Dear Academy Friends and Supporters,
“The beautiful spring came, and when nature resumes her loveliness, the human soul is apt to revive also.” – Harriet Ann Jacobs
As we arrive on the last day of April 2021, I reflect on how this April is different and yet similar from the last. We remain cautious and vigilant, in sorrow over parts of the globe now undergoing an awful surge. And yet, green shoots of hope emerge as more and more in our orbit have received a vaccination and case numbers and casualties begin to drop in the US. Restaurants beckon; in person activities are slowly opening up. It is a new year and perhaps a new era, but everything still feels very much in flux.
The last of our locally based employees reached a “fully vaccinated” status this week, and we will resume “going to the office” in some more regular fashion on Monday. I am both excited and anxious over this step, and I also look forward to experimenting with a more flexible work style where we incorporate some of the benefits of a more remote work force with the pleasures and efficiencies of again working from the same location. In a recent romp through the Academy’s extensive archives, I came across this valuable article by Fellow John D. Adams about managing a dispersed workforce. While it contains a delightfully anachronistic reference to pagers, the management strategies and insight into people contained in the primer are timeless and even more pertinent in today’s dispersed world than they were in May 2001. Yet another example of the World Business Academy’s prescience!
The last few weeks have been a busy time in the impact ventures we are incubating, ranging from conscious media to transformative transportation, and great collaborative work continues with our aligned partner organizations JUST Capital and EthicalMarkets, but no specific milestones to report on today.
April 2021, Earth Month, felt significant in the world’s refocusing on the climate catastrophe as the existential threat it is. We are cautiously optimistic at this change in tone, but now the actual work of transformation must begin. Please read on below for an overview of Rinaldo S. Brutoco’s Perspectives column and updates from some of our other Fellows.
Enjoy!
P E R S P E C T I V E S
by Rinaldo S. Brutoco
Rinaldo S. Brutoco’s Perspectives column in the Montecito Journal had interesting installments in the month of April, covering a spectrum of issues relating to business, the environment, and a time for transformation. The first installment of April, “Electric Cars: Look What’s Coming,” covered the development of hydrogen powered cars as part of the emerging Hydrogen Economy. Following the Easter holiday, “Passover and Easter: Rebirth, Renewal, Release,” featured an insightful commentary from Rinaldo on the metaphor of Easter and other faiths’ celebrations in the spring as a multi-religious time of transformation.
In two of the latter articles of the month, Rinaldo wrote about shifting the consciousness of the business world. The first, “The New Business Paradigm,” revisited the long standing belief of the Academy to transform the business world through an ethical consciousness shift. In a similar vein, Rinaldo wrote “What is JUST Capital?” to explain the function of our partner organization — an organization that is a public guardian to our highest aspirations for ethical corporate behavior. The final column of April, “Earth Day: Backwards and Forwards,” examined the highs and lows of our actions to reverse the environmental damage since we first started celebrating Earth Day 51 years ago.
All of these columns were published in the Montecito Journal’s respective editions (available online and printed), as well as on the World Business Academy website.
We are grateful to everyone who continues to send in thoughtful messages
sharing their thoughts, ideas, and positive comments.
It is whole-heartedly appreciated and encouraged!
Academy Fellow Spotlight
Since the World Business Academy’s founding, we have been consistently supported by our dynamic team of Fellows. It is our continued goal to leverage and catalyze the ideas of our Fellows as they do for us.
Happy Earth Day!
Visions for the Future
from our Fellows
This Earth Day, we rejoice in celebrating the wonders of our planetary home. Though we have much work to do to combat the climate crisis, while also addressing social and economic justice issues, the hard work of many devoted individuals and groups around the world brings rays of optimism for healing our planet for a better tomorrow.
Our Fellows each play a vital role in their respective fields, working to bring consciousness and healing the biosphere. In this post, we have collected a few bits of their wisdom and we share this with you on this celebration of our collective home…
Visions for our Planetary Future
Below are the visions from two of our Fellows, Elisabet Sahtouris, Ph.D, and Ravi Chaudhry on their visions for our planetary future.
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“My insight, my dream, for a healthy planetary future includes H2 Clippers silently conveying goods, people and emergency supplies all over Earth. I see some of them built in New Zealand/Aotearoa and in Hawai’i, flown around the Pacific as Maori/Maoli Sky Canoes.”
—Elisabet Sahtouris, Ph.D, Evolution Biologist and Futurist;
Author of Gaia’s Dance: The Story of Earth & Us.
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“Earth Day is an occasion for humans to celebrate our good fortune to be living in this most beautiful planet, with such bountiful nature, together with eight million other species, and never to forget that we exist, because we all exist.
We also rejoice in our being the most intelligent species ever, with the mandate to act for the Good of All. The concern is that our collective intelligence and wisdom is driven by our EGO, which simply Edges Goodness Out.
That is good for no one, not even us. Let us all promise to each other that we shall together usher the dawn of a new planetary civilization based on love and compassion.
This task must begin today.”
—Ravi Chaudhry, Business Strategy Consultant, Mentor to CEOs
and Corporate Boards, a Public Intellectual, Author, and
Founder Chairman of CeNext Consulting and Investment Pvt Ltd.
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