Hello. This is part four of a series of posts exploring how we may start to move the way that we live and participate in the world from extractive to regenerative. If you have been following these posts thank you for coming back! And if this is the first post that you have read – welcome! You may find it useful to catch up on the previous posts here, here and here. Finally, before reading it is worth undertaking the activities suggested in post three.
The provocation to explore in the last post invited us to observe and acknowledge the things that we do, particularly when they are causing damage to ourselves, and by association to each other and to the planet. This invitation was framed by the permaculture ethics of people care, earth care and fairshare.
As of result of this activity you will have created a list of things that you are doing that you acknowledge are extractive in their nature, Alongside this you will also have additional things on your list which are not extractive and which are already doing good. For now we are going to focus upon those extractive things with the intention of exploring what changes would be necessary in order to move towards more sustainable and regenerative ways of being. We are going to think about how we can make change to lessen harm.
The good news is that some of these things will be really easy to do differently, whilst others will be much more difficult. In fact some things may not be possible to change at all as this moment in time and that’s fine.
In order to start thinking about making change we need to try and define how challenging different things may be in terms of their changeableness.
Stage One:
For the first stage of this exploration you will need the list that you created in response to the previous post, and three coloured pencils – one green, one orange and one red. Now you should go through your list and think about each thing that is on the basis of how easy it would be to transform it into an activity that is not extractive or damaging. Honestly look at each thing on your list and mark it as follows:
GREEN – For things that you can transform easily with, at most, a couple of simple actions. For example, if you currently use an unethical bank it would not, for most folk, be too difficult to change. You will see that lots of things on your list fall into this category.
ORANGE – For things that do not feel so easy to change. This could be because it would be too expensive to change them, or logistically complicated. For example if you currently travel by plane frequently it may involve logistical, financial and even creative / behavioural change in order to reduce this to a minimum. And maybe even stop.
RED – This is for things that are not possible to change at the moment (or ever!) For example these could be materials that you currently rely upon where there is no viable alternative or that are crucial to you for specific reasons relating to health and wellbeing.
As with the previous activity you should try to be as honest as possible whilst you are doing this. Particularly around things which are on your red list ie can you really not change that thing or is that a choice do to comfort or preference?
So now you have a list of things that are green (easy to change), orange (not so easy but possible) and red (not possible at the moment).
Stage Two:
Next you should go through each list one by one.
GREEN LIST – Can you note the tasks that you would need to do in order to transform each item to a form that is not damaging / extractive? You may also find it useful to set dates / time frames for each of these steps in order to make it clear how and when they may happen. Also who will be responsible for these actions? This list will clarify that there are some things that can be change easily and quickly and acknowledge that is good! How would it feel to set a deadline so that you have a defined timeline within which this change can happen?
ORANGE LIST – First look at each thing that is on there. What are the limiting factors that are stopping you from changing each thing right now? And what might you be able to do in order to mitigate for that limiting factor? Or change things so that factor no longer exists? Again you may find it useful to develop this further by setting out the steps that would need to be taken in order for each item to change, alongside possible timelines. The important thing to note is that although these changes may be logistically complicated, they are still things that sit within the realm of possible transformation.
RED LIST – For each of these things can you define what would need to happen in order for you to stop doing them and transition to a less damaging way? You may also ask if this cannot be changed what would be the impact if the activity were stopped entirely? How would things be if this thing was let go? For some things this may not be possible, but for others the reality of ending may be a more realistic possibility that the reality of trying to change that thing.
Stage Three:
Now you have worked through this stage of the process to think about the move from extractive to sustainable. At this point you may wish to return to the ethics and go through them one by one to explore if you have found a sustainable solution to all aspects of your operation, for now or the future, and if there are any new aspects that you may want to develop and grow. The questions I share here focus on artists and arts organisations because that is where I am starting from, but could easily be tweaked to explore other areas of work and life.
These are the things you may wish to explore here as an individual:
People Care:
Earth Care:
Fairshare:
And these as an organisation.
People Care:
Earth Care:
Fairshare:
Stage Four:
As a result of all of this you will now have a green list of things that you can easily transform, and amber list of things which are changeable but logistically more complicated to do so, and a red list of things that are outside you personal sphere of transformation but which you could potentially let go and move on from…. You may also have a list of areas that you would like to explore and grow moving forward that are not currently part of what you do.
How does it feel to have gone through this process? What has emerged that is new or positive? And that is negative? What ideas would you like to grow as a result?And how long may it take to arrive at a point where everything that you do is sustainable, apart from the odd thing that you currently can’ change or let go of?
Thank you for travelling this far on this journey. The next stage will be to explore notions of resilience, and what they may mean for you…