As the Conscious Leaders Bootcamp comes to an end, we recap 7 takeaways that left us feeling more inspired, empowered, and conscious.
If you joined us for the Conscious Leaders Bootcamp, you made a powerful decision to be at the festival, to say no to the old systems and to say yes to having an open mind, yes to innovation, and relearning from a new beginning. Ironically, the Paris Fashion Week, a symbol of unsistanable systems, was being held at the same time as the Conscious Festival.
At Ground Control, however, all our participants chose a sustainable future—by showing up for talks and supporting the Marketplace which was running parallel to the bootcamp, featuring all sorts of conscious brands – our own little version of what the world tomorrow could be like in Fashion.
This year’s bootcamp was all about circularity. We heard a welcome speech from Green Is The New Black Co-Founder Paula Miquelis, and then the CEO of the Conscious Leaders Bootcamp’s partner, Ethiwork, Celine Dassonville: “The thing that made this love at first sight for me was the idea of combining “conscious” and “festival”. It’s about learning and innovation, but it’s also about having a fun time. It’s not threatening or gloomy, but something we can keep coming back to.”
We’ve handpicked some excellect and exciting takeaways for those of you who may have missed the bootcamp or would just like to revisit these conversations:
From: Keynote by Gregory Pouy, Podcaster VLAN! & PING!: Rethinking Leadership: The Power of Intention
For 20 years, Gregory has been helping those at the forefront of a positive transformation of our time. His work is at the intersection of Marketing, Sociology and Technology, helping people feel more serene in a polycrisis environment.
(1) Alpha (fe)male characteristics are about bringing harmony within the community
Have we got the meaning of “alpha” all wrong? Well, a better step to understanding leadership, which we often associate alpha with, is not about being merciless and putting others behind you. Leadership is not about dominance. Leadership is about caring about the people, planet and profits, which come as a result of people power and not at their expense.
(2) From modern to a post-modern society
From individualism, capitalism and progress to collectivism, nature and the power of now. What does it mean to be a leader in this post-modern era? A community builder who is generous, authentic and makes people collaborate. We have a lot to learn from Web3 which is showing a new possibility. A way in which nature and human body have already been functioning for millions of years – a distributive and decentralised way.
(3) It’s time to redefine success and growth
In our society as it is right now, success is about accumulation—of power, fame, glory. But it’s time to redefine success and growth—as time spent with your people and community.
(4) Lastly, reconnecting spirituality and leadership
When you go back to the roots of the words “ecology” and “economy”, the words comes from the Greek oikos, meaning “household,” “home,” or “place to live.” And “ecosophy” is the wisdom of nature – understanding that we are nature and the environment; it is not about what’s around us anymore.
From: Panel – Can Circularity Save Us?
(5) On resisting planned obsolescence….
Laetitia Vasseur is the co-Founder & Director of HOP, an NGO in France that fights against planned obsolescence, or the strategy of companies that make products that don’t last long enough and are not repairable. As moderator Sara Simmonds, from Innovatrice Conscious raised, “Why is it that washing machines are more expensive to fix than to buy a fresh one?” HOP has managed to fight for laws that make plant obsolescence a crime. And that’s a critical conversation to have.
One example you might resonate with is of Apple, that performs a version of planned obsolescence, when it doesn’t let your smart phone function as well as you download previous iOS. With every new download, the phone goes slow, loses battery, till the user has to purchase a new one. HOP filed a lawsuit, took them to court and managed to get Apple to pay fines locally as well as internationally.
But what’s more important than planned obsolescence? Durability of the product. Sometimes, it’s not on purpose that products have a short life. In general, all our products are not repairable and durable enough. “HOP is working to fill this gap. We need new laws to make it better – an index of durability and repairability or a repair score, for example – where we will be able to know if one product is more repairable compared to another.”
(6) Why is circularity so key for building a better future for all of us?
Audelie Le Guillant, Circularity Consultant: “Circularity is an opportunity because we cannot continue as we have so far. We cannot continue to extract resources, with all the geopolitical aspects. We cannot continue to produce and transform as we currently are doing because that too is a major contributor to pollution and greenhouse emissions.”
“The production of plastic, for example, is now responsible for 3-4% of global greenhouse gas emissions. In 2050, it is predicted to be 15% of global emissions, if we do nothing. That’s why it’s important to manage our waste. We absolutely need to reduce the resources we need and find alternatives, like a sharing economy. Like, does every house need its own lawn mower or can you share one with your neighbours?”
(7) Reimagining business models on every level….
In response to the lawn mower example, Laetitia points out: “The sharing economy is a great idea. At the same time, it opens new questions on how we make it and how it’s organised. We need to think hard about these new models – sharing is one of them. But there’s also a usage economy, for example, where you use something but you don’t have to buy it.” From usage economy with shared cycles (and other services) to companies taking back used products to reuse for their future second hand items, there’s a diversity of new business models that can help.
“But the priority for me,” Laetitia argues, “is the ecodesign. Because if you implement these new models but the objects in themselves are not of ecodesign, you cannot repair or reuse them.”
Franck Aggeri, Co-Director of the Mines Urbaines Chaire, brings up an important point about how repairing, reusing, and returning can be difficult when the distribution system is dispersed all over the globe. The solution to this is to localise companies instead of offsetting production to countries with cheaper labour and lower taxes.
Speaking of reimagining, Back Market is a good example of taking old iPhones, reconditioning them, and then selling them for a fraction of the price. But, as Caroline adds, that’s just the first step. We simultaneously need to work on being more conscious consumers and producers.
To fully process the urgency with which we need to act, we present to you a startling fact that Florentin Letissier, Deputy Mayor of Paris in charge of Social and Circular Economy, shared: “Take a city like Paris: if the importation of food stops because of a crisis, we only have 2-3 days autonomy for eating. That’s why the question of localisation is very important. And that’s what we try to do in Paris—we link rural regions with the city to build power and autonomy for a circular economy.” He emphasised the need to link social and environmental issues. A circular economy is only relevant and sustainable when it also addresses social problems.
FEATURED IMAGE: via Pexels | IMAGE DESCRIPTION: A person wearing sunglasses, green eyeshadow and a green jacket. Their hair is blonde with black roots, and they’re wearing a knotted neck scarf.