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https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-52582243

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EARTH DAY and The New Normal

My new normal life is one where I get up, shower have breakfast and then walk to my spare bedroom that is set up as a rather pleasant home office. I break my day by having coffee or a fruit tea in the morning, a walk at lunchtime and a ten minute session in the afternoon of doing something I wouldn’t ordinarily do – watch the afternoon news.

Of course there is very little about this new normal that is ordinary. Each day the news bring the number of deaths across the country and the world, a mass grave in New York, arguments over PPE and talk of exit strategies, before we even know what we are to exit to.

We live now in a world where our society, our economics and our environment have been thrown off kilter in a way that this modern world could only have imagined in some dystopian Hollywood movie.

But wait, let’s just think for a minute, wasn’t society all but broken. The welfare state was slowly being dismantled and the gaps taken up by underfunded social enterprises and charities; some of the last to be bailed out by big government. Has the Covid virus pointed a new light on what society really is and how we should nurture the best of it. Clap for the NHS on Thursday, neighbourly notes through doors, homelessness sorted overnight and wealthy individuals, groups and organisations re-thinking their priorities?

“We will ask ourselves about how we do business and social interactions – do we need as many jets in the sky? We can’t allow ourselves to be this vulnerable again?”

Chris Packham Interview by Stephen Stafford & Ben Moore BBC South 21 March 2020

On the economic front big government has taken action and an array of grants, salary top ups, loans and payment holidays all now in place to support the workers through this crisis. It seems a huge and generous effort and the right thing to do. What, I ask myself, happens to those who fall through the cracks, because cracks there are. What about the self-employed without two years of accounts, the volunteer manager who hasn’t taken anything, but has survived on the sheer good will of others that can no longer give that support. The gig economy was always vulnerable and now exposed as downright dangerous to your physical and mental health, when extraordinary events take over. In Scotland and in many other countries there is talk of a universal basic income, that may sound altruistic but actually it makes economic sense. A basic right to the cash one needs to survive thereafter taxes to pay for those less fortunate. I like that idea, I like a society that balances the economic with people and puts people front and centre in a value driven world.

Then of course we think about the environmental changes we are seeing in our new normal – the air is cleaner; just a short walk outside and you can smell the pine trees, hear the bumble bees and the birdsong is a symphony of joy.

“Business leaders have a crucial role to play, by putting nature at the core of their processes and decision-making and systematically identifying, assessing, mitigating and disclosing nature-related risks to avoid severe consequences. Businesses can be part of the global movement to protect and restore nature.“ World Economic Forum 19 January 2020

A recent article on the BBC website showed farmers working away delivering new life into the world, a world that not so long ago they were accused of polluting. Now however with many of the big polluters, travel, shipping and many more at rest, the small impact that farmers make in their work seems less of a concern and more an imperative to keep us fed.

The battle we are fighting against Covid 19 is one that will continue for a long time to come and as businesses adjust to the new normal, we will all have to do our bit to ensure that the battle against climate change doesn’t get lost in the rush to revert to our old ways. We need to make sure our supply chain and our management as custodians of this earth accounts for the best that we can be. The National Green Standard on-line self-assessment is as good a place to check your new reality as any – it’s free with a facilitated cost effective assessment to follow up maybe now is the time to see how you measure up.

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Covid 19 And The New Normal

Sitting at my desk I have a view into the football park where only the occasional dog walker can be seen thankfully keeping an appropriate social distance from anyone else in the vicinity.

This is what working from home looks like, a view from a window into a quiet and almost deserted landscape. A waste collection lorry is moving slowly through the village streets and the men working present the appearance of normal, or what normal used to look like except if you look closely it’s clear they too are social distancing.

This new normal doesn’t quite feel right and I wonder if we will ever return to our old ways?

This makes me think about what I have lost and what I have gained from the isolation that we have imposed upon our society?

I haven’t driven my car in the past eight days and for me this is a joy. I know others will miss driving but it has always been a chore for me and I wrestle with my environmental conscience every time I turn the key to start the ignition.

I have managed to take my one exercise per day in the form of a long walk which suits my personality perfectly. I walk with my partner of thirty years and we are as comfortable with our silences as we are with our chat. I love that we have time to be together in a way that has no pressure to cram things in – we just are and it is refreshing, life enhancing.

Work has become different in the same space it has become more intense and less so. The added intensity comes from the ever present email and now video link which on balance I have to say I love. The flip side of this intensity is that the working day is a different shape – I can work odd hours and still meet my deadlines without feeling the pressure of other peoples’ time requirements. An added bonus is not worrying about the traffic and trying to miss the rush hour!

It is clear we are creatures of habit and changing habits can be difficult, we make excuses, we put things off, we create barriers where non exist. This paradigm shift in how we live has forced us all to look at what we do and how we do it. I have offered coaching sessions on line, the organisational CSR tool National Green Standard always had a strong on-line feature and now we can extend that by using Teams, or Zoom or Facetime to speak to clients.

How much of these new ways of working will stay post COVID 19? I hope many people will see the benefits of remote working and that presenteeism is gone for good.

Daily ‘Teams’ meetings at ten in the morning with my old work colleagues, keeps me in touch and allows for a social exchange before we get down to business. A three o’clock Teams meeting with my new work colleagues focuses on recovery planning for post COVID and prioritising which services will come back and when. Central to this discussion is the reconfiguration of services, looking at how this radical change that has been imposed upon us all can be seen as an opportunity to make us more efficient and effective in the future.

My work is all about sustainability, whether that is environmental, social or economic and it has always been about change. These bedfellows sit well with me; continuous improvement is always welcome and fundamental to how we live. What is really exciting are the big leaps we can make when the conditions are right.

This terrible virus has forced change upon us; it is stripping people of their lives, livelihoods and bringing fear to us all. We must focus on doing the right things, keeping safe and seizing upon our new reality to make the most of what we have.

In the past I, like many people, have sat in meetings thinking that I will never regain the time spent listening to unnecessary chat about someone’s personal preferences that clearly go against all other considerations. A good robust discussion is not what I mean, we have been in the situation where a dominant person just hogs the floor and we passively accept that eventually the deadlock will break and we will get back to business.

At times like this when time is both precious and strange we look back at those days where we wasted time, we procrastinated, we allowed time to slip away without thought.

I wonder how many of us are using our time well. I wonder about making plans as opposed to just doing things.

We are going to trust that life will return to a new normality, one where we can socialise and touching each other is not a potentially life taking exchange.

In the meantime I am enjoying the starlings that sit on my window ledge; I hear their soft chirping sounds and smile inwardly and outwardly. I love not driving to ‘the office’ and I rejoice in seeing my fellow workers in their own homes, relaxed and focused at the same time. The quality of our conversations is better than before, we have a deeper understanding of our individual and collective worlds.

Almost two weeks in and I’m happy to say that social isolation, while very challenging is bringing me a quality of time I really didn’t know existed.

It’s two minutes to my on line morning meeting with five colleagues. My new reality is not one that stresses me in quite the way the long drive to work, the circling of the car park to find a space and the clocking in to a building that is overcrowded does, in fact I am in a good place to have a productive team meeting!

At times like this when time is both precious and strange we look back at those days where we wasted time, we procrastinated, we allowed time to slip away without thought.

I wonder how many of us are using our time well. I wonder about making plans as opposed to just doing things.

We are going to trust that life will return to a new normality, one where we can socialise and touching each other is not a potentially life taking exchange.

In the meantime I am enjoying the starlings that sit on my window ledge; I hear their soft chirping sounds and smile inwardly and outwardly. I love not driving to ‘the office’ and I rejoice in seeing my fellow workers in their own homes, relaxed and focused at the same time. The quality of our conversations is better than before, we have a deeper understanding of our individual and collective worlds.

Almost two weeks in and I’m happy to say that social isolation, while very challenging is bringing me a quality of time I really didn’t know existed.

It’s two minutes to my on line morning meeting with five colleagues. My new reality is not one that stresses me in quite the way the long drive to work, the circling of the car park to find a space and the clocking in to a building that is overcrowded does, in fact I am in a good place to have a productive team meeting!

At times like this when time is both precious and strange we look back at those days where we wasted time, we procrastinated, we allowed time to slip away without thought.

I wonder how many of us are using our time well. I wonder about making plans as opposed to just doing things.

We are going to trust that life will return to a new normality, one where we can socialise and touching each other is not a potentially life taking exchange.

In the meantime I am enjoying the starlings that sit on my window ledge; I hear their soft chirping sounds and smile inwardly and outwardly. I love not driving to ‘the office’ and I rejoice in seeing my fellow workers in their own homes, relaxed and focused at the same time. The quality of our conversations is better than before, we have a deeper understanding of our individual and collective worlds.

Almost two weeks in and I’m happy to say that social isolation, while very challenging is bringing me a quality of time I really didn’t know existed.

We were delighted to award the National Green Standard Bronze certificate to ScottishPower for leading the way in moving to 100% renewable energy

Well done ScottishPower and all partners involved in this endeavour