I ended my blog “Enough Said” somewhat ambiguously by saying we know pretty much what the sustainability picture needs to look like whether it be energy, cities, transport or agriculture and how I’m all for getting on with putting some of the pieces of this vision in place rather than just talking about it or creating ‘enabling environments’ (institutional capacity to deliver this new reality) to try and spark it into life. Practically speaking though what does this actually mean? Obviously there’s a lot of complexity in the picture – this is a given. Rather than feeling overwhelmed by it however I think the best way forward is to focus on getting on with turning pieces of this environmental vision into reality.
To do this I have started up a not-for-profit organisation called ‘Do-Tank’ - essentially an action-orientated think tank working on environmental issues. It aims to source ideas from web-based contributors as well as generate its own ideas internally via an advisory ‘board’ of high calibre, untenured individuals. Our commitment will be to project manage the best ideas into reality via sourcing the necessary funds and technical skills from our collective networks to make this happen. (All ideas should satisfy some simple criteria being manageable in size and scope, deliverable, and have a repeatable methodology). The intention is to then record all of our experiences from such projects and make the IP freely available to encourage repeatability.
I basically arrived at the idea of Do-Tank because I don’t see many examples of entities that do outcome-focused work in an unencumbered, multidisciplinary way to arrive at solutions to problems. Think-tanks come close but they tend to focus on a strategic level rather than implementable solutions. Industry/angels/venture capitalists on the other hand tend to engage when there is a vested business case, whilst the public sector/political end of the spectrum tend to run with an idea only once groundwork and preliminary risk-based work has been done. Pressure groups/NGOs do some very good work but it is often for political ends, (and, where the environment is concerned often to remediate an existing problem or support lobbying against some future undesirable activity). Consulting firms alternatively tend to be restricted to the scope of tenders in the marketplace rather than driving new green agendas by undertaking innovative work.
Do-Tank will fill this gap by taking the best of our ideas and yours, making them happen and recording how we went. The extent to which an idea works in the real world will quickly give us the reality of how able/‘enabled’ the environment is to deliver the vision we want, whilst problems and blind alleys we encounter will give us the roadmap for any institutional change that needs to happen.
Website coming soon at do-tank.com