You Cannot Do Anything? ... a query to StockholmResilience.org

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Stiftelsen för miljöstrategisk forskning
Kund-id : LKH1365
FE 108
105 69 STOCKHOLM
SWEDEN

From M.A. Reader mar58@cam.ac.uk

Dear Kontakt - Mistra,

Please could you be so kind as to suggest why nobody, from the Stockholm Resilience Centre, replied to my polite enquiries.

I emailed to an officer, followed up, and then emailed to her manager.

But I received no response whatsoever.

Are they all
- paranoid?
- just plain unhelpful?
- free riders?
- too overwhelmed with emails?

I do not think that my question was very difficult. So it seems strange to me that nobody from the SRC responded.

Best wishes
etc

Rural Business Unit
Department of Land Economy
University of Cambridge
UK

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To: xxxx@su.se
From: Mark A Reader mar58@cam.ac.uk
Subject: Fwd: [query] -- investment in communications

Dear xxxx

We share allied goals, and I respect the expertise of your institute, so I wrote to one of your colleagues, working on communications strategy. Asking for advice. However no response was received.

Perhaps you might like to comment, on how one person (with modest resources) can most effectively work for the public good? In communications and media.

Best wishes
etc

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: "M.A. Reader" mar58@cam.ac.uk
Subject: [query] -- investment in communications
To: yyyy@albaeco.com

Dear yyyy

I have a sum to invest each month in communications - for resilience, or for accident prevention.

Buying Eikon, for awareness and alerts, is one possibility. Or a subscription to the Gorkana media database is another possibility, for contacts.

And finally, I could do a paid campaign on Adwords, Twitter or LinkedIn - but I wonder how much cut-through I can achieve there.

Would you like to suggest which you think will be best?

Best wishes
etc

--
Rural Business Unit
Department of Land Economy
University of Cambridge

+44 1223 337 163
www.twitter.com/world_farmer
www.landecon.cam.ac.uk/directory/mark-reader

There Is More To Value Than Just The Price

You Are Voting for Company Values with Your Spending

Efficiency is very important, because it is by being efficient that we get richer: through doing more with less (or the same). Hence it is important that we do not promote waste.

None-the-less when you buy anything you are actually voting for the values of the company, (or co-operative, farmer, stallholder, or state-enterprise) that is selling the item to you.

Thus if you always buy the cheapest, you are telling the company that it is only price that matters. And leaving it to other people to tell them things like: how well to pay their unskilled workers; how much to spend on the environment; whether to contribute to good causes; whether to use unethical marketing practices; and how much to minimise tax. (With globalization most of these can often just be ignored).

If you always buy the cheapest, the companies that find ways of getting round these 'external' costs will win. The others will just go bankrupt. Your spending is an enormous influence on producers, so choose your brands with care, and vote with your money for worthy corporations and coop's.

Some Chinese state enterprises, and Israeli kibbutzim, have schools, old age homes, and housing to support - and although they are moving slowly to market provision of these things, they still face markets where some employ 16 year-olds and house them in dormitories. Most large companies in the UK provide corporate pension plans for their workers - these can be a big burden, and make it near impossible to compete with companies that avoid the responsibility.

"Vote Wisely With Your Money"!