Warp speed: that’s what this masters’ course feels like.
Relatively speaking, it has barely got boldly going. Even now, it really is just beginning.
Cambridge has changed me immensely in these past months. And I sense more transformation will follow in times to come.
The end of my CISL course is sadly in sight (though my dissertation’s end isn’t). I feel truly anxious at the thought that it will soon be over, scared that the relentless sustainable stimulus will cease, that the persistent provocation to think afresh will pass. What will I do without Cambridge?
I suspect… I sense… no, I now believe that the drive for positive change it has nurtured in me – coupled to the network of invigorating friends it has given me – will keep me learning, urging me forwards.
My sustainability personal change challenge has been to share the knowledge and ideas that I was lucky to pick up through my CISL masters course with my colleagues at Pure Planet, a renewable energy retailer that we launched in Britain, last year. Thankfully, I’m pleased to say, the Cambridge contagion is catching.
Pure Planet is a for-purpose business. We want to help create a Britain powered entirely by renewables – and we want to be as sustainable as we can along the way. So it made sense. Whatever Cambridge taught me, I would do my best to share with others.
But the key lesson hasn’t been any of the actual data, information or knowledge I’ve come to understand, but the wisdom the sustainability leadership masters has demanded: that there is a better way to be, to live.
And it is this that I’ve tried to share with others. That we must progress. Doing what we’ve always done, won’t work. It’ll strangle our planet and stifle the people. We need to be clean; we need to be fair.
Sharing this with my colleagues has been permission enough for people to think and behave differently. If I can help with a bit of actual knowledge, too, then great. It’s progressive to seek the maximum positive, in whatever aspect of business we are discussing, to help create the very best potential future.
Let me give you a recent example.
Sparked by the people team, a few of us got together to review our people policies, wanting to add to them, now the business has started to settle. What else could we do to make working at Pure Planet as good as it should be?
Parental leave – and the ‘normal’ differences between maternity and paternity rights – was the area we ended up focussing on, inspired by a male colleague who is about to have a second child with his wife who works elsewhere.
We weren’t just talking about shared parental leave (introduced in in the UK in 2015), but the additional access to equal parental benefits and rights.
Why shouldn’t we as Pure Planet employees have equal rights, equal benefits, equal time off, regardless which partner, whatever their sexuality, was having a baby whether through surrogacy, adoption or pregnancy?
And we couldn’t think of any reasons not to. I didn’t have to push. Others led the rightful charge. It was the socially just thing to do – and we all knew it – to allow, to facilitate and to encourage parents to share the special moments of a new child, with the same benefits that once would have been the preserve of the maternity rights-holder only.
The needs of the many outweigh the needs of the few, indeed.
You can read more about our decision here in the words of Pure Planet’s People Director Richard Roberts.
As I say, I didn’t have to do much at all. Sustainability is becoming a company-wide vibe. The encouragement to be sustainable, which I now feel more confident in giving, is usually all I need do.
I wrote in my blog back in March 2017 that my CISL degree had become “less about passing; more about passing things on”. And in June 2017, when we introduced an artificially intelligent bot to front our customer service at Pure Planet, I confessed that: “I never expected to have to have chat with a sexless robot about sustainability either”.
I’ve even gone beyond our team, and I gave a TEDx Talk on renewables to 1,200 people in Brighton, too. That really was the final frontier…
Nimoy was right. The more we share the more we have. I’ve loved the gifts I’ve gained by sharing some of the sustainability of Cambridge. I hope for more long into the future.
Nimoy’s alter ego Spock never made the trek to Pure Planet, but I like to think he might have felt at home there if he had.
Sustainability Education 
Steven,
Thanks for your inspirational post. That Cambridge is more about passing things on than passing sums up the essence and positive charge of the course.
If what endures is permission for others to think and behave differently, then what a wonderful legacy that is! Of course, sharing the wisdom you’ve gained requires a certain ability to take people with you. But the idea of a leader as a pivot to facilitate outcomes, ignite ideas and create a platform of possibility is a powerful one.
Its great to hear about some of the concrete ways you have been able to do this – addressing the common biases and assumptions we don’t question (such as paternity leave). In reality there are endless frontiers to explore and barriers to break through: this is the domain of the many, not the few. If this is the age of the engaged citizen, don’t we need an abundance of sharing and permissibility everywhere?
See you in Cambridge – you’re coming today, right?!
Jacqui
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Dear Steven,
Sounds like you’ve had a really amazing past two years – launched Pure Planet, gave a TEDx, became a vegetarian, finished your dissertation (I hear you are nearly done), the list goes on and on! Congratulations!
I also find it quite inspiring that you’ve incorporated many of the SDGs into Pure Planet’s business model – paternity leave (sdg 9), ai chat bots (sdg 10, good choice I hear they are the next big thing!). I expect all 17 goals will be incorporated into your business by 2020.
The CISL programme seems to have had a profound impact on your life. What’s interesting is that I think you’ve had an equally deep impact on CISL. First, the research you are conducting will equip CISL with really powerful data to help them understand the impact of their programme. Second, the comments and stories you share with classmates such as myself (be it in class or over a pint) are always so insightful and energizing. I always leave a conversation with you feeling a renewed sense of energy to change the world; you really do elevate the aspiration bar so it has been a true pleasure studying along side you!
Your post also reminded me of Adam Grant’s book “Give and Take.” In his book he talks about matchers, givers, and takers. Givers are surprisingly the top performers of the lot and also (maybe less surprisingly) the most well-liked. This thought is completely aligned with the quote you started your post with “The miracle is this: the more we share the more we have.”
To end, I wish you a Workshop 4 filled with giving, sharing, and transformation!
Best,
Kat
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Dear Steven
I am so proud of you and the work you are doing. The world needs leaders and entrepreneurs like you, full of enthusiasm, detachment, commitment. Doers.
I loved your blog’s tittle – I truly believe that there is much more joy in giving than in receiving – and getting to the end of this course, it seems to be the perfect time to think about what else we can share with the world after this invigorating experience. Our C7 Legacy plan would be a starting point for me…
It’s been a real pleasure meeting you and sharing with you this sustainability journey. I’m quite sure you will keep growing, leading change, inspiring others and implementing SDGs. Should Latin America be in your To-Do list (of challenges), please count on me.
All the best.
Marcela
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Hello Steven,
Thank you for sharing yet again another inspiring story. I have said it before but after reading this blog of yours I strongly feel the need to say it again that you really have inspired me to think differently, to act differently and to be courage to do things differently. Your story is a living proof for that.
I really like that your business model is for-purpose and it was designed with a purpose. Your TEDx talk was also very engaging and inspiring. Do you think these things (your business, your TEDx talk, changes in your lifestyles, etc.) have been influenced by the CISL course? Do you think you would have done things differently if you weren’t be in this journey? Personally, I can speak for myself that this course and this journey and all of you have inspired me so much and I would not have done a lot of things that I am now very happy about and proud of if I did not have this experience and exposure.
I’m looking forward to reading more of your stories and how Pure Planet makes changes for our planet. So please don’t stop blogging cause you have a fan now ☺
Cheers!
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