“Autumn, the year’s last, loveliest smile.” ~ William Cullen Bryant

Autumn is a time of great collaboration, learning and inspiration! It’s a time to reflect on what’s great, embrace what’s new and discover what else there is. From health, to sustainable commerce, through global travel to creating fun for yourself while helping others, we’re sure the SPARKS of Autumn will make you think, make you smile and ignite inspiration in your autumn. ~ Enjoy

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WHAT COULD I BUY? Fabulously fair trade & eco-friendly …click here
WHAT BOOKS? Dangerous this could change your life!…click here
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Self (Health) – Healthy Eating and Living. “Most medical doctors have a total of 3-4 hours of nutritional training, they’re taught to treat symptoms not prevent causes” – ‘Diet for a New America: how your food choices affect your health, happiness, and the future of life on earth‘ might sound like a ‘fad’ diet book – but it’s not – 80-90% of the Australian population are malnourished which is why are people getting illness, disease, obesity and cancer; if you’re in anyway concerned about your environment or your future and not close to a vegetarian then you NEED to read this book…”if every meat eater in the US swapped one meal of a week for a vegetarian meal, the carbon savings would be equivalent to taking half a million cars off the road“. The choice is yours, the future is in your hands, great or small do what you can…Definitely one of the best reads ever!.…read more

Earth (Consumerism) – The Ecology of Commerce can mean many things…on the banks of Sydney Harbour overlooking the Bridge and Opera House until the end of March is a sustainable building / restaurant that grows it’s own food…Greenhouse by Joost – check it out, it’s highly recommended. On a more serious note, is a book that “When I first read Paul Hawken’s Ecology of Commerce, he change my life, my worldview and my company – all for the better.”~ Ray Anderson (founding CEO of Interface, a billion-dollar carpet company). The Ecology of Commerce is a visionary blueprint for a marketplace where businesses and environmentalists work together, showing companies how to redesign and manufacture products in innovative ways, reeducate customers, and work closely with government toward a profitable, productive, and ecologically sound future..….read more

Wanderings (Inspiring Adventures) – Best Travel in 2011! ‘The World is a book, and those who do not travel read only a page.’ ~ St. Augustine.  Need ideas for 2011, then check out this, it’s inspired and enthused many, let it inspire you too….…read more

Support (Humanity) – Fitted for Work. Life is what you make of it within your own reality, at any given time. So why not make the most of it!…Harmony and Destiny are doing just that…Fitted For Work provides disadvantaged and unemployed women with the clothing and advice to help them get a job and become financially independent and are running a FUN Fashion Challenge as a simple way to raise much needed funds to help these women.  Two Melbourne women have decided to participate in this Fashion Challenge as Harmony and Destiny.…read more

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EVENTS FOR AUTUMN…click here for more Autumn events and more info

• Greenhouse by Joost – Imagine a sustainable building that grows it’s own food, for it’s restaurant and it right on the banks of Sydney Harbour…in Sydney until the end of March – check it out…
• Earth Hour
• The Mental Toolbox, click here enter Promo Code: WCID99 (be sure to use all capitals, wcid99 may not give the price reduction) for tickets reduced to $197 from $197
• Sydney Writers Festival
• Complimentary PROPERTY Conference Tickets – see Renovation Queen Cherie Barber Live!

Feel free to contribute comments, stories, suggestions or ideas on the site. For the best comment, response, story or suggestions of each month we will post you out a free book from the WCID Booklist, so be sure to include your email address so we can get back in touch.

SELF – Health

‘Diet for a New America: how your food choices affect your health, happiness, and the future of life on earth’ might sound like a ‘fad’ diet book – but it’s not – 80-90% of the Australian population are malnourished which is why are people getting illness, disease, obesity and cancer; it’s a the same reasons why we’re seeing climate change, if you’re in anyway concerned about your environment (the plants or the animals) or your future and not close to a vegetarian then you NEED to read this book…”if every meat eater in the US swapped one meal of a week for a vegetarian meal, the carbon savings would be equivalent to taking half a million cars off the road“. The choice is yours, the future is in your hands, great or small, do what you can and how we can turn it all around…Definitely one of the best reads ever!.

Robbins quote “most medical doctors have a total of 3-4 hours of nutritional training, they’re taught to treat symptoms not prevent causes”, is a rather logical and interesting point.

Whether for yourself, your loved loved ones, or the planet do as John Robbins suggests in the book… ‘read it and make your own choices and decisions, but do yourself the favour of raising your awareness’ – it might just change your life.

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INTERESTED IN MORE?  Then check these out…
(for more Books or Websites just click the link)

Diet for a New America

Food Revolution

Health Magazines

Back2Basics…Whether for yourself, loved ones or planet, order a copy, read it cover to cover and make your own decision…

Back to Autumn 2011 Posts…

EARTH – Consumerism

“To create an enduring society, we need a system of commerce and production where each and every act is inherently sustainable and restorative.”

The Ecology of Commerce can mean many things…on the banks of Sydney Harbour overlooking the Bridge and Opera House until the end of March is a sustainable building / restaurant that grows it’s own food…Greenhouse by Joost – check it out, it’s highly recommended.

On a more serious note, the book The Ecology of Commerce is a visionary blueprint for a marketplace where businesses and environmentalists work together, showing companies how to redesign and manufacture products in innovative ways, reeducate customers, and work closely with government toward a profitable, productive, and ecologically sound future.

Business needs to integrate economic, biologic and human systems to create a sustainable method of commerce. As hard as we may try to become sustainable on a company-by-company level, we cannot fully succeed until the institutions surrounding commerce are redesigned.   Everyday acts of work and life accumulate into a better world as a matter of  course, not a matter of conscious altruism – that is what the declaration of sustainability, toward the ecology of commerce is all about.

You hold a vital role in this evolution and your creativity is the key. Grab the book, read the pages and embark upon the process of transformation. Just as internal contradictions brought down Marxist and socialist economies, so do a different set of social and biological forces signal our own possible demise.

“When I first read Paul Hawken’s Ecology of Commerce, he change my life, my worldview and my company – all for the better.”~ Ray Anderson. Ray Anderson is the founding CEO of Interface, a billion-dollar company that is global leader in modular carpets. Think it’s too big a risk for you to take, perhaps it’s too big of a risk not too?

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INTERESTED IN MORE?  Then check these out…
(for more Books or Websites just click the link)

The Ecology of Commerce

Mid-Course Correction by Ray Anderson
Confessions of a Radical Industrialist by Ray Anderson
The Green Office
Business Magazines

Back2Basics…”A journey of a thousand miles, begins with a single step” ~ Lao-tzu.  Be the visionary, the silent leader, the new age entrepreneur or a global leader lie former reader Ray Anderson – but start but reading the first page.

Back to Autumn 2011 Posts…

WANDERINGS – Inspiring Adventures

‘The World is a book, and those who do not travel read only a page.’ ~ St. Augustine

Need ideas for 2011, then check out this, it’s inspired and enthused many, let it inspire you too… Travel Inspiration video…

So where are you headed?…

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INTERESTED IN MORE?  Then check these out…
(for more Books or Websites just click the link)

Lonely Planet’s Best in Travel 2011 : Latest edition of the inspirational travel annual with the hottest trends, destinations and experiences for the year ahead. Month-by-month travel planner of festivals and events for 2011. Perfect for adventurers or armchair travellers.

Gap Adventures
GoDo
Travel Magazines

Back2Basics…You have to plan it to do it! Whether it’s a weekend, a week or a year away make a date, pick a venue and enjoy it!

Back to Autumn 2011 Posts…

SUPPORT – Humanity

Life is what you make of it within your own reality, at any given time. So why not make the most of it!…Harmony and Destiny are doing just that…

Fitted For Work provides disadvantaged and unemployed women with the clothing and advice to help them get a job and become financially independent. They have assisted 5000 women since opening in 2005.  As part of International Womens Day (March 08 2011) , Fitted For Work is running a FUN Fashion Challenge as a simple way to raise much needed funds to help these women.  Liz Watt and Michelle Rysanek have decided to participate in this Fashion Challenge as Harmony and Destiny (Fitted for Work – Harmony & Destiny Fashion Challenge).  Their goal is to raise a minimum of $1000 by the end of April and then who knows????

Harmony and Destiny will be out in full force across Melbourne during the whole of the Labour Day Weekend and during the whole of Easter and they will be attending various events including:

• Xanadu concert
• Moomba,
• Dinners, bars and dance clubs in St Kilda and other trendy Melbournian places
• Doing day to day chores like shopping, walking the dog, getting petrol etc.
• If you have an event you’d like them to attend send us an email and we’ll hook you up…

Say hello if you see them around…here they are at the Fitted for Work Fashion Challenge launch on March 07.

To support this great cause, please check out their link:  Fitted for Work – Harmony & Destiny Fashion Challenge

Live it, Love it, Embrace It , Enjoy It…

Wishing you a very Merry Christmas and a fabulous new year!

Thanks for you support and enjoy What Could I Do 2011!

We’re here with an easy read for December…

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10 Things to get me through the Festive Season

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WHAT COULD I BUY? Fabulous fair trade and eco-friendly products …click here

WHAT BOOKS? Great book recommendations… …click here

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Feel free to contribute comments, stories, suggestions or ideas on the site. For the best comment, response, story or suggestions of each month we will post you out a free book from the WCID Booklist, so be sure to include your email address so we can get back in touch.

Top 10 Tips to get through Christmas 2010…

1. Drink lots of water

2. Slip, slop, slap

3. Take advantage of 24hr shopping and avoid the crowds

4. Remember it’s really only a day or week of the year – you can do it and spend the next 364 days looking forward to next year!

5. Prebook everything!

6. Relax…that’s what the festive season is for.

7. Pick up a great read. See WhatBooks for brilliant suggestions…

8. Embrace the season! A white christmas or a beach christmas, too many are taken for granted. In reality…they’re all magical!

9. Plan, set goals and embrace 2011.

10. ENJOY IT! It only comes around once a year so they chaos will be momentary…

“I stood indicated as a plunderer, a destroyer of the earth, a thief of my grandchildren’s future. And I thought, my God, someday what I do here will be illegal. Someday they’ll send people like me to jail.” ~ Ray C. Anderson

If you’re a businessman or woman, an environmentalist or sitting on the fence, the extraordinary journey to Mount Sustainability with increased profits, increased health and increased renewable resources is a lesson for you and me.

This month’s topic has been inspired by a book a friend recommended, ‘Mid-Course Correction‘ (and it’s sequel Confessions of a Radical Industrialist). It is the story of the multi-billion dollar company ‘Interface’ who realised that their Billion dollar annual sales were drawing 1 Billion tonnes of non-renewable resources from the earth and it would be a number of years not decades before there were no more resources. Their non-green CEO became the driving force to achieve ‘Mission Zero‘. If a carpet tile company can be on track, you can make a difference too.

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WHAT COULD I BUY? Fabulous fair trade and eco-friendly products for Christmas…click here

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Self (Knowledge) - Sustainable Business. Sustainable Business practices is that they are always outweighed by profits. Sustainable business is NOT about being ‘the new greenie on the block’ it’s about thinking creatively outside the square to increase profits, increase health and increase sustainability. Top 10 Sustainable Business suggestions.…read more

Earth (Habitat) - Green Office. REDUCE, REUSE, RECYCLE. It seems and sounds simple but how many really engage in it? 10 tips to a greener office.….read more

Wanderings (General) - Sustainable & Green Business Travel! “After food, the single biggest impact a consumer can have on the environment is driving a car.” Top 10 Green Business Travel and Transportation Tips.…try these

Support (Environment) CHARITY OF THE MONTH - OzHarvest. While all businesses can recycle items in a number of ways including “mobile muster” or the obvious change can be made through the excess food which can be passed on and ‘REUSED’. Food is generously donated by those with excess and turned into a resource. By distributing this food to various charities, we assist them to better and more efficiently address the underlying social problems in our society.…read more

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BOOK OF THE MONTH (click the title to see more of each review)

Mid-Course Correction. (Self-Knowledge) The personal story of Ray Anderson’s realization that businesses’ need to embrace principles of sustainability, and of his efforts, to apply these principles within a billion dollar corporation. Demonstrating that the principles of sustainability and financial success can co-exist within a business, and can lead to a new prosperity that includes human dividends as well..…read more

The Green Office. (Earth-Habitat) The challenge is now on for businesses to join households in the effort to become more sustainable. This book shows you how to go green in your workplace.…read more

Green Travel and Transport. (Wanderings-General) A practical guide to help you reduce the environmental impacts with tips and information on cutting petrol costs, reducing the carbon impacts of travel, alternatives to car use, and more.…read more

Confessions of a Radical Industrialist. (Support-Environment) What this book proves is that running your company sustainably isn’t radical at all – it’s just good business. Not only that, it brings down costs, improves quality, made Interface one of Fortune’s ‘100 Best Companies to Work For’, and increases profits.…read more

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EVENTS FOR NOVEMBER…click here for more November events and more info

• Christmas in Peru – Supporting Fair Trade
• FREE Tickets to a special SHARE Trading Evening with guru Daniel Kertcher
• HEALTH and WHOLEFOOD Information Evening
• Brisbane ‘Good Food and Wine Show’
• Complimentary PROPERTY Conference Tickets – see Secret Millionaire Carly Crutchfield Live!

Feel free to contribute comments, stories, suggestions or ideas on the site. For the best comment, response, story or suggestions of each month we will post you out a free book from the WCID Booklist, so be sure to include your email address so we can get back in touch.

SELF – Knowledge

“I stood indicated as a plunderer, a destroyer of the earth, a thief of my grandchildren’s future. And I thought, my God, someday what I do here will be illegal. Someday they’ll send people like me to jail.” ~ Ray C. Anderson

Sustainable Business practices is that they are always outweighed by profits.

What’s interesting, is that as soon as you can see a sustainable option as marginally more profitable you grab it and run like wind with it.

From experience in the construction industry, a quick lesson re a carpark simple and familiar to us all: if a significant proportion of bitumen and concrete are removed (as allowable in standards) and replaced with landscape the construction costs are significantly lower, the environmental aspects are far higher as are the ongoing associated costs. Yet, this sort of creative thinking is discouraged, argued and general thrown by the wayside to the detriment of business, profits and the environment.

Sustainable business is NOT about being ‘the new greenie on the block’ it’s about thinking creatively outside the square to increase profits, increase health and increase sustainability.

Below are the Top 10 Sustainable Business Suggestions (for more see “Mid-Course Correction“ - Practices Leading Toward Sustainability)

1. Engage a green office
2. Provide honest information about known environmental impacts of your company and product
3. Educate all employees on the corporate sustainability vision
4. Provide access to information that can help employees in their private lives
5. Create an atmosphere that encourages employees to question status quo and take risks
6. Establish top management commitment to long term environmental strategy
7. Measure all material and energy flows in physical and monetary units
8. Replace with sustainable, or redesigned products to use less raw materials while delivering the same or greater value.
9.  Design a zero waste mentality
10. Include a strategy with people, product, place of everything from culture, understanding, involvement, design, energy, materials, purchasing, facility design, operations, maintenance, landscape and transportation.

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INTERESTED IN MORE?  Then check these out…
(for more Books or Websites just click the link)

Mid-Course Correction: Toward a Sustainable Enterprise: the Interface Model

Green Office
Green & Sustainable Business Travel
Confessions of a Radical Industrialist by Ray Anderson
Business Magazines

Back2Basics…Whether you own the business or just work there, there are significant changes to be made to replicate the efforts you are making at home toward sustainability. The bigger the business, the bigger the carbon footprint and the greater the change you can make. If it sounds too large, consider if a global billion-dollar carpet manufacturing company can get to zero waste with increased profits, over time so can you!

Back to November Posts…