“It is easy to make a difference for the world. Imagine we would all believe that ;-)...we can! We can all make a difference, I believe it. Big, small, all the time, once in a lifetime... A lot of people find it hard to believe in this idea and even more challenging to practice it in their own life. I did too. That is why I made it as small and practical as possible. I choose three global goals, that I focus on per year. That’s all. Then I carry those in my mind and heart. And it is amazing what finds you, when you want to be found. Inspiration, people, projects, ideas: the power of intention :-). We are all earth keepers and can all be SDG multipliers!
- Vivienne”
‘It is time for the female (principle) to stand up in the world…in both men and women’. That is what the natives told us a few years ago. And I keep hearing this message everywhere. It gives me hope, because to me it is true. ‘What got us here, won’t take us there’, said Einstein. The way we shaped our world (with a dominating male principle) is ending: time for a new era. I am not a feminist. I am not. And I do believe we need more balance in the world. And I believe the female principle is facilitating that: allowing, listening, creative, nurturing.
societal transformation lab
In February 2019 the Presencing Institute (founded by MIT professor Otto Scharmer) launched the societal transformation lab. In this lab around 300 projects worldwide participate in a 6 month learning process. During this lab, every project will go through the U-process with their own team, to work on the quest for their particular project. For more info, have a look at www.precensing.org. If there is any interesting progress to mention, I will share on this page. I have the honour to take a team of Ecosystem Restoration Camps through the proces, to see how we could quickly upscale the restoration of Earth.
land, water, it’s all about life
To be very honest , I never thought much about this SDG, until I met the people of Ecosystems Restoration Camps. Not that I don’t care, but like a lot of other people, I just wasn’t aware of the degradation of Earth and the possibility to restore it. And then I realised it is such a given for me, that nature is the base of all life, that I wouldn’t have thought I could contribute to this huge topic. After I met John Liu and listened to his inspiring vision about how to regenerate the degradation of our earth, I was not only convinced we can regenerate earth, but I also felt the responsibility to do so, since we, human beings, destroyed much of her soil. In the Societal Transformation Lab, we aim at scaling up Ecosystems Restoration Camps all over the world as soon as possible.
Innovate and be creative with plastic like Adidas did!
Adidas sold 1 million shoes made out of ocean plastic in 2017. The German sportswear giant launched last year three new versions of its UltraBoost shoe made out of plastic found in the ocean. It teamed up with environmental initiative Parley for the Oceans to create the shoe. Each pair of shoes reuses 11 plastic bottles. Think out of the box, like they did in Amsterdam, making a shoe out of gum found in the streets….
oceancleanup
When initiatives like these are launched, I am so proud to be Dutch :-). Here is this 24-year old Dutch guy, Boyan Slat, who raised already millions of dollars to manifest his mission for the oceans: make it plastic free. He is convinced, he will get the rest of the money needed to make ALL oceans plastic free, worldwide, WoW. And I recently heard him saying that he would love to do this (solving true problems in the world) for a few other problems that he already sees. What an amazing guy and project!
bye, bye plastic bags
I learned about these two amazing sisters while visiting Bali. I find it so hopeful that this new generation doesn't sit and wait, but they just take action! Look for yourself what an inspirational story they created with their movement 'bye bye plastic bags':
nature and its rights
In more and more countries, nature is getting her own rights, so that she can protect herself. New Zealand, Australia, Peru, Bolivia...they all have mountains, rivers, nature parks with their own rights, so that they can stand up for their rights.
In Holland there is a plea to start with the 'Waddenzee' to give her rights: a sea that is not only important for Holland, but for the whole world, because of all the migrating birds and fish that use it as their breeding area.
This newly released movie about the Wad, shows the beauty and importance of this area for the rest of the world…great momentum to give the Wad it’s own nature rights ;-)??
It is my intention to support however I can if the Dutch government wisely would decide to get this project going.
green education
While many take comfort in known, tried and tested curricula such as the International Baccalaureate, Green School has pushed and pulled against cookie-cutter approaches to learning. Focusing on prescriptive, written curriculum leaves the whole truth untold, they say. Every time Green School has felt itself drifting towards those curricula with their boxes and constraints, they deliberately pivoted to find their direction again. That has led to the Green School Way. Their teaching philosophy and method, the Green School Way, was created and reviewed between 2008 and 2018 by all, and really all, members of our community of learners in some way or another. It is strongly rooted in their REAL pedagogical principles and hands-on learning programme, which ultimately aims to support the development of powerful learning mindsets, joyful personal qualities, and life-long skills and competencies.
the evolution of education…
Never has the gap between what education offers and what the world needs been greater. The pace of change is rapid. Jobs are changing, new opportunities are emerging and access to information has never been greater. The very way in which children learn is also changing. The pursuit of more global, real and student-centered learning is a hot topic in education.
Green school is a pioneer in new way of eduction, see for yourself!
Green School has built its learning programme on the belief that the child has to be free from fear before anything else can be achieved—free from the fear of failure, the fear of being themselves, the fear of the learning process. They have to be confident, calm and happy to thrive at school. This is fundamental to learning, evidence-based and yet is often juxtaposed to the physical spaces and box-ticking approaches still evident in many schools today.
I can't wait till that generation of students starts to spread their ideas in different parts of business, education or governments all over the world! I was truly impressed about the place, when I visited: kids making bamboo bikes, start the day with a short mediation, take care of their own chicken, create greeneries with recycled cars, soap from cooking oil...these kids are being educated to use their creativity, responsibility and talents to make this world a better place...wow!
connecting the dots
I am a connector. So no 17 is a fixed global goal for me, as it is in the roots of my being. I see opportunities everywhere. With the Golden Rule ('Treat others and the planet as you wish to be treated') and 'relatedness' as the leading principle of the 21st century (quote Gita Belin), partnerships are crucial to successfully achieve the 17 goals. As a global explorer, I see it is important to spread the word, experiences and connect to existing projects and people. There are so many good things going on! But people sometimes just don't know because they forget to share. Just some of these connecting platforms:
ecosystemrestorationcamps.org
gateway.sdgcharter.nl
kit.nl (SDG house)
sdgnederland.nl
rebootthefuture.org
doingbusinessdoinggood.com
masterpiece.nl
worldofconsciousness.com
Learning from ancient wisdom and future generations
When will we start listening to the wisdom of Einstein? Understand that the solutions for our problems will not come from the same systems that created them and that, even worse, those systems have a lot of interest in keeping things the way they are. We need innovative, out of the box, truly new, fresh ideas, things we cannot imagine. Start listening to youth. Or it is very old ideas we need, forgotten wisdom. Wisdom that holds important global messages and is becoming extinct, because globally ancient peoples are becoming extinct. Thus, to me, it makes a lot of sense to focus not on the 'old', meaning the systems, but on the 'new': future generations and valuing and safeguarding wisdom of ancient peoples.
There is scientific proof, that traveling creates more learning than school does…
My dream would be, that non-B Corps don't exist anymore in 2030...:
Here is how the Dutch future generation see their ideal world of tomorrow:
my 2018 global goals
It is certainly not that I think we’re reached enough gender equality and that, therefor, I don’t pick this goal anymore. I do have heart for all 17 goals. But I am convinced that focus helps creating impact. And I also believe it is important to also choose what you don’t put energy in in a certain moment. You can’t do everything. I truly believe though, it is time for female leadership to step up. Female qualities, if you will, in both men and women. Qualities like listening, caring, creativity, compassion: qualities the world needs very hard.
future generation women needed!
When I red the SDG report of the Netherlands, that came out in May, looking at this SDG, I really got angry. In a country, where we are doing so well economically, politically, socially, innovationaly, we are still so far behind talking about gender equality! Still, women earn 5 to 7% less than men for the same jobs. Still, the 30% in higher positions by women is by far not reached. And I know so many promising young talented women, who are eager to contribute to transforming the world! What do we need to do to give them a chance? And to make sure they can thrive and will have impact? And that they can put their energy into good things, getting energy, instead of having to fight the systems? Whoever has great ideas about this, please connect to me and let's collaborate!
turning dreams into reality
This bus drives through India, educating rural women with entrepreneurial dreams. They became so successful in India, that they now want to launch Buzz in Africa. How I would love to support them to grow really quickly there!