Follow Lou & David as they bike the 3000 miles from London to Banjul

Yesterday I tried contacting a friend of mine who had started working at Design Bridge London on the same day as I did. When the reply came back, Lou was in Madrid, excitedly telling me that she was riding from London to the Gambia on motor bikes with her boyfriend David.

Well as you’ll read in their post Mañana mañana, the drama has already begun!

The route follows:

- London
- Portsmouth
- Santander
- Madrid
- Algeciras
- Tanger Med.
- Imilchil
- Laayoune
- Dakhla [..]

The power of an honest compliment… and a smile. Validation.

Whoever you meet. Why not try and make their day?

Enjoy this award-winning video. It must be good. When I first found it in 2009 it had about 20,000 views. Now it is approaching 5 million.
Over 34,000 likes (and 444 dislikes – hey, no one’s perfect). Who can you validate today?

Robert Swan Photo courtesy of Rob Suisted of http://blog.naturespic.com

“The biggest threat to the planet is the belief that someone else will save it.”

You might want to read that one again…

“The biggest threat to the planet is the belief that someone else will save it.”

These are the words or warning from someone who’s dedicated his life to making a difference to our world. Robert Swan OBE is one of the world’s pre-eminent polar explorers, an environmental leader and renewable energy champion. At 33 he became the first person to walk to both the North and South Poles. He was one of the first people to suffer the harmful effects of ozone depletion at the South Pole and nearly lost his life at the North Pole due to early melting due to global warming. On his return his patrons asked him to tell his story to preserve the Antarctic and he began a 50 year mission to motivate youth and business leaders around the planet…

“At the third ‘World Summit for Sustainable Development’ in 2012, the existing Kyoto Protocol for the Environment will expire. Around the world the threat of climate change has become apparent to us all. “As the last unspoilt wilderness on earth, Antarctica is currently protected by the treaty prohibiting drilling and mining until 2041. Decisions made by today’s youth will impact our entire planet’s ecosystem and the future of life on earth.”

Our mission is to build on this by informing, engaging and inspiring the next generation of leaders to take responsibility, be sustainable, and know that now is the time for action in policy development, sustainable business generation and future techniques. 2041 is the year in which the Protocol on Environmental Protection to the Antarctic Treaty could potentially be modified or amended. Our aim is to work towards the continuing protection of the Antarctic Treaty so that the last great wilderness on earth is never exploited.

You can find out all about 2041 here at 2041.com.

You can read the full, inspiring and unabridged interview by Durham Alumni Relations Manager, Astrid Alvarez with Robert Swan at http://www.dunelm.org.uk

World Top 100 Universities: Durham University is now recognised in the world’s top 100 universities in a comprehensive international rankings guide – The QS World University Rankings 2010.

Robert Swan Photo courtesy of Rob Suisted of http://blog.naturespic.com

Who are the most influential people online right now? That’s what the Influence Project was designed to answer.

Fast Company magazine and FastCompany.com have attracted over 32,000 people in this global experiment.

Without too much effort I’ve reached the 96th percentile of influencers.

You can find out about the project here on their blog: http://www.fastcompany.com/tag/influence-project

All pretty interesting and everyone who signs up will be featured in the November 2010 Fast Company magazine – the biggest influencers will have the largest photos on the spread. You can see my page here: http://fcinf.com/v/dmma

Unless you’ve been ‘under a rock’ for the past decade you’ll know that our current, collective way of living is unsustainable on the single planet that we have. Focus your mind for a moment with these statistics:

• If everyone in the world enjoyed a UK quality of life we would need 3 planets.
• If everyone in the world enjoyed a US quality of life we would need 5 planets.
• If everyone in the world had a Zambian quality of life we would need only 0.2 of a planet.

Single Planet Living thought leader and sustainability expert, Professor Alan Knight, OBE is asking us to ask ourselves as Marketers some fundamental questions. He can help you an me become more ‘carbon literate.’ And for us Marketers – forever trying to communicate ‘the lifestyle’ – he has a very appropriate message:

• “It’s not about saving the planet…
• It’s not about saving the rainforest…
• It’s about providing the infrastructure to allow 9 billion people to have a quality life.”

Seen from that perspective, sustainability need not be about hair shirts and denial. It is about intelligent solutions, better planning and long term thinking.

And as Professor Knight points out. At the moment, on our present trajectory, a quality life for 9 billion isn’t going to happen. Take a look at his short video where he explains that ultimately we will reach sustainability – because we can’t take out a loan on another planet. He explains that all we have is a choice.

You can find out more here on the Single Planet Living website.