Protests, Podcasts and Divesting for the Future
I’ve always been a facts and data person. I’ve spent most of my working life in the IT space as a Programmer, Business Analyst and Scrum Master.
Like most rational people (i.e. not our politicians) I’m concerned about what we‘re doing to our planet and the future mess I’m leaving to my daughter’s generation, to clean up.
Taking a stand
Back on the 20th September I took part in the #climatestrike, here in Brisbane, to draw attention and hopefully convince politicians to take things more seriously and act.
So, protesting is one thing, but what next?
I’m a big fan of the The Economist, particularly the weekly Babbage podcast and The Secret History of the Future. There have been lots of great episodes recently about all the great innovations, which could help make a difference when it comes to cleaning up the planet. But, where is the real barrier to making these things a reality, well the economics, of course. So that’s where I decided to start….
Greener finances and Divesting for the future
With a new drive to do something practical to help the planet, I set about changing my bank and superannuation.
I’ve been with the Commonwealth Bank and MLC for super since I moved to Australia back in 2007.
After just over a month I’m now with Bank Australia and have switched super to Australian Super’s Socially Aware investment option. There is always an inertia to change financial institutions, but it is way easier than you think.
Kudos to both companies for making the switch pretty hassle free.
What’s next
I’m going to keep focusing on real things I can do to reduce my carbon footprint and hopefully convince others to take up the challenge too. I’ll be writing more blog posts over the coming months on what I’ve been doing.
Time to start Sprinting
I have to admit, I’ve been undisciplined in my planning and delivery approach up to now. This is strange for someone who’s job it is to help people and teams be disciplined in their approach to planning and delivery. It’s time to use what I know, time to achieve more, time to be effective, time to be value driven, time to Scrum. Going forward I’ll be working within a 4 week sprint, a clear Sprint Goal at the start and a new post at the end of each sprint.
