Today sees the launch of the second global Happy Planet Index, which measures how nations are faring in terms of what matters to people - having long, happy, meaningful lives - and what matters to the planet - our rate of resource consumption. The Happy Planet Index brings these concepts together into a single indicator, a measure of the ecological efficiency with which each nation supports good lives.

 

Like with the first Happy Planet Index, HPI 2.0 reveals that no country is achieving the triple goals of long life, high well-being, and a sustainable ecological footprint. Indeed Western countries, usually considered to represent the pinnacle of development, are some of the furthest away from that target. Out of 143 countries, the highest ranking Western country is the Netherlands in 43rd place - the USA is as low as 114th.

 

And the countries that score highest? That are closest to good lives that don't cost the Earth? Perhaps surprisingly, they are mostly Latin American countries. 9 out of the top 10 countries in terms of HPI are in South and Central America, or the Caribbean. The highest HPI score belongs to Costa Rica - a nation famed for being an island of peace in troubled Central America, and which is now leading the green revolution in the developing world, producing a staggering 99% of its electricity from renewable sources.

 

But even Costa Rica is not quite achieving one-planet living - it's ecological footprint of 2.3 global hectares per capita is marginally above the 2.1 global hectares per capita that one calculates if everyone on the planet was to have a fair share of the Earth's resources. It looks like something quite profound needs to change to achieve good lives that don't cost the Earth for all. The first step to doing so is the new HPI Charter which sets clear targets for where we need to get to by 2050.

 

On the new HPI website you can download the report, sign the charter, and explore some of the data online. Over the next few weeks, I will be highlighting some of the stories of the HPI in this blog - countries that do particularly well, changes over time, steps we need to take to change the way things are going, and some of the things that are happening already.

Oscar Wilde said ‘a map of the world that does not include Utopia is not even worth glancing at'. The HPI may not tell us exactly where utopia is, but it at least tells us in which direction we need to travel.

http://neftriplecrunch.wordpress.com/2009/07/04/good-lives-that-don%E2%80%99t-cost-the-earth-tantalising-close-but-we%E2%80%99re-not-there-yet/

report: http://www.happyplanetindex.org/learn/download-report.html

Social media is not a valid marketing tool. At least, that's what a new study from Knowledge Networks shows.

 

The report says 83% of people on the Internet use social media. But only 5% of them ever use sites like Facebook, Twitter, or MySpace to make buying decisions.

Surprised? I'm not...

 

I consider myself normal (most of the time) and if other users are anything like me, then they have trained themselves to completely ignore advertising on social networking sites. It's gotten to where those boxes of graphics screaming "BUY ME!" don't even register.

The evidence shows I'm not alone: 63% of social media users thought that dealing with ads on the site are a "fair price to pay," but only about 16% admitted the ads could make them more likely to choose one brand over another.

 

Study participants were asked if they "regularly" or "sometimes" turn to social media for purchase guidance in nine categories: travel, banking, clothing, restaurants, cellular, personal care, groceries, and drugs. The results were abysmal across the board. See the study here.

For a reason I can't fully figure out, the study also looked at how frequently folks are using Twitter. (It is the backlash de jour, after all.) It found that only 1% of the Internet population uses Twitter more than once a week--the same percentage as social media users.

Companies running social media sites would be wise to heed this study. Lest their sites turn into MySpace--one huge News Corp. billboard that became so annoying, users were almost dared to quit in droves.

 

URL:

http://www.businessweek.com/innovate/next/archives/2009/05/social_media_do.html

 

 

 

China has become the world's largest car manufacturer, surpassing EU champion Germany and the US, whose ailing industries are struggling for survival amid the economic crisis.

China became the largest car producer in 2008, with a world market share of 17.2 percent, outranking Germany with its 14.7 percent and the US (14.6%), the German association of car manufacturers VDMA revealed on Monday.

A look at the profit shares also highlights the troubles in Western car industries compared to the Asian one: German companies had an eight percent increase, the US a loss of 10 percent, while Chinese car makers managed a 30 percent increase.

The sales slump in the US and Europe is still a distant prospect on the Chinese market, where in March, new cars sales reached a record of 1.11 million, according to statistics released by the China association of automobile manufacturers.

Luxury cars, which pile up in ports and in European car parks, are increasingly attractive for Chinese customers with big pockets.

Recent car sales in China have also been boosted by various incentives introduced as part of government stimulus plans, especially in the low-consuming segment, where taxes have been scrapped for cars with engines of 1.6 litres or less. The government is also subsidising the purchase of alternative energy vehicles.

The lack of a level playing field between European and Chinese car manufacturers will lead to even smaller profits for the EU's struggling industry, says John Fox from the European Council on Foreign Relations, a London-based think tank.

"European companies all had very big shares of the Chinese market previously, when they had the technological advantage, but the terms of the joint ventures forces the companies to hand over the technologies. Now the Chinese can produce the same technology without needing the European partners," Mr Fox told EUobserver.

The only lesson to be drawn, according to the British expert, author of a recent study on EU-China relations, would be for Europe not to make the same mistake with other technologies where their companies still have the competitive advantage.

"The problem is that Europe doesn't see China as a competitor, it still sees it very much as a developing country," he said.

Japanese car companies, for instance, have all been signing up to a government-negotiated code of practice and were producing in China only car body parts, but not the high-tech engines such as for the Toyota Prius, Japan's cutting-edge eco-car.

European companies, however, were still very much competing with each other for a market share in China at any price although the profit outlook was increasingly shrinking, Mr Fox explained.

April 22, 2009

 

URL:

http://www.wbcsd.org/plugins/DocSearch/details.asp?type=DocDet&ObjectId=MzQyMzI

Consulting firm McKinsey has just launched a new website, called What Matters, that is an extensive collection of essays and interviews with opinion formers around the world. The content is categorized into ten big topics: Biotechnology, Climate Change, Credit Crisis, Energy, Geopolitics, Globalization, Health care, Innovation, Internet, Organization.

 

URL:

http://designthinking.ideo.com/?p=248