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Frans
de Waal:
"I think we need to start thinking about
grounding our moral systems in our biology."
Michael
Ventura:
"With empathy, complex problems become more
understandable, teams become more effective, and companies become more
nimble."
René
Toet: "We are optimistic about what we have achieved
in terms of climate impact, the results that we can achieve in the future
and the drive among organisations to move to Net Zero."
Lead Article
Understanding others’
feelings: what is empathy and why do we need it?
by Pascal
Molenberghs, Monash University
Empathy is the ability to share and understand the emotions
of others. It is a construct of multiple components, each of which is
associated
with its own brain network. There are three ways of looking
at empathy.
First there is affective empathy. This is the ability
to share the emotions of others. People who score high on affective
empathy are those who, for example, show a strong visceral reaction
when watching a scary movie.
They feel scared or feel others’ pain strongly within
themselves when seeing others scared or in pain.
Cognitive empathy, on the other hand, is the ability
to understand the emotions of others. A good example is the psychologist
who understands the emotions of the client in a rational way, but does
not necessarily share the emotions of the client in a visceral sense.
Finally, there’s emotional regulation. This refers to
the ability to regulate one’s emotions. For example, surgeons need to
control their emotions when operating on a patient.
Those
who show a strong visceral reaction when watching a scary movie score
high on affective empathy.dogberryjr/Flickr,
CC
BY
Another way to understand empathy is to distinguish it from other related
constructs. For example, empathy involves
self-awareness, as well as distinction between the self and
the other. In that sense it is different from mimicry, or imitation.
Many animals might show signs of mimicry or emotional
contagion to another animal in pain. But without some level of self-awareness,
and distinction between the self and the other, it is not empathy in
a strict sense. Empathy is also different from sympathy, which involves
feeling concern for the suffering of another person and a desire to
help.
That said, empathy is not a unique human experience.
It has been observed in many non-human
primates and even rats.
People often say psychopaths lack empathy but this is
not always the case. In fact, psychopathy is enabled by good cognitive
empathic abilities - you need to understand what your victim is feeling
when you are torturing them. What psychopaths typically lack is sympathy.
They know the other person is suffering but they just don’t care.
Research has also shown those with psychopathic traits
are often very good at regulating
their emotions.
To
be a good psychopath, you need to understand what your victims are feeling.Pimkie/Flickr,
CC
BY
Why do we need it?
Empathy is important because it helps us understand
how others are feeling so we can respond appropriately to the situation.
It is typically associated with social behaviour and there is lots
of research showing that greater empathy leads to more helping
behaviour.
However, this is not always the case. Empathy can also
inhibit
social actions, or even lead to amoral behaviour. For example,
someone who sees a car accident and is overwhelmed by emotions witnessing
the victim in severe pain might be less likely to help that person.
Similarly, strong empathetic feelings for members of
our own family or our own social or racial group might lead to hate
or aggression towards those we perceive as a threat. Think about a mother
or father protecting their baby or a nationalist protecting their country.
People who are good at reading others’ emotions, such
as manipulators, fortune-tellers or psychics, might also use their excellent
empathetic skills for their own benefit by deceiving others.
Interestingly, people with higher psychopathic traits
typically
show more utilitarian responses in moral dilemmas such as
the footbridge problem. In this thought experiment, people have to decide
whether to push a person off a bridge to stop a train about to kill
five others laying on the track.
The psychopath would more often than not choose to push
the person off the bridge. This is following the utilitarian philosophy
that holds saving the life of five people by killing one person is a
good thing. So one could argue those with psychopathic tendencies are
more moral than normal people – who probably wouldn’t push the person
off the bridge – as they are less influenced by emotions when making
moral decisions.
These typically ask people to indicate how much they
agree with statements that measure different types of empathy.
The QCAE, for instance, has statements such as, “It
affects me very much when one of my friends is upset”, which is a measure
of affective empathy.
If
someone is affected by a friend who is upset, they score higher on affective
empathy.eren
{sea+prairie}/Flickr, CC
BY
Cognitive empathy is determined by the QCAE by putting
value on a statement such as, “I try to look at everybody’s side of
a disagreement before I make a decision.”
Using the QCAE, we recently found
people who score higher on affective empathy have more grey matter,
which is a collection of different types of nervecells,
in an area of the brain called the anterior insula.
This area is often involved in regulating positive and
negative emotions by integrating environmental stimulants – such as
seeing a car accident - with visceral and automatic bodily sensations.
We also found people who score higher on cognitive empathy
had more grey matter in the dorsomedial prefrontal cortex.
This area is typically activated during more cognitive
processes, such as Theory of Mind, which is the ability to attribute
mental beliefs to yourself and another person. It also involves understanding
that others have beliefs, desires, intentions, and perspectives different
from one’s own.
Can empathy be selective?
Research shows we typicallyfeel
more empathy for members of our own group, such as those
from our ethnic group. For example, one study
scanned the brains of Chinese and Caucasian participants while they
watched videos of members of their own ethnic group in pain. They also
observed people from a different ethnic group in pain.
The researchers found that a brain area called the anterior
cingulate cortex, which is often active when we see others in pain,
was less active when participants saw members of ethnic groups different
from their own in pain.
Yet, we do not always feel less empathy for those who
aren’t members of our own group. In our recent
study, students had to give monetary rewards or painful electrical
shocks to students from the same or a different university. We scanned
their brain responses when this happened.
Brain areas involved in rewarding others were more active
when people rewarded members of their own group, but areas involved
in harming others were equally active for both groups.
These results correspond to observations in daily life.
We generally feel happier if our own group members win something, but
we’re unlikely to harm others just because they belong to a different
group, culture or race. In general, ingroup bias is more
about ingroup love rather than outgroup hate.
In
war it might be beneficial to feel less empathy for people who you are
trying to kill, especially if they are also trying to harm you.DVIDSHUB/Flickr,
CC
BY
Yet in some situations, it could be helpful to feel less empathy for
a particular group of people. For example, in war it might be beneficial
to feel less empathy for people you are trying to kill, especially if
they are also trying to harm you.
To investigate, we conducted another brain
imaging study. We asked people to watch videos from a violent
video game in which a person was shooting innocent civilians (unjustified
violence) or enemy soldiers (justified violence).
While watching the videos, people had to pretend they
were killing real people. We found the lateral orbitofrontal cortex,
typically active when people harm others, was active when people shot
innocent civilians. The more guilt participants felt about shooting
civilians, the greater the response in this region.
However, the same area was not activated when people
shot the soldier that was trying to kill them.
The results provide insight into how people regulate
their emotions. They also show the brain mechanisms typically implicated
when harming others become less active when the violence against a particular
group is seen as justified.
This might provide future insights into how people become
desensitised to violence or why some people feel more or less guilty
about harming others.
Our empathetic brain has evolved to be highly adaptive
to different types of situations. Having empathy is very useful as it
often helps to understand others so we can help or deceive them, but
sometimes we need to be able to switch off our empathetic feelings to
protect our own lives, and those of others.
TikTok,
a new learning platform?
by
Peter van Gorsel
Even pre-pandemic, the decline of traditional education was already
its underway. With exorbitant costs and a focus on standardized test
scores, the 19th century industrial education model has become increasingly
disconnected from the needs of both students of all kinds, educators
and employers. Little or no attention goes toward encouraging the skills
and mentality needed for lifelong learning. . And now, the COVID-19
pandemic has accelerated the disruption of education as kids and young
adults have been forced to learn from home.
A
recent Harvard study showed that students actually learn
more when education is built on "active learning," which promotes
working collaboratively on projects In the collective reckoning on what
learning should look like going forward, I've found that the social
media platform TikTok offers some surprising insights. Over the last
few years, TikTok has become one of the largest learning platforms in
the world: It's available in over 150 markets and is one of the most
downloaded apps in 40-plus countries. On the app, which is available
in 75 languages, creators make a variety of short-form videos on everything
from cooking hacks to dance moves to crafts and math skills. The hashtag
#LearnOnTikTok currently has more than 7 billion views. Why has TikTok
become such a popular learning platform? It embodies the following trends:
Creators are empowered:
Traditional education has been focused on institutions that
limit and control access to teachers, regulating their relationship
with their students. In contrast, TikTok is designed to make it easy
for anyone to be a video creator, to share information, and to find
an audience. Teachers also empowers teachers of all kinds by giving them a
platform independent from their institutions and a new way to meet their
students where they are. For instance,
It @Iamthatenglishteacher
began posting TikTok grammar lessons to help her middle-school students
overcome common mistakes. She now has 1.5 million followers. Influence is the new accreditation: The top creators on
TikTok aren't there because of the school they went to or the certificate
they have. It's their skills and ability to embody what they are teaching
in a compelling way that gives them their authority and influence. It's
a trend across the learning sector: People are looking for demonstrated
mastery or recognition versus traditional institutional credentials.
Learning is fun, and learners are actively engaged: Entrepreneur
Seth Godin famously said that the focus of modern education can be summed
up with one question: "Will this be on the test?" He believes
that what's missing at the core of this mentality is "enrollment"-this
is the idea that students are there because they want to be. TikTok
captures this concept: It's fun, engaging, and people are showing up
by choice, sparked by a love of the subject matter and not for a certificate
or course credit. The future of learning will be social: TikTok is a powerful
tool for education because it is both a learning platform and a social
network. People find their friends, scroll through content, and along
the way find new groups with shared interests. TikTok's 500 million
active users now put it ahead of better-known social sites such as LinkedIn,
Twitter, Pinterest, and Snapchat.
But while TikTok illuminates
many of the trends defining the future of learning, it also has its
clear limitations: The maximum video length it supports is 60 seconds, which makes
a full education or deeper skills training impossible on the platform. TikTok also doesn't provide live connection or accountability
- two essential components that were also missing from the first generation
of online learning. When online classes got their start, they mostly
provided access to educational content, but struggled with follow-through:
on average only 4% on of people will complete an online class, mostly
because online classes lack a community. And it's the community that
provides the accountability and peer pressure that helps keep people
going. It's not a sustainable revenue source. Still, TikTok is valuable
for educators right now because it provides exposure.
"TikTok lets me capture
and share these profound moments that showcase my work," says Rachel
Weinstock, a TikTok creator, coach, educator, and activist who offers
cohort-based courses and coaching cohort-based where she makes her revenue.
"TikTok is the surface area too to spread the message, but it doesn't
offer an income source. But can be used use it to invite users into
paid and deeper programs."
Educators and creators
need more than TikTok can offer. A business-in-a-box solution could
make it easy to build educational experiences that create sustainable
income streams without needing millions of followers. This becomes possible
when educational content goes deeper than what a platform like TikTok
offers while still retaining some of that social, engaging ethos that
people naturally gravitate to. In a live, online, cohort-based course,
for instance, groups learn together; they give and receive feedback
and are held accountable. Compared to the previous generation of solo,
self-paced online learning, this model can create a true sense of belonging.
These are the educational
experiences that work best for the teacher and learner and which can
bring us into a golden age of learning - one that is accessible from
anywhere, led by passionate creators and educators, and grounded in
a connected community.
Are you still
sleepwalking through the addictive and unsustainable consumerist nightmare
trying to keep our ultra-capitalist scarcity-based systems intact? Or
are you ready to lead with your heart?
In a recent WEF survey of nearly 21,000 adults in 28 countries, nearly
nine out of ten people (86%) want the world to change significantly
to become more sustainable and equitable.
Rudy de Waele: "We treat the world as we treat ourselves. We are
the seeds of our impact. We become leaders when we take full responsibility,
first of ourselves."
Credits
Rudy de Waele
Co-Founder Regenerate X and Conscious Learning Tribe
Keynote Speaker, Change Leadership, Conscious Leadership Development,
Transformative Innovation,
Regenerative Business, Co-Creating the Future, Self-Awarenes
Ibiza, Spain Regenerate
X medium.com/regenerate-x Conscious
Learning Tribe www.consciouslearningtribe.com
The
Hacking of the American Mind with Dr. Robert Lustig
University of California
Television (UCTV)
The best-selling author and
UCSF endocrinologist Dr. Robert Lustig explores how industry has contributed
to a culture of addiction, depression and chronic disease. Always provocative,
Lustig reveals the science that drives these states of mind and offers
solutions we can use.
"Explores how industry has manipulated
our most deep-seated survival instincts."-- David Perlmutter, MD,
Author, #1 New York Times bestseller, Grain Brain and Brain Maker
The New York Times-bestselling
author of Fat Chance reveals the corporate scheme to sell pleasure,
driving the international epidemic of addiction, depression, and chronic
disease.
While researching the toxic
and addictive properties of sugar for his New York Times bestseller
Fat Chance, Robert Lustig made an alarming discovery--our pursuit of
happiness is being subverted by a culture of addiction and depression
from which we may never recover.
Dopamine is the "reward"
neurotransmitter that tells our brains we want more; yet every substance
or behavior that releases dopamine in the extreme leads to addiction.
Serotonin is the "contentment" neurotransmitter that tells
our brains we don't need any more; yet its deficiency leads to depression.
Ideally, both are in optimal supply. Yet dopamine evolved to overwhelm
serotonin--because our ancestors were more likely to survive if they
were constantly motivated -- with the result that constant desire can
chemically destroy our ability to feel happiness, while sending us down
the slippery slope to addiction. In the last forty years, government
legislation and subsidies have promoted ever-available temptation (sugar,
drugs, social media, porn) combined with constant stress (work, home,
money, Internet), with the end result of an unprecedented epidemic of
addiction, anxiety, depression, and chronic disease. And with the advent
of neuromarketing, corporate America has successfully imprisoned us
in an endless loop of desire and consumption from which there is no
obvious escape.
With his customary wit
and incisiveness, Lustig not only reveals the science that drives these
states of mind, he points his finger directly at the corporations that
helped create this mess, and the government actors who facilitated it,
and he offers solutions we can all use in the pursuit of happiness,
even in the face of overwhelming opposition. Always fearless and provocative,
Lustig marshals a call to action, with seminal implications for our
health, our well-being, and our culture.
Robert H. Lustig, M.D.,
is an internationally renowned pediatric endocrinologist who has spent
the past sixteen yers treating childhood obesity and studying the effects
of sugar on the central nervous system, metabolism, and disease. He
is the director of the Weight Assessment for Teen and Child Health Program
at UCSF Benioff Children's Hospital; a member of the UCSF Center for
Obesity Assessment, Study, and Treatment; as well as a member of the
Obesity Task Force of the Endocrine Society.
Solving the growing problem
of space debris will require everyone who flies rockets and satellites
to adhere to sustainable practices, which doesn’t always happen.
Now there will be a way to recognise those who do.
We increasingly rely on
satellites for every-day activities like navigation, weather forecasting
and telecommunications, and any loss of these space-based services could
have a serious effect on our modern economies.
Yet vital orbital pathways
around Earth are becoming more congested with trash, such as abandoned
satellites and rocket upper stages or debris fragments from old satellites
that have exploded.
“There are numerous
debris reduction and mitigation guidelines that can be applied at the
design, manufacturing, launching, operating or disposal stage of any
mission, but the challenge has been getting the global community to
apply these in a consistent way,” says Holger Krag, Head of ESA’s
Space Debris Office. “Applying these guidelines generally adds
cost or reduces the useful life of a satellite, even if only slightly,
so it’s always been a tough sell.”
Plastic Bank is a for-profit
social enterprise founded and based in Vancouver, British Columbia,
that builds recycling ecosystems in under-developed communities in an
effort to fight both plastic pollution in oceans, as well as high poverty
levels in developing countries.
We build ethical recycling
ecosystems in coastal communities, and reprocess the materials for reintroduction
into the global manufacturing supply chain.
Collectors receive a premium for the materials they collect to better
help them provide basic family necessities such as groceries, school
tuition, and health insurance.
Collected material is reborn
as Social Plastic® which is reintegrated into products and packaging.
This creates a closed-loop supply chain while helping those who collect
it.
Our proprietary blockchain platform secures the entire transaction and
provides real-time data visualization: allowing for transparency, traceability,
and rapid scalability.
Backyard to Snackyard - Where to Begin
with Foodscaping
Matt Lebon
is a proud St. Louis native with over ten years of farming and gardening
experience. Matt got his start with farming as a Peace Corps volunteer
in Paraguay. He went on to study permaculture and work on several farms
in Israel and Brooklyn, NY. Over the years, Matt has become a practitioner
and instructor on edible landscaping, organic agriculture, orcharding,
and permaculture design. For five seasons Matt worked at the EarthDance
Organic Farm School until he left his role of farm manager in 2017.
Now with Custom
Foodscaping, Matt is most passionate about creating magical
food moments in the everyday places we work, learn and play.
Are we our brothers' keepers? Do we have an instinct for compassion?
Or are we, as is often assumed, only on earth to serve our own survival
and interests? In this thought-provoking book, the acclaimed author
of Our Inner Ape examines how empathy comes naturally to a great
variety of animals, including humans.
By studying social behaviors
in animals, such as bonding, the herd instinct, the forming of trusting
alliances, expressions of consolation, and conflict resolution, Frans
de Waal demonstrates that animals – and humans – are "preprogrammed
to reach out." He has found that chimpanzees care for mates that
are wounded by leopards, elephants offer "reassuring rumbles"
to youngsters in distress, and dolphins support sick companions near
the water's surface to prevent them from drowning. From day one humans
have innate sensitivities to faces, bodies, and voices; we've been designed
to feel for one another.
De Waal's theory runs counter
to the assumption that humans are inherently selfish, which can be seen
in the fields of politics, law, and finance, and which seems to be evidenced
by the current greed-driven stock market collapse. But he cites the
public's outrage at the U.S. government's lack of empathy in the wake
of Hurricane Katrina as a significant shift in perspective–one
that helped Barack Obama become elected and ushered in what may well
become an Age of Empathy. Through a better understanding of empathy's
survival value in evolution, de Waal suggests, we can work together
toward a more just society based on a more generous and accurate view
of human nature.
Written in layman's prose
with a wealth of anecdotes, wry humor, and incisive intelligence, The
Age of Empathy is essential reading for our embattled times.
Frans
de Waal
Frans de Waal has been named
one of Time magazine’s 100 Most Influential People. The author
of Are We Smart Enough to Know How Smart Animals Are?, among many other
works, he is the C. H. Candler Professor in Emory University’s
Psychology Department and director of the Living Links Center at the
Yerkes National Primate Research Center. He lives in Atlanta, Georgia.
The morality
of beasts | Frans de Waal
By Big Think
Frans de Waal has studied the behavior of primates for five decades.
Some of his many important observations center around the evolution
of morality and just how much we have in common with the animal kingdom.
The idea that animals are
always in conflict with one another and competing for resources is “totally
wrong,” de Waal says.
Other primates, specifically
chimpanzees and bonobos, have demonstrated a range of traits and tendencies
typically regarded as human, including empathy, friendship, reconciliation,
altruism, and even adoption.
Michael Ventura
is an accomplished leader, practitioner, and educator. As the founder
of renowned strategy and design consultancy Sub
Rosa, he's advised influential organizations from the
ACLU, Goldman Sachs, Google, Microsoft, and Nike to well-respected institutions
such as The United Nations and the Obama-Biden Administration. Alongside
this work, Michael leads a private practice serving individuals seeking
support and mentorship. His book, Applied
Empathy (Simon & Schuster 2018) explores the intersectionality
of these two worlds (business and personal development) through the
practice of empathy for the self, and for others. He has served as a
board member and advisor to a variety of organizations including The
Burning Man Project, The Smithsonian’s Cooper Hewitt National Design
Museum, and the United Nations' Tribal Link Foundation. He is a visiting
lecturer at institutions such as Princeton University and the United
States Military Academy at West Point. An ardent steward of personal
and professional development, Michael is frequently engaged as an advisor
to leaders, teams, and corporate boards at moments of transformation
and change.
SSR (formerly
Sub Rosa) a is a brand strategy and design practice helping organizations
explore, learn and grow. We bring together research, strategy and
design to clarify purpose and drive growth, engagement and awareness
for brands. We are solution-agnostic thinkers, designers and builders.
Our work is grounded
in Applied Empathy. We begin by understanding the realities and ambitions
of the participants in each interaction, and we design and build solutions
based on this understanding.
We create interactions
that stimulate meaningful conversations, behaviors, relationships
and memories. In this way, we solve challenges and unlock opportunities
for clients and communities.
Michael Ventura:
Empathy Is Your Best Creative Tool
Michael has dedicated
his career to exploring how empathy can make us better leaders, collaborators,
and contributors to society. In his 99U talk, He explains that the practice
of empathy “isn’t about being nice” — it’s
about deep understanding, and learning to apply that understanding to
incredibly effective ends.
Climate
Neutral Group (CNG)is dedicated
to combatting climate change and supports organisations in achieving
Absolute-zero emissions by mid-century, setting targets that are in
line with, or more stringent than, the Paris Agreement.
CNG was founded 20 years ago and has since rapidly expanded to provide
global impact. Our team of experts passionately supportsover 3,000 companies
around the world to make real climate impact and improve the lives of
millions of people. We are a foundingpartner of ICROA, a B-Corp Certified
company and an ISEAL Community Member.
"We have been leaders
in climate neutral entrepreneurship since 2002, when we emerged from
two start-ups, backed by our founders: Triodos Bank and DOEN Participations
BV. As a Founding Partner of ICROA and BCorp, Climate Neutral Group
stands for qualitatively responsible offsetting in addition to insight,
footprinting and reduction. As a B-to-B partner and a leader in the
climate arena, we are, thanks to the confidence of more than 3000 organisations,
firmly on the road from A to Zero CO2. We aim for a positive climate
impact for and with our customers. That's why we continually invest
in strengthening our team and our tools. We are passionately behind
our mission: Net Zero CO2 by 2050."
"We are optimistic
about what we have achieved in terms of climate impact, the results
that we can achieve in the future and the drive among organisations
to move to Net Zero. The world has accelerated its transition, partly
due to COVID-19. We have seen this reflected in wonderful new partnerships
with motivated companies and brands. The next step, our renewed Climate
Neutral Certification standard for organisations, products
and services, will be the catalyst. With the Climate Neutral Certified
label you get a visible and independently verified confirmation of your
organisation's work towards Net Zero CO2 and the results you have already
achieved."
Featured cases
Vincent Doedee,
International Sustainability Manager at Heerema
Marine Contractors:
“During the implementation of our strategy and our roadmap to climate
neutrality, Climate Neutral Group has helped us to formulate our goals,
sharpened the roadmap and found suitable climate projects that fit with
us as a company for offsetting our residual emissions. Climate Neutral
Group has helped us a lot, both as a project manager and as a sounding
board to help us on the way to climate neutrality. A very qualified
partner who knows what they are talking about!”
Heerema Marine Contractors is investing
in new technologies to support its sustainability measures. For example,
the contractor has introduced the innovative sustainable vessel Sleipnir,
which is propelled by LNG. This reduces CO2 emissions by 20% compared
to conventional diesel and reduces nitrogen oxides, sulphur and particulate
matter even more. Heerema has also developed a sustainable energy shore
power (‘Shore Power’) connection at the Rotterdam mooring
location.
Heerema Marine Contractors
CEO Koos-Jan van Brouwershaven said earlier this year that its mission
is to be the leading maritime contractor creating sustainable value:
“Our decision to become climate neutral in 2020 is proof that we
are acting on our words. We are proud of the commitment. We have brought
the Sleipnir into operation and delivered shore power, which has significantly
reduced our impact. Going climate neutral is the next step for our company.”
CONO
Cheesemakers is the first climate
neutral guaranteed dairy organisation in the Netherlands. And therefore
the most sustainable cheese factory in our country!
The makers of the well-known Beemster cheese
(among other things), follow a triple strategy: save as much energy
as possible, generate as much green energy as possible and offset the
last bit of emissions. “We have premium farmers who supply premium
milk. Only a premium cheese factory fits in with that,” says Grietsje
Hoekstra, Sustainability Manager at CONO Cheesemakers.
Climate Neutral Cheese Dairy
The production process at CONO has been
climate neutral since 1 January 2020. CONO is the first dairy organisation
in our country to be certified by Climate Neutral Group (CNG) as a climate
neutral organisation (cheese factory). Attention is paid to people,
animals and the environment throughout the entire supply chain, not
just in CONO’s cheese factory. Together with partners in the chain
(such as livestock farmers, transporters, customers) and civil society
organisations, CONO is working towards sustainability. The leading sustainability
program Caring Dairy is aimed at making dairy farming more sustainable.
CONO rewards their farmers with a premium for participating in the program
and also for achieving impactful results.
Cheese making
is an energy-intensive process. It is impossible to consume no energy
at all in a cheese factory that processes about 400 million kilograms
of milk annually. Since ‘every little bit helps’, the cheese
makers at CONO make smart choices every day. CNG is monitoring this
progress. This makes it possible to ensure that the energy used is green,
from renewable sources. Agreements have been made with farmers who are
members of the CONO cooperative. Anyone who supplies CONO with the overproduction
of electricity from solar panels on the roof of the farm will receive
compensation for doing so. There are 440 dairy farmers who are members
of the dairy cooperative. More than 34% of these companies now generate
their own green electricity. “Our ambition is to eventually generate
sufficient green electricity for the entire cheese chain through the
members of our dairy cooperative,” says Grietsje Hoekstra.
Arla
Foods is one of the five largest dairy
companies in the world, selling products like milk, yogurt and cheese
in more than 100 countries. Arla Foods Netherlands wants to make it
easier for people to live healthier lives due to good nutrition and
to do so in a way that is as sustainable as possible for the planet,
the people and animals. The dairy cooperative is convinced that limiting
global warming is crucial for the production of a nutritious and sustainable
diet. Arla Foods Netherlands’ goal is clear: the consumer must
be able to enjoy a glass of milk without having an impact on the climate.
They are committed to a better future for tomorrow’s generation.
Completely Carbon Neutral
The climate is changing.
The earth’s temperature is rising. Arla Foods is convinced that
things must and can be done differently. That is why the dairy cooperative
has been working for years on organic production and reducing its impact
on the climate throughout the supply chain. The most recent example
of this is the introduction of Arla carbon neutral organic products,
the first dairy products on the Dutch market that are carbon neutral
from cow to refrigerator. To get there, Arla is working with Climate
Neutral Group. The new product line has also been positively evaluated
against CNG’s Climate Neutral Certified Standard, which means that
Arla carbon neutral organic meets the following conditions:
All greenhouse gases (CO2,
methane and nitrous oxide) that Arla organic emits throughout the entire
supply chain have been properly mapped; the footprints of the products
have been externally verified.
Arla Foods has signed off on its goal to reduce emissions for Arla organic
products by 30% in 2028, compared to 2015 emissions.
The goal to reduce Arla organic’s emissions has been translated
into reduction plans. These are monitored in various ways, such as through
Arla Climate Checks on dairy farms.
Remaining greenhouse gases are offset by projects certified according
to the international Verified Carbon Standard (VCS).
The above points are communicated in a transparent manner on both the
Arla Foods website and on the packaging of Arla carbon neutral organic
products, so that it is clear what the scope of the certification is:
‘from cow to refrigerator’.
Every year Arla's dairy
farmers carry out a Climate Check and get advice from an external
expert on how it is possible to reduce the production of greenhouse
gases on their farm.
Arla's organic dairy
farmers in the Netherlands only use green electricity.
Arla's plant in Nijkerk
uses green electricity and biogas to produce Arla organic products.
Biogas is extracted by fermentation of organic residual waste.
The dairy cartons are
made of unbleached cardboard, are recyclable and have a sustainable
PE layer in the cardboard packaging. The layer of renewable PE is
made from European tall oil, a residual product from the European
paper industry.
Small Windfarms in India
Thanks to our mix of small scale wind energy projects in India, in regions
such as Karnataka and Gujarat, local families, often in remote areas,
are able to use a stable supply of clean energy. The location of these
wind farms is carefully chosen in areas with a high/average wind speed.
The most modern wind turbine technologies are used to guarantee the
highest efficiency and that as much energy as possible is generated.
The infrastructure around the wind farms has been significantly improved.
The combination of access to clean energy and good infrastructure creates
new opportunities for the expansion of economic activities in the region.
The low energy use by households in India means that a relatively high
number of households can use the clean energy. The company that produces
the wind energy informs the public about the effects and advantages
of this green energy and energy efficient behaviour. They also contribute
to ‘community care’ by establishing schools and setting up
health facilities.
The Climate Neutral Group has chosen
a mix of wind energy projects in India for several years because they
are very efficient, because they significantly lower CO2 emissions and
because they provide remote populations with clean energy. We find it
important that the projects give a positive boost to the region and
the local population. The projects are certified according to the VCS
standard, which monitors the project and annually guarantees its quality
and results.
Efficient
Cookstoves in Uganda
This offset project invests in the manufacturing, distribution,
and sales of efficient cookstoves in Uganda. The objective is to improve
the access to cleaner, healthier, more cost-effective cooking methods
amongst local households.
Over a third of the global population relies on open fires for cooking.
This usually happens indoors. These fires produce a lot of smoke, which
is dangerous to people’s health. Globally, four million people
die from respiratory diseases caused by cooking over an open fire. This
is more than the collective death toll of tuberculosis, malaria and
Aids.
In addition, meal preparation
on open fires has a huge impact on the climate, and on social development
of women and children. It is them, after all, who tend to be responsible
for the collection of firewood and meal preparation.
Climate Neutral Group
works with the project by investing in the manufacturing, distribution,
and sales of efficient cookstoves through the purchase of carbon credits.
This allows the project to improve people’s access to cleaner cookstoves.
This initiative carries
a Gold Standard certification. The Gold Standard certification guarantees
that the effects, monitoring, and auditing of emission-reducing projects
are done properly. In addition, Climate Neutral Group is a member of
The International Carbon Reduction and Offset Alliance (ICROA).
The cookstoves improve
the living conditions of women and children by reducing the time they
spend collecting firewood and cooking. They, as a result, have more
time for other things, including finding employment, studying, and
being an active part of their family.
This project also contributes
to local employment opportunities in manufacturing and sales.
Finally, using less
wood and charcoal positively affects people’s disposable incomes.
These savings can be invested in education and other crucial household
expenses.
Our Climate
Neutral Certification Standard
Our
Climate Neutral Certification Standard uses a structured method
and various tools to achieve climate neutrality for your products and
makes the impact visible to your stakeholders.
All steps taken to reduce your CO2 emissions and offset the remainder
are
independently verified against clear criteria. Climate Neutral Group
follows the
Codes of Conduct and is an approved Community Member of ISEAL,
the global
membership association for credible sustainability standards.
How
01 Calculate your
product carbon footprint.
02 Define the annual reduction target; then Plan – Do –
Check – Act.
03 Compensate or inset the emissions that remain.
04 Become certified via an audit by an independent Certification Body.
05 Communicate with the Climate Neutral Label
AI Thought Leader. Machine
Learning Scientist. Deputy CEO at Smart Eye. Former Co-Founder and CEO
of Affectiva. Author of the book “Girl Decoded.” Disrupting
industries and humanizing technology with Emotion AI.
Rana’s life work is about humanizing technology before it dehumanizes
us. She is an Egyptian-American scientist, entrepreneur, angel investor,
author, and an AI thought leader on a mission to bring emotional intelligence
to our digital world. She is the Deputy CEO at Smart Eye and
formerly, Co-Founder and CEO of Affectiva, an MIT spin-off and
category defining AI company. Rana realized a successful exit for Affectiva
in June 2021 when the company was acquired by Smart Eye, where she is
currently focused on scaling the company to a global AI powerhouse.
She is also an executive fellow at the Harvard Business School where
she teaches about AI and startups. Her bestselling memoir, Girl
Decoded: A Scientist’s Quest to Reclaim Our Humanity
by Bringing Emotional Intelligence to Technology (Penguin
Random House, April 2020), follows her personal journey, growing up
in the Middle East and moving to the United States to become an entrepreneur,
juxtaposed against her work building Emotion AI.
Rana has raised $50M+ in
venture capital from top-tier investors to bring Affectiva’s Emotion
AI, built on deep learning, computer vision, speech science and massive
amounts of real-world data, to 90+ countries and to several industries
including the automotive industry and media analytics. She has a track
record of translating technology innovations into products that address
the needs of massive international markets and spearhead the application
of Emotion AI to market research, automotive, mental health, autism,
conversational interfaces, robotics and education.
She is extremely passionate
about the ethical development and deployment of AI, including advocating
for standards to ensure data privacy and to mitigate data and algorithmic
bias. To help establish best practices and guidelines for AI ethics,
Rana is part of industry organizations like the Partnership on AI and
the World Economic Forum’s Council of Young Global Leaders.
As one of few women leading
an AI company, she cares deeply about her role as an advocate for diversity
and inclusion in tech and leadership. To help catalyze change and improve
equity industry-wide, she is a member of the Boston Steering Committee
for All Raise supporting female founders and funders, and a member of
the Young Presidents’ Organization (YPO) where she is serves on
YPO’s New England board. Rana is also a venture partner of the
MIT Media Lab E14 Fund, a Board Member of SIMPEDs at Boston Children’s
Hospital, and a Board of Trustees member at the Mass Technology Leadership
Council and at the American University in Cairo, the leading liberal
arts university in the Middle East. A TED speaker, and co-host of a
PBS NOVA series on AI, Rana has been recognized on Fortune’s 40
Under 40 list and as one of Forbes’ Top 50 Women in Tech. She holds
a Ph.D. from the University of Cambridge and a Post Doctorate from MIT.
Rana believes in the power
of human connection.
About
Affectiva
Affectiva
is on a mission to humanize technology. An MIT Media Lab spin-off, Affectiva
created and defined the Emotion AI category. Built on deep learning,
computer vision, speech science and massive amounts of real-world data,
Affectiva’s technology can detect nuanced human emotions, complex
cognitive states, activities, interactions and objects people use.
In automotive, Affectiva’s
in-cabin sensing AI is enabling leading car manufacturers, fleet managers
and ridesharing companies to build next-generation mobility that adapts
to complex human states. Affectiva’s technology is also used by
25 percent of the Fortune Global 500 companies to test consumer engagement
with ads, videos and TV programming.
In June 2021 Smart Eye
acquired Affectiva. The two companies are merging to create a transatlantic
AI powerhouse that will lead and accelerate the growth and development
of the rapidly evolving automotive Interior Sensing market, as well
as the Media Analytics and Research markets.
About
Smart Eye
Smart
Eye is leading the way towards safe and
sustainable transportation. Every year, 1.2 million people lose their
lives in traffic-related accidents around the world, another 50 million
are injured. Our firm belief is that science and technology can help
turn this around.
For over 20 years Smart
Eye has developed artificial intelligence (AI) in the form of eye tracking
technology that understands, supports and predicts a person’s intentions
and actions. By carefully studying eye, facial and head movement, our
technology can draw conclusions about a person’s awareness and
mental state. Our eye tracking technology is used in the next generation
of cars, commercial vehicles and providing new insights for research
within aerospace, aviation, neuroscience and more.
Smart Eye’s solutions
are used around the world by more than 800 partners and customers, including
the US Air Force, NASA, BMW, Audi, Boeing, Volvo, GM, and Harvard University.
The Future of Emotion
AI & The Empathy Economy By SXSW 2021
What if technology could
understand people in the same way that we understand one another? In
this inspiring session in conjunction with the paperback launch of her
popular memoir, Girl Decoded, Affectiva co-founder and CEO Rana el Kaliouby,
Ph.D. discusses her groundbreaking mission to humanize technology with
Emotion AI — technology that analyzes human expressions and reactions
in context. She describes how its applications in automotive, advertising,
mental health and autism research feed her mission to transform our
relationship with technology, and by extension, with one another. Rana
also explores how these applications will facilitate the shift towards
an empathy economy: the ability for companies to truly connect on an
emotional level with their clients and embody empathetic leadership
to create an unparalleled sense of purpose.
