Reconnecting To The American Pioneering Spirit

Last week I spoke at the Green Media Show in Boston. It was a nice conference full of bright professionals eager to share their views, talk about their experiences and focused on making a difference.

From carbon scorecards, behavioral causes to off sets programs (or indulgence programs as I call them) or new messaging most people were quick to point out to the causes or provide some frameworks to evaluate, measure and control causes.

The real question is how do we move from causes to action, how do we get to a more sustainable business environment and society, quickly? This is I believe the key hurdle to overcome. I don’t have precise answers, no one does (although at EcoAlign we have a point of view that guides our work with clients). But I do believe that for this hurdle to be overcome, Americans need to reconnect to the pioneering spirit upon which this country was built, that inner strength built on hope, driven by dreams of a better life and self-realization and focused on the betterment of families. That pioneering spirit pushed many people coming from all parts of the world (my great-grand father was one of them) to conquer geographies, natural elements, adversities and social mockery to realize their dreams, which resulted in: cities, houses, cars, highways, appliances, schools, education, healthcare, streets, illumination, social respect, financial stability, success, going to the moon, medical breakthroughs, museums, MBAs, movies, Google, Apple, etc.

That pioneering spirit has been dormant for a while (maybe it needed to rest). It needs to be reactivated, incentivized and collectively channeled to the energy and climate challenges. T. Boone Pickens has already understood this. Who is next?