Q: Isn't NZ2100 simply so high level and so generalised that it can mean all things to all people?
A: We need hypergovernance, and the generality and simplicity of NZ2100 is part of its appeal. It provides an umbrella under which to unite people and enhance communication and collaborative effort. It provides a simple and clear statement of what sustainable development means, independent of the issues of the time. It is however, vulnerable to weak interpretation or application, and this is the reason for accreditation and certification. The KiwiGrow approach can be visualised as a mathematical curve, or as a ladder. Communities and other entities can get onto it at different places, and may have further to go to reach the goal of sustainable development. Having said that, the curve is so multidimensional that it is extremely difficult for any community to lead "across the board" and claim to be furthest ahead.
Q: What do NZ2100 and KiwiGrow have to say about global warming?
A: They say say nothing explicit about global warming. However, global warming requires a systemic response, and KiwiGrow provides the mechanism for such a response. Fundamentally, the NZ2100 model suggests that the health and sustainability of the planet depends on the health and sustainability of the component ecosystems, human-dominated and otherwise. Thus, there are plenty of local reasons to act in the best interests of the planet at large.
Q: Does NZ2100 make the Global Reporting Initiative unnecessary?
A: The Global Reporting Initiative is a well-established process working to achieve sustainable development among businesses and organisations through guidance on sustainability reporting. There are opportunities to increase the GRI's effectiveness by adopting NZ2100 and associated certification processes.
Q: Why complicate matters by adopting a quadruple bottom line, rather than a triple bottom line, which already has a public profile as a tool for sustainability reporting?
A: Firstly, TBL as practised has a large number of shortcomings, and has really been in use as a concept only since the late 1990s. Secondly, many prominent researchers have acknowledged the need for an additional dimension to be able to measure progress towards sustainable development adequately. Thirdly, the requirement for cultural change is huge, and needs to be highlighted separately, rather than being buried among social and economic measures, or even ignored. If we look at the problems that are caused by globalisation, many of these have their roots in cultural alienation and loss of identity - especially when the "new" cultures emphasise largely material measures of progress. We need to actively manage cultures. Some contain ecological wisdom gleaned through long associations between people and places. Others are deficient or stunted in being based on inadequate comprehension of these and other factors.
Q: What do accreditation and certification mean?
A: NZ2100 resides in the public domain, and anyone can use it as the basis for a sustainability reporting regime. However any entity can choose to establish its own quality brand for SD reporting using NZ2100, with the aim of providing market advantage of the branded products and services. Their own products and services will be so branded. Subsequently other entities may become trained in and purchase rights to award certification under the brand. Creative Decisions is developing KiwiGrow™ for this purpose. In order for others to use the KiwiGrow brand and logo in public documents, electronic media, etc, they must first be certified by an authorised accreditation agency. While this certification role could always be performed by Creative Decisions, it makes more sense for other agencies to become accredited to offer this service. These accredited agencies can then award KiwiGrow™ NZ2100 certification to local agencies that apply NZ2100 to standards acceptable to Creative Decisions. Certification will be for a limited time period, and subject to auditing by the accreditation agencies, or licensed auditors.
Q: Is accreditation and certification really necessary for KiwiGrow to be applied effectively?
A: Applying KiwiGrow depends on making interpretations and choice of measures that establish the meaning of each of the 28 (7 x 4) system qualities in any given context. Certification, and the associated accreditation arrangements, are required to ensure that interpretations are credible and robust, and do not diminish the public integrity of the either the NZ2100 or KiwiGrow brand. It is also required to ensure adequate and appropriate use is made of contributing technical methods and certification schemes.
Q: How is NZ2100 to be applied in languages other than English?
A: The values of NZ2100 are universal, and are almost certainly well represented in all languages. However it will need to be applied in other languages carefully, and preferably, at least initially, with the aid of people who have a sound grasp of the Common Sustainability Language in English as well as the second language. Accreditation and certification should depend on evidence of appropriate interpretation.
Q: Doesn't NZ2100 simply provide a means for planners and managers to run amok?
A: Creating a framework for measuring and deliberately managing progress towards sustainable development doesn't mean that sophisticated measurement and management systems are needed in every context. NZ2100 can be applied on the back of an envelope, and become second nature to communities, reducing the need for elaborate management systems. Ideally, under an NZ2100 management approach, the world would to a large extent run itself, as everyone, from top to bottom of society, would be living by the same values, with much less need for government intervention. That state is an ultimate aim, however, and the reality is that societies need enlightened interventions, even though the need for these may decline with time, through adherence to NZ2100 values and methods. Try thinking of NZ2100 and KiwiGrow as "trainer wheels".
Q: Doesn't NZ2100 confuse issues by recasting them in another language?
A: Sustainable solutions to problems affecting complex, adapting evolving systems such as communities and ecosystems, rarely if ever have a simple, technical solution. More often than not the solutions involve changes in ourselves, as people, and usually the need for these changes will be understood better if we see these complex systems as social-economic-environmental-cultural "whole systems" that must collaborate to achieve change.
Q: How does NZ2100 strengthen or weaken democracy?
A: For those of us who live in democratic societies, NZ2100 helps to remind us why we need democracy, and especially that it means a lot more than holding democratic elections. It provides a means and focus for measuring the extent to which democratic ideals have been realised within society and, conversely, a means for guarding against the erosion of democracy. For a non-democratic society, NZ2100 provides a means for gradually but consciously introducing democratic processes into politics and decision-making, without a need for confrontation. A society that commits to NZ2100 will inevitably find itself on a path of increasing democratisation. Democratic and non-democratic societies can share the same overarching NZ2100 processes, that provide a means of increasing dialogue, understanding, and international assistance. Those who believe that progress toward democracy could be slower using NZ2100 need to see it in action first, and keep in mind the social, economic, environmental and cultural damage that can result from more head-on attempts to introduce democratic institutions.
Q: Does hypergovernance, and NZ2100 in particuolar, have implications for constitutions?
A: That's a big one. Some constitutions (for example New Zealand's) focus on the nuts and bolts issues relating to administering democracy. Others, such as the U.S. Constitution, include statements of values and rights. Organisations and societies may choose to incorporate additional statements in their Constitutions in order to facilitate hypergovernance and elevate fundamental values such as those expressed in NZ2100. Countries and societies are continually under pressure to change, and NZ2100 provides some guidance as to the values and ideals that we may wish to preserve, in the face of this change - whether it results from immigration pressures, changes in access to natural resources, or climate change. For organisations, their business may change quite radically over time, but if their values remain intact, and in accord with those of society, then they themselves are more likely to be sustainable.
Q: Can you tell me more about Personal KiwiGrow?
A: Creative Decisions believes that the NZ2100 model for personal health and well-being needs to be developed and evaluated further in collaboration with the health and well-being research community. Personal KiwiGrow is expected to be developed a business venture, as a New Zealand perspective on the healthy life.
Q: Isn't the high technology, web-multimedia ("Web 2.0") communications that will help to realise NZ2100 as an international process for change irrelevant for many of the world's communities?
A: Currently, the answer is a resounding "yes", and there is a need for books to reach areas where internet access is not even a dream. However, the international collaborative efforts that are possible under NZ2100 could see a rapid expansion of services and access to facilities such as computers and high speed broadband. NZ2100 provides a vision for the future, and technological change is sufficiently rapid for this vision to become reality in the foreseeable future. However, while Web 2.0 provides major support for the NZ2100 approach, much is possible without it.
Q: Is the aim for Creative Decisions to spawn a transnational political movement?
A: Hypergovernance though applying NZ2100 should be primarily non-partisan, and acceptable to most political parties. The real focus is on accountability. The expectation is that political parties will choose to place different priorities on each of the 28 areas of performance (and potential improvement) in the formulation of their policies and plans. Debate between political parties is then required to determine the course that is to be followed. Countries or societies that prefer to maintain sustainable development as a peripheral concern may find that coordinated pressure for greater centrality of sustainable development emerges within their societies if hypergovernance models such as NZ2100 become widespread. NZ2100 could assist in development of a Global Citizens Movement, a concept advanced by the Tellus Institute in 2006. Creative Decisions sees potential for an international citizens accountability movement.
Q: Is NZ2100 a fundamental truth?
A: The NZ2100 universal health model, and particularly the seven qualities which form the basis of the Common Sustainability Language, do have the appearance of an age-old fundamental truth. Truth is so elusive that only time (and more research) will tell if it really is. NZ2100 embodies aspects and fundamental values of many religions, while avoiding the detail of doctrine that is the characteristic of religions. The fact that NZ2100 arose from science does not mean it constitutes a scientific truth. In scientific terms, the NZ2100 health model is best described as a hypothesis.
Q: Is NZ2100 the ultimate integration of science, religion, environment, politics and ethics?
A: How would you tell if it was? NZ2100 is unusual in the sense that it does provide a means for achieving much more integration across these areas than has been possible to date. It is far from being any "ultimate", however, although it has potential to be a very powerful force in society. Even in the presence of hypergovernance through NZ2100, there is ample scope for competing beliefs and world views.
Q: Does hypergovernance by NZ2100 mean that God exists, or not?
A: You first have to say what you mean by "God". NZ2100 supports spirituality in many ways, and is consistent with the concept of God as love, as truth, and as a directing, creative, and even as a winnowing force in the universe. It also supports the idea of God as an immanent presence - and therefore "all-knowing", and "all-seeing". Because the NZ2100 health model can be applied to an individual "being", it does not conflict with (but nor does it depend on) ideas of God as a personal being. As NZ2100 is essentially an hypothesis, it does not provide scientific proof of the existence of God. At most, NZ2100 supports, or is consistent with, some commonly held concepts of God. The idea of hypergovernance will appeal to those who are religiously inclined.
Q: What can NZ2100 possibly offer to a religiously fractured and intolerant world?
A: NZ2100 can help to reduce intolerance by emphasising what is common to the world's religions. With its roots in common sense, systems theory, and ecological science, NZ2100 is unlikely to affect the beliefs of religious people, which have been acquired through cultural immersion or as a result of religious or spiritual experience. However, if NZ2100 takes root in global society, and benefits (including moving personal experiences) result from this, then it is possible that religious barriers will lessen, and people will come to see the paramount importance of fundamental values. On the other hand, every effort needs to be made to ensure that an NZ2100 Network (or a related citizens accountability movement) does not develop its own brand of intolerance.
Q: Does NZ2100 define a new scientific discipline?
A: NZ2100 provides increased structure for research and education regarding health, sustainability, accountability, personal well-being, and related topics. Since an enduring structure or model is at the foundation of any scientific discipline, whether it be the Periodic Table, or the Laws of Physics, plate tectonics for geology, or the theory of evolution for biology, it is possible that NZ2100 may raise the academic status of some areas where progress has been hindered somewhat by problems of definition. This is not to deny the enormous contributions of systems theory and the ecosystem approach, on which NZ2100 is based.
Q: Does NZ2100 encourage delusional multicultural ideals?
A: Assuring harmony among diverse cultures is one of the great challenges of the 21st century. For many, multicultural society is a local reality that needs to be made to work better. At the shrinking global level, it is a requirement for sustainable development. NZ2100 highlights that diversity potentially provides benefits in terms of the ability of a system to contribute, adapt and respond. Also, the directedness quality of sustainable systems may be enhanced through factors such as biological diversity, diversity of world views, global connections, and so on. And some cultures may be much better nurturers, whether of small businesses, young families, or threatened indigenous species in natural ecosystems. But NZ2100 requires that no one system quality be elevated exclusively above the other. So it is important to be alert to system stability, and limits to the ability of any system to adapt. Consequently NZ2100 encourages a realistic view of multicultural society, while offering a mechanism that increases its chance of success in any given context.
Q: Is NZ2100 the way to achieve peace?
A: Sustainable development has always been viewed as a means to achieve peace, since social, economic, environmental and environmental injustices are at the root of conflicts. As a mechanism to achieve sustainable development, NZ2100 is a special form of hypergovernance that has potential to help to diminish conflict around the world. Achieving peace requires clever politics and diplomacy as much as models for new utopias.
Q: Is Creative Decisions aiming to become another multinational corporation?
A: No. That would become a headache. NZ2100 is in the public domain, and any entity can sponsor its development locally, or nationwide, with no involvement whatever from Creative Decisions. Creative Decisions does want to see a "New Zealand" sustainability brand develop through KiwiGrow™, which may be used internationally. While directed at New Zealand businesses and communities, entities from other countries, may, if KiwiGrow becomes well-regarded internationally, seek KiwiGrow certification - i.e. from a New Zealand accreditation agency. None of this requires Creative Decisions to become a MNC, and the basic idea is to form a much more agile international network than is possible as a MNC. Accreditation and certification functions can be performed by existing New Zealand and international agencies, if they themselves become accredited by an initiating agency.
Q: What could hypergovernance and NZ2100 mean for the United Nations?
A: Hypergovernance is something the United Nations should be thinking about, if it isn't already. NZ2100 could be a useful hypergovernance tool, and as such promoted through, and modelled by, the United Nations. All UN agencies could in that case become NZ2100-certified. Enhanced collaboration, and the consequent efficiencies that are achievable through use of NZ2100, could have implications for the UN's structure. The UN is already actively involved in sustainable development reporting through support for the Global Reporting Initiative, and the UN Global Compact.
Q: Why has Creative Decisions gone to all this trouble to promote something that is really just common sense?
A: It's because although the basic ideas are very simple, there are a lot of potential applications, and going to the effort of explaining them increases the chances that the ideas will be adopted sooner rather than later. And of course, Creative Decisions is a business, and we expect to realise a return on the investment - eventually. Also, the idea of a hypergovernance based around common sense is new. We are so used to applying common sense at the micro-scale, that we forget that it also has applications at the larger scales that hypergovernance requires.
Q: Who do you think you are, to pronounce on all these big issues?
A: Someone who believes that ideas sometimes speak for themselves, and need to be given an airing. And who else did you have in mind?
Q: Why didn't you call KiwiGrow "Trevor", instead?
A: Yes, from a New Zealander's perspective, "Ask Trev" would seem to be an appropriate answer to many questions, that you don't have the answer to yourself. And there have been many great Trevs in this country's history. But in these modern times you need a name that doesn't suggest a male has all the answers.
Q: What other approaches to hypergovernance exist?
A: People working in the field of sustainable development have tried to develop other methods, so far without success. Other approaches have tended to be centred around major ideas (such as the Enlightenment, or sending a man to the moon), or political (the various "-isms"), religious beliefs, or community or regional visions and plans. Most of these are place-based and culturally-centred, and unsuitable for motivating solutions to problems that have international or transcultural dimensions. A particular problem with many of them is that they are not scale-independent: for example they may apply to a region as a whole, but may be relatively weak as a tool for motivating change at the level of households or individuals.
