From the beginning of the Compression Institute, we’ve been aware that its mission is a huge shift in thinking from business-as-usual. This is no small endeavor. We’ve been pretty quiet because becoming consultants helping people do something new seldom penetrates the...
Last week I (Doc Hall) went to the 10th Lean Accounting Summit. Having attended most of the first nine, I saw many familiar faces, although the majority of attendees were first-timers. The objectives of lean accounting are to align cost systems with the actual flow of...
Although the climate change march in New York City failed to top the news, it was much bigger than organizers’ ambitions for the march three months earlier. The next day saw a follow up demonstration called Flood Wall Street. With the fossil fuel industry as its main...
In theory we think it fair to justify all processes on the basis of the total process, not just part of it, financially or otherwise. An external cost is one that somebody else pays, so it may be considered a subsidy. An example is a picnic in a park. If picnickers...
Global consumption of fossil energy and raw materials continues to rise. Doubling consumption (and extraction) every decade, or even every 50 years, has to stop sometime. Were there no concerns like putting more greenhouse gases in the air, this system is running...
Robert Owens' Vision of Utopia -- New Harmony How it Actually Turned Out Robert Owens' New Harmony in Indiana is a 19th century cautionary tale about visions and utopias. A sect of...
Migration toward vigorous learning seems easiest to see from a company view, one that most of us are used to: 1. Eliminate operational waste of no benefit to customers or any other stakeholder – the prime objective of lean thinking. 2. Then minimize environmental...
Learning to do better while using much less will involve endless messy issues, from large scale to small. Understanding threats like endocrine disruptors depends on technology known to few. In addition, issues are loaded with values clashes, conflicting interests, and...