Love it or hate it, McDonald’s is a global powerhouse in the food industry, and from a business standpoint, it does an amazing job of balancing menu consistency with cultural relevance across its 119 host countries. I have visited locations in at least 16 of them and make a point of checking out the locally inspired menu items whenever I’m abroad.
I’m trying to transition my wardrobe and home goods to all natural fibers, retiring items that have reached the end of their useful lives and buying responsibly to replace what I have to, when I have to. Although I probably could have managed with my uncomfortable pillow for a while longer, political events accelerated my switch to a comfortable and sustainable buckwheat hull pillow.
It’s not the end, but it is an end. The final debrief of our year together in the Climate Lab was bittersweet and carried with it intentions to pay our lessons forward into the world – collaborating with each other, if possible. For my part, I want to continue bridging gaps in knowledge and perspectives to co-create more equitable solutions to the climate crisis.
We’re taught that recycling is a good thing, and doing it makes us feel responsible. In reality, there are serious limitations to recycling’s benefits when it comes to certain materials, especially plastics – even begging the question if new processes, such as “chemical recycling” are even possible. Unfortunately the plastic industry is banking on our trust, including when it comes to “recycling” fabrics.
I’m not a car person, but I do appreciate good engineering and design of cars that are way out of my price range. Our last stop in Japan was a famous (and infamous) car meet that inspired the movie “Tokyo Drift.” Walking among the lovingly modified cars, I wondered if such events will survive our eventual transition from internal combustion engines to electric vehicles.
Affordability often comes with a price somewhere in the supply chain. In the case of instant noodles, it could be deforestation for ingredients and oil extraction for packaging long before the noodles hit the store and/or adverse health outcomes long after they hit the stomach. Nevertheless, this invention was an unexpected marvel that buoyed the Japanese economy and still supports disaster relief efforts worldwide.
Tokyo is an absolute playground for novel activities, and one thing on our do-to list for this last trip was visiting a capybara cafe. This South American rodent has won the hearts of the Japanese with its easy going demeanor and cross-species friendships. Of course, any interactions with exotic animals beg questions of ethics: what are the benefits and the costs of these visits?
As our time in the Climate Lab came to an end, we began thinking about what we had learned in the program and how to apply it to our work moving forward. My lessons from Japan highlighted the value of broad perspectives that hold room for a variety of ideas. I hope to use this concept to help build bridges across unlikely groups.
Good travel puts us outside our comfort zone and broadens our perspectives. Our trip to Okinawa in the Climate Lab connected us with government officials, entrepreneurs, researchers, and community volunteers – people working on the issue of climate change from different angles. A conversation with the former Vice Governor of the prefecture helped me better understand ways we can build bridges across professional islands.
Travels with the Climate Lab took me to Okinawa for the first (but hopefully not last) time. This Japanese prefecture (and former kingdom in its own right) is an absolute melting pot of cultures, disciplines, and functions in society. For someone who is regularly trying to break down silos in my own work, I was thrilled to see what lessons Okinawa had to offer.