What's in a Word? Reconstructing Water Discourse

Does language shape our relationship with water, or does our relationship with water influence our language?

A risky topic, that typically throws people off guard (discourse? talking about how we talk?), resulted in an intimate but passionate group of people gathering at the Waterlution Toronto Hub to de-construct the language we use around water.

Collective response of guests about what they would like to see change in the language we use around water

As we challenged our guests to not use the word "water" itself in their discussion, I will do the same from hereon and use some of the words that emerged instead.

Some interesting insights were shared from a branding perspective, on segmenting and understanding our audiences, thanks to the exercise facilitated by brand strategist and corporate leadership development coach Mary Jane Braide.

What we wanted less of, and more of in our discourse around water

Who are the audiences that matter?

How can we segment and understand them?

What value proposition would resonate most with them?

Contributions from science fiction author Karen Lefave took us on a journey of what kind of language will be used in the future after we have destroyed our earth's lifeblood (triggered a lot of goosebumps).

We all participated in an exercise based on the Appreciative Inquiry Process.

Appreciative Inquiry focuses on taking the best from what 'currently is' and overlaying it on what we think 'ought to be'. The process entails 4 elements:  
Discover
Dream
Design
Deliver 

To end our evening, we all contributed to a "commons" exercise with Paul Baines, providing prompt questions that he can use on his bike tour journey around the Great Lakes. He will be collecting stories from people he encounters on their awareness of our precious blue resource's value and their future vision of the Great Lakes. You can find us on The Great Lakes Commons Map.

Thanks to everyone who joined us and who shared their valuable ideas- to begin the process of change, we need to take a step back-  de-construct - and then consciously reconstruct our discourse around what is the beating heart, the blood, veins and tears of the earth.

Thank you James Watson from SPRiNG for co-hosting. 

Photo Credits: Nigel R

Feel free to continue the conversation below.

CSR for the Bluer Good

"Are we moving fast enough towards a sustainable society?"

Inspired by the Art of Hosting Water Dialogues workshop I recently attended, I was compelled to harvest the outcomes from our CSR for the Bluer Good (April 30) Waterlution Toronto Hub gathering at Patagonia- through this visual blog.

Although we scratched at the surface of CSR and Water, some groups delved more deeply into systems-thinking. Covering the topic comprehensively in 2 hrs is a challenge, but together we opened up the space to start the idea-sharing and conversation exchange between industry, non-profit, academics and the interested public ... 

Highlight of common ideas that surfaced:

• A need for democratic principles in private sector, more transparency, and cooperation from top to bottom both within companies and between government, industry and public.
• A need for a political climate conducive for environmental priorities and a push for greater regulation.
• Liability on banks as largest funders to require CSR standards from private loan-seekers- a deep level of accountability.
• More effective stakeholder engagement.
• Triple bottom line- GPI (Genuine Progress Indicators)
• Green wash or are we moving a little more beyond that? Yet the economical factors are still a priority. 
• How do we make CSR part of our company’s mandate and not just a marketing tool? 
• Water Disclosure Project is a positive step/ initiative for connecting water to CSR.
• B-Corp certification provides a way for companies to incorporate CSR into every facet of their operation.  here is a link: http://www.bcorporation.net/ 

Enjoy the visual gallery!

 

 Thanks for joining our Low-Tech Social Network!

   

The 3 images below are the on-site harvesting from our awesome Visual Facilitator Patricia Kambitsch 

1) Who are we as stakeholders? 

2) What has been done well so far?

 

3) What do we want more of? 

Moving CSR to a deeper level of accountability... An improved political climate...

Below are outcomes from participants' group discussions:

An interesting representation of "Map yourself as a stakeholder" activity.

...horizontal axis is about the level of Professional engagement... vertical axis measures the level at which water factors in our consciousness at the Personal level. Shout out to the group who designed this!

Visual representations of a collective agenda for action that can be taken from our stakeholder stance to make the connection stronger between CSR and water...

We are the $ holders- we can vote with our $, we can choose where to invest it... investing in Water Police isn't a shabby idea!

Education at the centre of change, supplemented by other necessary measures: better buying practices, better policies, better reporting on activities of corporations, more sustainable farming practices, involvement of religious institutions in the discussion, involvement of art...

 Appeal to the heart and the mind. Look after it now vs. 50 years from now.

 Spread the word about our discussions... Be critical...be more politically active...

... Take a water walk, especially if you are CEO.

Thank you to everyone who participated!

You have contributed your valuable insights to our economy of generosity and ecology of knowledge. Now let's keep the conversation going...