We all are changemakers, if we know it or not. Accepting it, makes us more efficient. Harnessing it, brings us forward. Which is important, since our earth is in a precarious state.
My small contribution is in my small business, which is certified organic and measures, minimises and mitigates its carbon dioxide emissions (via CarboNZero). Besides some more small measures like composting all organic matter from the commercial operation.
My initial intention was to buy ingredients locally and sell goods locally too. But this proofs the hardest part, asking for the most impossible changes.
I'm fond of many places, but one I connect readily to is the massive Huka Falls in Taupo (New Zealand) fed by the Waikato River. The drop is only 11 meters, but with 220,000 litres per second racing through a narrow crack in the landscape it is a powerful statement.
The water thunders past me, shinning in brilliant blue and white colours. When it reaches the Tasman Sea, it will have filled the people alongside its banks with "Mana" (pride, spiritual power) and generated an eighth of New Zealand's electricity.
If I only knew where to start.
In the meantime I will do a tiny little change every day, and hope many will join us.
Born and bred in Germany's Blackforest. I grew up in and with the hospitality industry. It is literally in my veins*. After a long journey through Germany's education system, I ended up as a simple organic baker in New Zealand.
On the way I saw what nourishes us evolve as produce from the soil (Norwegian organic farms), transform in our hands to food and meals (food industry and hospitality) and found it as a faceless commodity in supermarkets (retail administration).
Today I life a simpler live, the more I can make myself, the more I enjoy it.
*I wonder how all the little projects described here on these webpages at Changemakers solve the challenge of business succession, and/or the handing down within a family (if applicable). What happens when the main "driver" leaves? Projects just cease?
I saw first hand the devastating effects of small family businesses being handed down over generations. It sure creates culture, continuity and heritage, but it just as sure isn't a natural process happening by itself, as it seemed to have done in the past.
