Work Block 3 Oct 8 - Oct 22

Context: Collins Pine – How can The Natural Step be applied in a natural resource company? What was Collins Pine doing differently before and why was the Natural Step a useful addition to an already successful model?

Please look at chapter 7 of the book. My old site will provide you with a useful summary of the underpinnings of resource based systems, waste and the commodity system in particular. Go here for a lot of helpful information.

Questions:
i. Why are the ideas about Standards and Quality so important and why are they so different from the commodity system?
ii. What are the differences between Collins Pine’s approach to resources and the traditional commodity system?
iii. How did Collins Pine take the theory of the Natural Step and make it real for its workforce?
iv. What was the cultural problem that Collins Pine had to overcome and how well have they done?

Work: Assignment 3 due Oct 22. (1,000 words) What are the barriers to change? Why can’t we easily see the obvious and what pulls us back?
Start with the Ikea chapter but then look at your own life. What about diet? Giving up smoking etc. Why do we find giving up things that are bad for us so difficult?. What are the preconditions for change? What type of message can be heard and what cannot be heard? What type of messenger is accepted and what is not? This is vital part of this course which gets at why change is so hard.

Have a look http://www.renew.com/old/chaos_&_change.htm on my old site for background on societal change. Also look here at Change or Die for a brilliant article on why it is so hard to change