories to the underlying layers of expansive economies of growth. Every new use of the innovations in this environment will again contribute until the value creation saturates and a new cycle needs to start.
It also helps the local governments to eliminate unnecessary and obsolete rules and regulations, with all the costly layers of law enforcement, remedial actions and controls. These old rules have been transformed into shared responsibilities and innovative change, reducing societal costs, deblocking societal progress and opening up to new positive financial impulses and the creation of jobs. 4 x WIN is most successful when all stakeholders in a region become part of this mindset and share all the benefits among each other.
4 x WIN self diagnosis
Any institution can make a self diagnosis of its level of 4 x WIN compliance. One has to look with honesty at the four levels of value creation. This diagnosis starts at the executive level of commitment to 4 x WIN since it requires the commitment to innovation, awareness driven partnerships, genuine leadership, authenticity as an organization and its positioning in the ecosystem. It does not only look at the contribution of the organization to the common good, it also offers a mirror to the organization to optimize its own behavior and positioning effectively in the ecosystem. This is a totally different attitude than the finance driven competitive environment of the growth paradigm. The latter can well be part of the organization but never at the expense of the values created. Organizations tend to maintain the incubator part separate from the growth structures. This is to avoid unnecessary unrest or confusion in the organization and also to allow innovations to develop strength before they get passed to the arena of growth.
Some organizations, the so called “Me 2” organizations, emulate the leadership qualities of the 4 x WIN organizations through copying behavior and innovations while focussing on price reduction and volume. These structures will never have the same level of authenticity as the 4 x WIN ones.
Then the self assessment continues by analyzing the added value contributed to all human beings through the essential values for our sustainable existence, society and our environment. One does not only analyze the market approach but also the internal processes. Not every organization can achieve a full 4 x WIN positioning but indeed can always find multiple WIN for itself and never a negative area that produces loss in any of the domains. The best 4 x WIN assessment is done both by the surrounding 4 x WIN partners that coincide in the shared responsibility circle and the results obtained together within higher purpose all choose to serve together from an essential human values perspective.
STIR 4 x WIN community and indexation
STIR adopted 4 x WIN as it was created by the predecessor of the foundation, the 5K consultancy group for new age entrepreneurship and business transformations. In fact it became the basis of Sustainocracy, involving all other stakeholders of society. The 5K consultancy group introduced the 5K index (2008) as a prelude to developing the 4 x WIN community of institutions that develop themselves according to this roadmap. A few booklets of particular sectors (Supermarkets, Banks, the Netherlands in general) were published (in Dutch) to show the market leadership positions of organizations in these sectors. That was before the open space for multidisciplinary cooperation was initiated and structures arose such as:
- AiREAS – regional air quality and health
- FRE2SH – regenerative local food self sufficiency
- COS3i – social inclusion and innovation
- STIR learning community – youth engagement and participatory 4 x WIN learning
In each of these purpose driven circles numerous people and institutions engage into the value creation processes, local or even globally. The idea arose to develop a European (and global) community that is 4 x WIN like minded and together address subsidy channels and financial contributors. The community develops through sharing best practices, their authenticity and commitment to the essential values of Sustainocracy. Like this we don’t have to go through the selection procedure of partners every time opportunities arise. We simply cluster among those who we already know with their commitment and participation.
Together we make the difference in developing and implementing impactful things.
For joining the 4 x WIN community please contact
Jean-Paul Close
Sustainocracy, the new democracy 