Tough Work, Worthy Goals

I rode the boat from the Vineyard to Woods Hole a few days back to see the energy efficiency work we’re doing to Katharine and George Woodwell’s house.   George is the founder of the Woods Hole Research Center, where we are currently in the middle of construction of a major Deep Energy Retrofit of a large 1905 carriage house recently acquired by the center (the completed building will become office and meeting space for their expanding staff; they’re in the climate change business, so theirs is booming!).

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SHOP CLASS & DEEP ENERGY

In 1980, when Hurricane Bob ripped through Martha’s Vineyard, it tore down a big hickory tree alongside Humphrey’s Bakery in West Tisbury.  We took the butt log, hauled it to our yard, and milled it into planks.  Until a few months ago they sat on stickers somewhere deep in our wood storage building waiting for my son Pinto to make a rocking chair for me and my wife Chris.

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• JOHN ABRAMS is co-founder and CEO
  of South Mountain Company and the author
  of COMPANIES WE KEEP read more

• Reading List

  • THE WATCHMAN'S RATTLE: Thinking our Way out of Extinction by Rebecca Costa | Sociobiologist Costa explores the capacity of the human brain, and how we can use ours to solve our greatest problems.
  • THE GREAT DISRUPTION by Paul Gilding | The former director of Greenpeace and long-time corporate sustainability consultant takes us on a journey to the future of our economy
  • EAARTH: MAKING A LIFE ON A TOUGH NEW PLANET by Bill McKibben. For McKibben, climate change is not about the future – we’ve already changed the planet irrevocably. Now, as we try to minimize the damage, we have to learn how to live in this new place.
  • WHAT I WISH I KNEW WHEN I WAS 20 by Tina Seelig | The subtitle is A Crash Course on Making Your Place in the World – it’s about innovation, radical collaboration and harnessing the unexpected.
  • PLAN B 4.0 by Lester Brown | For over 30 years Lester Brown has been keeping us abreast of the State of the World, environmentally. His latest, Plan B 4.0, is a road map to real climate change solutions
  • THE REAL WORLD OF EMPLOYEE OWNERSHIP by John Logue and Jacquelyn Yates | The best primer on employee ownership, this useful book comes from the Ohio Employee Ownership Center, which has actively and successfully helped Ohio companies for decades
  • WHOLE EARTH DISCIPLINE: An Ecopragmatist Manifesto By Stewart Brand | One of the most provocative thinkers of our times makes a powerful myth-shattering call to arms to save the planet. This book changed the way I think about topics I’ve thought about for a long time.
  • THE MYTH OF PROGRESS: Toward a Sustainable Future by Tom Wessels | In this beautifully written small volume the author makes a compelling statement about why perpetual growth is not – and can’t be – the answer to our economic struggles.
  • COME HOME AMERICA: The Rise and Fall (and Redeeming Promise) of our Country by William Greider | The noted author and National Affairs Correspondent for the Nation helps us understand the profound challenges and opportunities of the great transitions to come.
  • BORN TO RUN by Christopher McDougall | An epic adventure about the reclusive Tarahumara Indians in Mexico which, through remarkable characters and stories, becomes a journey about values, community, and human evolution.
  • DOWN TO THE WIRE: Confronting Climate Collapse By David Orr | Another eloquent – and troubling – call to action for the planet. Orr combines science, history, and public policy to make a compelling case that effective political leadership is the essential missing ingredient standing in our way.
  • CHANGE BY DESIGN by Tim Brown | The CEO of the legendary design firm IDEO proposed that Design Thinking – the idea that every problem is a design problem – wil need to become a part of every successful organization.

• COMPANIES WE KEEP is published by Chelsea Green Publishing
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