Last night I was out celebrating a wedding with family & friends. I found myself sitting amongst friendly strangers delving into conversations, getting to know one another, and stringing all the connections together — as you do at weddings. After what seemed a quick hour or so of conversation and dialogue in response to the good old question “what do you do for work?”, I found myself having arrived at some thoughts that seemed so profound…

The talk was around the business opportunity that is evolving with regenerating our planet, and with a very intrigued and very-keen-to-learn (business?) man, I was being punched questions and challenges here there and everywhere, and next thing you know I catch myself spewing out wonderful words and exceptional concepts. The question that really got me going, from this fascinated (business?) man was;

“I love what you are doing and why, but I want to know how can you make more money doing this? What are the opportunities to make more money?”

As we deal with waste paper, the question really becomes about what can we do with this waste paper — thus linking the cycle together and matching synergies of  supply and demand. The response was something like,

“There are a plentitude of people, industries and companies who will gladly buy and use waste paper, we know this because it already happens today, and it’s a massive industry. What I am interested in however, is the people, industries and companies who yes they want to use it too, but also they have aligned values, they want to use this waste not for ‘conventional business as usual’ but for work that alongside us and the rest of the social enterprise world, will help regenerate the planet, our communities, and our people entirely. For example, one company we are exploring working with is Eco Cover. These guys buy waste paper, however they are not burning the paper for fuel, they aren’t selling & shipping it to offshore purchasers, they are using right here in Auckland to create a product that is intrinsic in regenerating the very soil and land we live upon, through innovative technologies they have created, they have the means to do / sell / bring commercial scale to something that nobody has ever done before. This is one company we know of who we could work with, there maybe more, but to tell you the truth, these companies and organisations don’t exist yet. It is through continuing to explore this very idea of how to regenerate the planet, that we then can evolve our thinking, start innovating, and perhaps if all goes to plan for positive people like me, we will in ten years time see a hundred companies like Eco Cover (but not exactly the same because they will be creating different things) wanting to purchase waste paper, reuse it locally etc. for great things that change the world, things that do not exist right now.

This is the bringing about / manifestation of regenerative business, of social enterprise, and of a more abundant planet for all our people. This is the business opportunity.

And most importantly, for the business man to remember, that this doesn’t happen when you only care about money, for it is built upon the people caring, wanting, expecting, spending their money and investing in, equally, social – environmental – economic values.”

So you can see why I love what we do; it feels like we are at the very edge of innovation carving the path as we go to a prosperous world where people and planet thrives. It’s exciting. It’s thrilling. It’s the best work I could ever dream of. And it’s just a blessing to do it, because it brings so much positivity to our world, to the communities we work in, the companies and organisations we service, to the very people who are Lovenotes, the staff and supporters, the fans and the cheerleaders, and to myself.

Let’s go!…

…if there was one place to visit next…