nuance intelligence

Zoo York — home of huge banker bonuses (again, already) and esteem-crushing ad campaigns (not so much, these days) — would appear from a distance to be an unlikely home to an interesting sustainability network.  A recent 24-hour layover revealed that the seeds of a green apple are germinating throughout the city.

For starters, the LOHAS movement has taken root in Brooklyn.  Farmers markets and organic cafes pepper this borough famous for its waves of immigrant population that re-define neighborhoods each subsequent generation.  Also, Majora Carter’s work greening the South Bronx has caught the fancy of the TEDsters, confirming the rosy presumptions of the progresserati, as well as changing the lives of her neighbors who spend considerably less time thinking about the geo-economic impacts of climate change.

So, clearly, something is happening in NY.

Four sessions filled our schedule from touch-down on Sunday night to lift-off Monday afternoon.  Here are the groups we met, and some interesting background on each:

Social Labs
Chris Lindstrom leads a network of motivated and accomplished partners in the development of a nascent set of social media tools intended to serve social entrepreneurs world-wide.  Their group hosts a regular Sustainable Venture meetup, while sorting out the first generation of apps.  Lindstrom’s a veteran of progressive finance, having nurtured one of the more successful complementary currency networks in the country, BerkShares.  Chris is also one of the founding members of the Slow Money Alliance, a movement of patient capital investing in local food systems started by former Investors’ Circle Chairman Woody Tasch.

Evolver
After dinner with Chris at Galaxy Global Eatery — one of the few places where I’ve found truly innovative and yummy menu items catering to the globally aware palate — we joined up with Daniel Pinchbeck, editor and founder of the paradoxically named Reality Sandwich, as well as Evolver, which is an online community of neo-radicals focusing on conscious collaboration for change.  Pinchbeck is an outspoken voice for our transcendent times, and heir to Tim Leary’s crusade for psychedelics and related awareness. A (completely sober) late night in the Village revealed someone who lives in the next evolution of humanty, and is trying to pull a group of folks along on the journey.

Shades of Green
We began the next morning on a weekly radio show hosted by Peter van Geldern and David Marks, partners in the Shades of Green Network (SoG).  SoG is a virtual advisory group for early-stage greentech and cleantech business in the metro area, helping visionaries and technologists round out their team and increasing their chance to launch a successful business.  Their concept of shades of green references their view that many people are still taking small but important steps along the path to sustainability.  That point was illustrated by their other guest, who runs the equivalent of “green tupperware parties,” hosting open discussions for people just enjoining a green awareness, helping them understand the first few steps

PURE Project
Then it was back down to the Village to meet Ryan Fix, a Burning Man veteran, and head of PURE Project.  Ryan is an incredible connector of people and ideas, hosting both a physical as well as conceptual space for the incubation of new social enterprises.  Their incubation concept connect the physical and virtual — hosting performance and short-term retail with a desire to connect.  The PURE principles are an excellent vision of Ryan’s operating mode, and offer a blueprint for the rules of engagement for social enterprises.

Ultimately, it should be no surprise that the Village and Brooklyn are rich fields where these new seeds are germinating.  The intersecting networks connected to each of these organizations demonstrate what is happening in communities around the world.  Philanthropists, conscious capitalists and innovators continue to invent new forms and emergent organizations to support, power and encourage the social change necessary to build our future.