A step thru the doorway of our great environmental future- Jason speaks with JON SCHULZ – scientist, engineer, environmentalist— he and jason BOTH were at retreat with Gunter Pauli of ZERI and Paolo Lugari from Gaviotas in 2002— getting us uo to date and encouraging us onward……. Jason meets with Jon Schulz, scientist, engineer, environmentalist, to share about their mutual meeting/conference with Paolo Lugari of Las Gaviotas and Gunter Pauli, director of ZERI, Zero Emissions Research Institute in 2002, and the updates in what’s been happening- our hope is to encourage many projects, including re-forestation of Maui and Big Island’s barren/cleared areas- 2/24/09
Summary & Transcript
- [00:00 → 02:38] Introduction and Opening Theme
The video opens with a musical call to action urging viewers to unlock hope and make a change for a better life. The repeated message emphasizes that nothing changes unless hope is unlocked within each individual, setting a motivational tone for the discussion ahead. - [02:38 → 04:29] Introduction of Guest John Schulz and Context
The host introduces John Schulz, a guest who inspires joy through his work related to sustainability and zero emissions. John is described as a scientist and systems engineer with a background in aerospace, particularly in life support, water treatment, and satellite systems.
John’s transition from aerospace focused on applying his expertise to improve how the world works sustainably. - [04:29 → 05:52] Origins and Focus of John Schulz’s Work
Around 1994-1998, John began deep research on sustainability of communities, regions, and businesses, realizing many existing “eco-village” or sustainability efforts only partially addressed the needed solutions.
He committed to scientifically clarifying what is truly required for sustainable systems. - [05:52 → 07:37] Zero Emissions Research Institute (ZERI) and Background
Schulz operates mostly from his home office conducting research and consulting. The conversation shifts to ZERI (Zero Emissions Research Institute), founded by Gunter Pauli, a pioneer who transformed the concept of sustainable manufacturing by addressing waste inefficiencies.
Gunter discovered that industries often use only about 5% of raw materials and waste the other 95%, highlighting a massive inefficiency and environmental problem. - [07:37 → 10:13] Concept of Zero Emissions and Nature’s Model
Key principles of ZERI include:- Nature as an efficient, elegant system that creates no waste and benefits all life it touches.
- Nature works at the level of whole systems, not isolated parts.
ZERI aims to build manufacturing systems where waste is eliminated by reusing outputs as inputs for other processes, creating closed-loop cycles.
John emphasizes moving beyond simple composting or burning of waste to leveraging natural biological systems to generate high-value products from complex waste materials.
- [10:13 → 14:47] Case Study: Gaviotas Community in Colombia
Gaviotas is a sustainable community in a previously barren wasteland in Eastern Colombia.- Founded by engineer/philosopher Paulo Lugari about 35 years ago.
- Focused on demonstrating how humans can live sustainably in harsh environments without damaging them.
- Achieved financial viability by cultivating resin-producing pine trees (Pinus caribaea) over 8-10 years, extracting pine pitch used in over 80 industrial applications.
- Avoided herbicides and used symbiotic relationships with micro fungi to grow trees in acidic soil (pH 4), which normally would not support agriculture.
- The growing forest became a rest stop for birds, which brought seeds and fertilizer, leading to regeneration of tropical rainforest over thousands of acres.
The transformation of the land from barren to biodiverse rainforest is a remarkable ecological achievement.
The community plants trees at an extraordinary rate:- One tree every 5 seconds around the clock during the growing season (~3.5 months).
The pine pitch refined from these trees has won awards for its quality and packaging.
Gaviotas remains somewhat isolated due to surrounding challenges like nearby cocaine growers.
An authoritative book titled Gaviotas: A Village to Reinvent the World by Alan Weisman documents this unique project.
- One tree every 5 seconds around the clock during the growing season (~3.5 months).
- [17:56 → 22:11] Recent Developments and Expansion of Gaviotas
- The Colombian government has granted Gaviotas an additional 40,000 acres to expand tree planting efforts.
- Gaviotas is now actively involved in carbon sequestration projects, selling carbon offsets to voluntary buyers aiming to reduce their carbon footprint.
- Another community called Marandúa is being developed on similar poor-quality land for growing Jatropha, a bush used for producing biodiesel fuel.
- The potential land available in the Colombian Llanos (plains) for such projects is vast, around 93 million acres for pitch pine alone, excluding Jatropha.
- The government guarantees a market for biodiesel produced from these plants, supporting economic sustainability.
- [22:11 → 29:29] Broader Worldview Shift and Systems Thinking
John discusses a global paradigm shift in how humanity understands and interacts with the environment and society:- The old worldview, based on reductionism and competition, is failing.
- The new worldview centers on cooperation, holistic systems thinking, and interconnectedness, recognizing that nature works in integrated webs, not isolated parts.
- This shift is gradual but pervasive, affecting science, business, communities, and governance.
- Radical inclusiveness is vital, meaning respecting and honoring all people, especially indigenous communities, as they hold essential knowledge for sustainable living.
- Problems cannot be solved in isolation (economy, environment, social issues) because optimizing one aspect often harms others.
- The false dichotomy between environmentalism and business is breaking down; businesses that reduce waste and work sustainably will create economic prosperity and cultural viability.
- [29:29 → 36:06] Examples and Call to Action
- John cites examples of biomimicry:
- An African office building cooled like termite mounds, reducing energy use by 90%.
- A cardiac pacemaker inspired by the physiology of humpback whales, eliminating the need for batteries.
- These illustrate how learning from nature’s designs leads to innovative, sustainable technology.
- The host and guest encourage viewers to educate themselves deeply on sustainability.
- Recommended resources include:
- The ZERI website (www.zeri.org) for global projects and innovations.
- Paul Hawken’s book Blessed Unrest for understanding the broad movement toward sustainability.
- The Biomimicry Institute, led by Janine Benyus, focusing on nature-inspired engineering solutions.
- John cites examples of biomimicry:
- [36:06 → 41:48] Integration of Traditional and Modern Knowledge
- Importance of combining ancient indigenous wisdom with modern scientific approaches for sustainable development, especially relevant in places like Hawaii.
- The Hawaiian system Apu’u Yesu is mentioned as a whole-system design worth studying and respecting.
- The goal is to create jobs and prosperity that give back to the local environment and culture instead of taking from it.
- The video emphasizes the necessity of love, respect, and cooperation across cultures and generations for successful sustainability.
- [41:48 → 45:39] Closing Remarks and Encouragement
- The video closes with gratitude and encouragement to continue positive action and awareness. Lono song: “Unlock the Hope”
- The message is repeated: The time has come to unlock hope, make a change, and stand together for a better future.
- The host encourages viewers to engage with the ideas and projects discussed and to be part of the global movement toward zero emissions and sustainable living.
Key Insights and Concepts
| Term/Concept | Definition/Description |
|---|---|
| Zero Emissions Research Institute (ZERI) | An organization focused on eliminating waste by designing closed-loop manufacturing systems inspired by nature’s processes. |
| Gaviotas | A sustainable community in Colombia transforming barren land into a thriving rainforest through innovative ecological methods. |
| Pine Pitch (Konia) | A resin extracted from pine trees used in around 80 industrial applications, forming a financial base for Gaviotas. |
| Carbon Sequestration | The process of capturing and storing atmospheric carbon dioxide, with Gaviotas selling carbon offsets for climate mitigation. |
| Radical Inclusiveness | A principle of respecting and incorporating diverse knowledge and cultures, especially indigenous peoples, in sustainability efforts. |
| Biomimicry | Innovation inspired by nature’s designs to create sustainable and efficient technological solutions. |
| Systems Thinking | Viewing problems and solutions as part of interconnected whole systems rather than isolated parts. |
Quantitative Data Table
| Data Point | Value/Detail |
|---|---|
| Industrial Raw Material Waste | ~95% of materials extracted are wasted |
| Gaviotas Tree Planting Rate | 1 tree every 5 seconds continuously during growing season (~3.5 months) |
| Gaviotas Original Land | ~8,000 hectares (~20,000 acres) |
| Additional Land Granted to Gaviotas | 40,000 acres |
| Potential Available Land for Pitch Pine in Colombia | ~93 million acres |
| Number of ZERI Global Projects | 14,000 projects in 50-60 countries |
| Energy Savings in Biomimicry Office Building | 90% less energy use than conventional buildings |
- Book: Gaviotas: A Village to Reinvent the World by Alan Weisman
Final Remarks
This video provides a comprehensive exploration of sustainability, emphasizing zero emissions, biomimicry, and community empowerment as essential strategies to address environmental and social challenges globally. The inspiring example of Gaviotas demonstrates the practical success of integrating ecological science and social innovation in a harsh environment, with expanding support from governments and international networks.
The discussion highlights a necessary paradigm shift from reductionist, competitive worldviews to holistic, cooperative, and inclusive approaches that honor traditional knowledge and modern science alike. Viewers are called to educate themselves, support sustainable initiatives, and actively participate in building regenerative systems for a resilient future.
The core message is clear: true change requires unlocking hope within every individual and collective action toward a world with zero waste and thriving ecosystems.
Transcript
Aloha welcome to another Mama presents you know we have a funny thing here we’re Mama Maui Arts and Music Association we’re the Dream Makers Foundation that’s a know that name that you might know us more globally and we’re also Papa people aligned in positive action so I think this is sort of a a mama and papa thing with Little Dream Makers on top because we have a guest here who is making my heart to sing with joy this is John Schulz John Welcome to our show thank you I’m very
03:18
happy to be here John just came across my life in a funny way we were up at an an a Expo an environmental agricultural Expo right UpCountry sustainability Expo in Kola and uh we thank the organizers of that for getting all kinds of people I like to say that are already in the club a lot of people that are already aware that environmental things are very important and we attracted I hope many people in our community that had an inkling about products and things that they could do right now to make a
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difference in uh energy consumption environmental responsibility and taking personal responsibility but now someone uced me to this guy named John Schulz and I remember he had talked and mentioned zero emissions and it triggered something in me and uh John I think you better jump in here John Schulz I would you call you a scientist an interested citizen how do we describe what’s going on yes I’m a scientist I’m also a systems engineer most of my career was in aerospace systems engineering designing life support and
04:29
and Advanced water and waste water treatment systems and launch vehicles and satellites and all the other things that go into Aerospace I see but after after Aerospace I really wanted to focus my attention on basically having the Work World work in a much better way than it has been and how did you come upon the name Gaviotas or zero emissions Research Institute CU that’s where our stories had a chance to come together yes well I started working on sustainability of communities and regions and businesses
05:10
and all the things that are related to that in 1994 uh in about 1997 98 I started doing uh fairly in-depth research and development on those topics and and what I what I realized is that most people that were saying those words or even Eco Village and things like that we’re doing a little bit of what was needed but not not all of the things that were needed so with my background in science and life sciences and systems and all of that I decided it was time to just focus my attention on that and get some clarity about what
05:52
really needs to be true for you science facility you did this out of your home out of your own life at this part at this point most of it is being done from my home office uh I do do Consulting I have done building I have managed construction I have I’ve done some of those things but the research is where my heart you know that really understanding these issues has been where my heart is and uh to answer your question about ZERI before we answer the question we don’t know if you can hear
06:26
Jimmy Buffett in the background but we’re sitting in Maui inside the Maui Arts and Cultural Center and the big question is are we going to have Jimmy Buffett is he going to dominate our call or not because he is right over there and we decided that we would go ahead and do our show anyway so if you hear a tune you liked you don’t have to send in any kind of messages it’s already gone but no matter where you are in the world we want you to come to Maui cuz we’d love to have you okay back
06:54
to Zero emissions Research Institute after after after I had been doing research on this for a while I came across a reference to the zero emission research and initiative Ze uh and a man named Gunter Pauli who is a global citizen he’s a man who started a uh a factory in Europe to make biodegradable detergents and he learned something very profound in the process of doing that uh when our industries make products even those that are environmentally desirable like biodegradable detergents they need raw
07:37
materials and this Factory in in Europe was importing palm oil and what he finally realized and changed everything and he left Ziri or left uncover and and started Zeri was that American Industries for the most part in in and in the case of Eco specifically they’re using 5% of the material extracted from nature and wasting the other 95% the average is around 94% this is wine boggling people know and have seen the pictures of municipal waste the mountains of it that we’re generating that’s only a fraction of
08:21
6% my God you know and and it it there there’s an important message behind this because if you realize what that’s what’s going going on you’re realizing you realize also that the CEOs and the boards of directors of those corporations are not taking care of their fiduciary responsibilities let’s jump in for a second zero emissions research means if a manufacturing process is done when they’re done making what they have what happens to what they waste can that waste be put into a
08:56
landfill or be wasted or how do we use it and create a circle of manufacturing so there is no waste I is that is that what this was very much like that there are two key ideas that are embodied in in these ideas and that is uh one is that nature knows how to do everything that we want to do and they know how to do it elegantly energy efficiently uh without creating harm and in fact creating benefit for everything that project touch nature knows how to do those things the other thing is that nature never deals
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with parts it always deals with systems whole systems and so zeri is about building whole systems around what people need to do to meet their needs and doing it in such a way that everything that project touches benefits so by doing this by dealing with those waste as resources and I’m not talking here NE necessarily about burning them or composting them or just using them in soil amendments goes way beyond that those are still useful tools but it goes beyond that to take that complex material that you and nature have worked
10:13
to create and Go Back To Nature and say okay what part of the five kingdoms of life would really like this and would generate additional high value products from that material so an example uh in Colombia uh the problem was the people growing that really good Colombian coffee there on the mountain sides were being offered 85 cents a pound for the coffee that they were growing when it cost them $2 a pound to grow now this is in a country where we’d rather have these people growing coffee and not that other stuff yeah so anyway
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the point is is that when Zeri works by empowering local organizations I don’t get any support from zeri I’m on my own I’m my own person and I do my own thing but I have access to the extended network of scientists and Engineers that are all over the world uh to tap into for knowledge and ideas and things like that when I need to when I need to do that how is ZERI supported donation well the way it started was actually uh a program under the United Nations and considering how independent Gunter is
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I’m sure they were challenged by his his by that and uh uh at this point uh zeri is supported entirely by uh donations we we you know this is a huge organization it’s local organizations that are empowered and doing their own thing and providing their own support and dlit you know the the national and international offices are one man okay in one place I remember he was at when giving away our punchline we met back at a conference in 2001 or two was it two uh I believe it was 2002 in 2001 I was at
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this conference in abacu New Mexico and got into a hallway and did an interview with gter poly and Paulo lugari from that country from that country from the community in Colombia Gaviotas that we’re going to speak about but gter talked about training groups of people to do surveys in their local areas to then come back to him so that was the core of what well that’s part of the story as well especially with Gaviotas because it illustrates the nature of what happened Gaviotas for many of you you don’t know
12:47
that name g a v IO T Gaviotas is a community I’ll let you tell it but it’s in the middle of what was once a Barren Wasteland yanos PLS in Eastern Colombia and I guess it was because of their desire to make an effect about global warming because of all the tree cutting that’s what I recall here uh Gaviotas was originally started uh by a man named Paulo lugari who’s already been mentioned wonderful man he’s an engineer but you wouldn’t really guess that right off from talking to him he’s
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more philosopher than engineer so along with whatever answer he was going to give you you will get some philosophy as well perhaps very Latin America anyway marvelous man and his what he realized about 35 years ago or thereabouts is that uh our populations continue to expand and we ultimately need to do something about that but people would need to live in almost every environment on the planet and do it in a way that didn’t harm that environment very important so he picked the worst place he could find to create a sustainable
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community and over the years that’s exactly what he’s done so the initial Focus was sustainability and the what they discovered uh the way that they eventually achieved Financial viability was by growing uh resin Pines penis kibe and uh those trees grow very well there they’re not fertile so they don’t spread they’re not an invasive species uh you grow them for about 8 years or 10 years and then you could tap them for the pine pitch uh another 10 years and then the tree is done and they
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carefully log those trees out for fuel to refine the pitch so that was that’s been part of the process all the way along now what’s very different about what they they did is they refused to use herbicides with those trees and there’s actually a lot more to the story but uh in fact it’s worth telling um the soil in this rather difficult place that Paulo picked to build this community is ph4 so it’s very acid you can’t grow a vegetable seed in the ground and yet working with the trees and finding a
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micro risal fungi that would work with the trees they were able to get these trees to grow and prosper and they grow very very well there so anyway as they’re building this Plantation of pine trees uh they refuse to use the herbicides well gee what happens when somebody finally puts in a tree for a bird that’s flying long distances it’s like my gosh somebody finally put in a rest stop and when they sit they drop fertilizer and Seed from the nearby rainforest and so uh the community of
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lcav OTAs is in the process of creating tropical rainforest in a place that probably hasn’t been for maybe 2 or 300,000 years through geological accident so let me that’s part of the story as well that was very well said you know we had this movie on Gunter had done this movie of Gaviotas and their whole process and in there that process was described you know they took a Barren Wasteland and the the Fallen uh pine needles helped raise the ph when the birds came and found like you say a restop without
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any kind of uh herbicides and pesticides they drop seeds and now that area is a biodiverse rainforest thousands and thousands and thousands of Acres I remember when I sat there with Paulo and he signed a book there was a book you remember it was called gavot a village to reinvent the world written by a guy named Alan wisman and there were like almost no pictures in the book and the question was did this place even exist because it’s surrounded by cocaine Growers who don’t let people in and out
17:16
it’s that’s a whole other is a whole story other issue by itself so this video was so telling because this process that you just told they have a way of planting trees at one per minute they only have a limited growing season so much Spectacular One every five minutes I’m sorry one every 5 Seconds 247 oh excuse me one every that’s 12 for three and a half months isn’t that’s what they do they plant trees that’s incredible and they use the sap the the liquid from the trees and they refine it into the most
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uh incredible product on the planet they’ve also gotten awards for their packaging of this stuff they are an incredible community and uh you know all that came we were L how come we saw Paulo lugari in glinton because Paulo lugari came out of the country we were lucky enough someone else was paying a big stipend to bring him to a conference all of those who were at that conference paid that stipend there you go special conference people came together oh we paid a little bit but they paid them an
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additional fee of many thousands of dollars so Paulo lugari came out of this reclusive spot for the second time in s years those so this was there’s actually a lot more to the story thing so I had no beard that’s why you don’t know me I had no beard at the time and mine’s usually a lot shorter well so please continue uh as as he was saying we we as as the plants grow and the and it develops over time many good things happen in addition to having the revenue and the profits and so on from this product uh which is
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Pine pitch or in Latin Spanish it’s konia konia yeahia not California this is not arold anyway so it’s Pine pitch and it’s used in 80 different industrial processes so I wanted to get turpentine it has uses in things that you you know that smell of that’s pine tree smell that that’s that’s right that’s right and the the more solid parts of that are used to put that slick cover on the surface of magazines it’s used in the publishing industry and and 80 other things so anyway a lot of a lot of
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different uses well anyway uh where do we want to go with that uh the I think maybe an update would be in order all right and we we talked then about doing reforestation here this might be a chance where you can reach out and help us do that I’m going to play that old Gaviotas tape yet again with our interview oh that’s a good idea so people will get to understand this process okay okay update okay um when obviously things things have just continued to develop there and all the things that they got talked about with
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the the cocaine Growers and everybody else you know all that’s still going on uh but they have been very successful and they’ve gotten the attention of the uh Colombian government and just recently well I want to back off for just a second and say something else when you’re growing this kind of of of vegetation uh 270 species of rainforest trees plus the the pine pitch things you’re sequestering a lot of carbon and so uh when you’re when you have a system that’s that way they’ve
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discovered that indeed there are people interested in sequestering carbon and buying essentially that carbon offset from Gaviotas you know what that means that means this government the world has created an offsetting so if you generate carbon emissions you have to do something to actively offset that so that’s what you’re talking about because of the high creation of offsetting capability about yes that there are backers who want to buy and help that happen that’s correct and and for the most part at
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this point the people who are paying some money to help them do this and expand and and continue to operate and all that are people who are voluntarily wanting to sequester the carbon that they’re generating oh so that’s the truth so far and uh the here’s here’s the good news and this is neat stuff that’s just relatively recently happened the government of Colombia has granted uh land grant to Gaviotas of another 40,000 acres to to really get serious about planting even more I think they’re
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somewhere around uh let’s see it’s 8,000 hectares that’s about 20 22,000 Acres or something like that so this is a bunch well we have the big island we have the backside of Maui here we’re set yeah could be could be that’s our plan so anyway help yeah the the the rest of that news is that a new community is being F uh communi is being formed called marand Dua they were also granted another 40,000 acres in addition the government of Colombia has now committed to buy biodiesel from them now
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the land they’re planting the trees on is really bad land it’s not good to do anything on and yet they’ve succeeded and yet they’ve succeeded in creating this marvelous this situation the land that’s not good for these trees is good to grow jroa on which is a bush a shrub zofa we call it yeah I’m excited about this see this is where I find that independent ideas are now coming together it’s like concurring all these ideas we’ve had from all sides so I want to listen quietly cuz I’ve
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invested in a couple of these things knowing this is a direction you can grow your own fuel go ahead okay well anyway the point here is that both of these communities will be growing jroa on land that’s too bad and too too so poor that they can’t grow pine trees on it and the potential in the yanos of Colombia this eastern part of Colombia is is close to 93 million acres for the the the Pitch Pine alone wow not counting jroa so anyway the point is the government is guaranteeing a market for the biodiesel
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and the gofa too well the biodiesel coming from jroa and the other is the troa on acreage is staggering as far as what quantity of fuel can be generated from an acre of land I don’t want to quote numbers but it’s it’s so high it is very ific can make a huge huge impact I would like to come back to something you just started started to talk about and that is uh the idea that things are starting to come together and one of the things I do is I look at the nature of what’s going on around us and I pay a lot of
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attention to that probably much more than the average person but in any case uh what I have noticed is that in many many many way the world is Shifting dramatically uh when you have dramatic shifts in the way things are happening the people that get those get that and adapt to it survive and prosper and typically the other people don’t you know they go bankrupt and they lose lose their business uh a very very simple example of that is when uh very innovative um Swiss watchmaker invented the courtz
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movement of of of the wristwatch and the the people in the Swiss watchmaking industry ignored him and didn’t think it was important and didn’t even patent that uh thing I think I’ve got some of most of the details right on this uh in any case uh that watch was exhibited at an international exhibition and 6 months later um someone had picked that up and invented and started manufacturing the courtz movement watches and the Swiss Watch makers lost 80% of their business or something like that in about 6
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months so absolutely massive major change uh with these Paradigm shifts or worldview shifts or whatever you want to call them what’s happening right now is that we have a shift worldwide but um the United States in particular is in um in the throws of this change and it’s it’s very interesting you have uh if you look at the the kinds of changes that are occurring um I want to start over on that what what I want to say is that we have had a dominant world view composed of certain very basic beliefs and those
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beliefs we always act on it doesn’t really matter what people say there’s a onetoone correspondence between their beliefs and their actions so when when you when when we have acted we have acted to basically bring those beliefs and manifest those beliefs in all of the physical things like cars and factories and things like that in all of our our abstract systems like money and credit and all of the human activity systems like communities and businesses and governments and all that so anyway we
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created all those things on the basis of the set of beliefs that we thought were true and where we have learned over the last oh it’s taken a while but say especially in the last 30 years uh we now know that every single one of those beliefs is false and so it’s no big surprise that our existing systems are kind of coming apart at the seams and not working so well so question is is that doesn’t sound so good you know when you say oo gee we have to rebuild everything we’ built on the planet for decades and the
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answer is yes we do but what’s happening is a whole different worldview a whole different set of beliefs that actually are true at least in our best understanding now are coming to the four uh this is a proc this isn’t like flipping a light switch this is a process that’s been going on there are people literally all over the world who have figured out that it’s not about competition it’s about cooperation it’s not about um it’s not about everything being separate little Parts you know as a
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scientist of course you know and and our whole society is based on this idea of scientific reduction ISM you know Good Old Dart uh has a bit to answer for here you know I mean we have we have achieved great things with the approach that we’ve had but the problem is is it’s fatally flawed scientist study parts and guess what there are no parts in nature all the parts are integrated into webs of relationship with other parts and into other systems at all different scales so this this is actually more
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complex than rocket scientists or rocket science uh so it’s it’s interesting the principles are actually very very simple but the implementation of it can get a little little you you need some knowledge about some things to make that work you have to break the old patterns you have to really be aware that everything is working together you know um that is such an important thing it’s beginning to happen and some of the old standbys without picking on names some Churches and such that have you know old
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rigid ways of looking at things people are finding that it is all coming together it can be honoring all the parts can be honored for who and what they are but as they come together they form such a greatness so much power by working together and something that works for everything this is a wonderful thing that’s well stated uh in the research I’ve done on sustainable Community Development one of the things that I have have discovered and it’s it’s some of these things are kind of like no-brainers once you get to
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the that conclusion but uh it’s it’s just this uh for us to make this transition we have to respect and honor each other we have to especially respect and honor any indigenous people that we have the honor to be part of this planet with they have some of the knowledge we need to survive and prosper and and flourish over time and that’s true of anybody that’s different their different way of thinking the different knowledge they have in their head their different skills they’re different ideas about
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things that’s raw material for the evolution of our societies and it’s just critically important so what I call that is radical inclusiveness there we go you know it goes beyond acceptance sorry it’s okay we’ll come back radical inclusiveness I’ve often called it um I’m just going to shut it down okay it’s that’s a nice way of putting it I say it has to work for everyone if it doesn’t work for everyone something’s got to be looked at cuz that’s what I keep trying to do people
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said to me when I started this organization why are you tying Arts and Music with environment why are you taking it started with art music energy environment and tourism people said why are you including tourism it has to work for everyone this you know it’s like taking a model has to have all the pieces you can’t put a puzzle together if you’re missing a few pieces see it just seemed like it was off we’re back so to me it’s so exciting because radical inclusiveness is a way
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of saying you know no matter what color you are no where where you come from listening and involving everyone with all ideas it’s great I mean it’s like all world religions you know are acceptable everyone comes to dinner everyone’s at the table we all have something to contribute in fact if we all don’t have something to contribute we’re missing some people get them got to get them in here CU together we have the whole you know this shift you know it’s really funny to me you know we keep moving
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things is a spoonful at a time a spoonful at a time but now we’re finding things are just shifting it’s as if they talk about Cosmic Consciousness a lot of ideas there was a movie Steven Spielberg thank you where everyone’s building the same Mountain at the same time Close Encounters of the Third Kind it’s time it’s time so we need your help the greatest help that we need is your awareness and speaking out and support of Alternatives there are no Alternatives this is it guys anyway back off my soap
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I guess one of I don’t know how much time we have left but I would really like to focus on on one one very important idea with our reductionist and kind of approach of separating things we try to solve problems by focusing on say the economy or a social problem or an environmental problem and we to do that separately the problem is that when you optimize any part of a system you you make it so the rest of the system doesn’t work well okay you pime the whole when you optimize a piece so if
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you try to go after oh we’ve got to fix this economic problem what typically happens is you fix that and then in process you end up destroying social things and and environmental things and you end up with uh kind of a mess and the same thing is true if you do it the other way but typically what we want to do is solve those economic problems and ignoring the other and that that brings up kind of the next point I want to make which is the old dichotomy between environmentalist reductionist way of
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looking at the world and the business way of looking at the world saying oh I don’t want to be you know this adversarial enemy relationship is absolute nonsense when businesses start focusing on and dealing with the 94% waste on the average that they generate they will generate awesome economic Prosperity they will generate cultural viability we will be able to do all kinds of things that we never thought we could afford to do you can afford to pay people a decent living wage uh you can make sure that the
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resources that you’re extracting are actually helping the Watershed helping biological diversity and the local ecology so you know these things are all possible it’s not uh it’s not just a pipe dream ZERI and actually other organizations too have uh ZERI alone has 14,000 projects in 50 or 60 countries five continents that are doing this already on every scale from Farmstead to the largest industrial operations in the world we are running low on time I know but first of all I’m sure you’ll be back with us I
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certainly hope so um where’s a good beginning for these guys what do you think they should do next a good beginning when I attended the uh local green Focus confer by Ray Anderson he answered that question this way and I agree read read read in other words inform yourselves about anything and everything that you have any interest and passion around this being judging from the people I ran into at up country sustainability Expo you’re well Along on that process there are people here that are very astute and aware of
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these things I would like to uh recommend that you check out the international ZERI website which is wwwz r.org that’s fairly simple but you have to remember it’s a z not an X so we’ll be putting it on screen so you’ll be seeing it okay yeah ZERI I can’t tell you how thrilled I am to have here we could go on and I could get in detail but I’m hoping that what this is going to create is lots of awareness in you asking for more of John Schulz and asking for us to move on some
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of these projects you can contact us you can contact John we’re going to put his email address it’s easy cuz it’s j n r s c h u LZ aol.com right it’ll probably have to change it but yes I will I will try to respond that be a good problem more than responding to we want you to be in touch with us so that we can move forward and Link all of us together because there are many of us who know there’s something to be done done and that the time is now and uh Now’s the Time for
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all of us to align people aligned in positive action well you sure that there’s two other resources that I want to mention go ahead uh one is that as I said this new way of thinking and doing in the world is is an upcoming thing and it’s it’s so pervasive it’s hard to describe but Paul Hawkin has done a masterful job of trying to get his arms around that in a book called blessed unrest it’s well worth reading helps you understand just how broad and just how pervasive this new way of thinking and
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acting is in the world uh the second website I’d like to mention is uh Janine benn’s website called biomimicry Institute she’s uh wonderful scientific lady out of out of Montana and Ziri and and Janine Bennis and The biomimicry Institute have recently formed a partnership with the world uh conservation Society or somebody for developing Nature’s 100 best ideas ideas that we critically need now and um that are that we know enough about so that Engineers can look at that and find ways
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to do that I can think of a couple of immediate examples and I’ll try to make it very short since we’re short yeah I can see a flash uh in in Africa there is a office building that uses 90% less energy than a normal building because they designed it to cool itself like termites cool their termite Ms that’s one example uh there is now a cardiac pacemaker that does not require any batteries and it’s based on knowledge we gained from how the humpback whale um how they how it physiology
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functions and so so uh those are great examples and you know there’s so much great stuff I mean we’re going to obviously have another show it’s this is the kind of stuff that gets me all excited and makes me want to stop doing my day job the fact of the matter is all of our days need to be all of us reaching out and doing something to help somebody else and to be in support of bringing in new things I like to think of these are old things that are being rediscovered you know we didn’t create
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that what the termites do what the hump whales do but we’re rediscovering things that work there is one other thing that I haven’t me hasn’t been brought up I did mention honoring respective indigenous people but it would in this environment especially the Hawaiian Islands I’ll probably mispronounce this but apuu yesu pay attention to that it’s a whole system design it’s a whole system all in one anyway learn from that and uh I I hope that your cane industry is is uh hearing this and uh we’ll not only
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contct we’re going to be in contact very soon we we well respect all the people here and remember you know our whole goal is to create right create jobs create more than is here when I first came here I I was determined not to take from this place but to give back and we hope that taking and using the ideas of the old and the Hawaiian along with the new and the modern together are going to create something even greater than whence we came fully respecting the modern the modern culture and the
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ancient culture and peoples and learning to love each other I mean that would be a great byproduct yeah it’s like hello you know and and actually that is one of the things that’s just kind of bubbling up around our ankles all over the world that’s people know that what we do has to work just how pervasive this new way of literally and acting is putting those folks on the other side of the world it has Buffet guys cuz we’re going to be Jimmy Buffet yeah thank you all for joining us
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it has really been a pleasure having you thank you so much I look forward to uh sharing it not only here locally but all around the world we hope Aloha G and Paulo and all the rest of you guys that we really would like to involve and the people here and our mayor and our people in the state senate and the governor we’ve been at this a long time it’s time to take positive action together Aloha folks Aloha who else do we want to plug here who really has done a great job Willie K Willie K we honor
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have a 30 minute piece that Gunter did about Gaviotas very worthwhile worth watching we are really glad that we’re still on track and can do this reforestation is very important for our whole planet and we can be leaders right here and help the whole world the time has come to make a change the time has come to unlock the hope that lives in each and every one of us and we must do our part we hold the Visions God dreams of our hands can heal the ones we love let’s gather around and let us make a
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stand for you and me unlock the hope and there’s a better life unlock the hope there’ll be no turning back but nothing changes unless we unlock the hole the time has come to make a change the time has come to unlock the hope that lives in each and every one of us and we must do our part we hold the Visions God dreams of our hands can heal the ones we love let’s gather the round and let us make a [Music] stand one of the things that’s just unlock the hope and there’s a better
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life unlock the hope there’ll be no turning back but nothing changes unless we unlock the [Music] whole but nothing changes unless we are un lock the [Music] whole but nothing [Music] changes oo unless we unlock the [Music] whole unless we unlock the whole [Music] unless we unlock the [Music] Hope unless we unlock the hope [Music]
