Regression analysis is a statistical tool for the investigation of relationships
between variables. Usually, the investigator seeks to ascertain the causal effect of one variable upon another. To explore such issues,the investigator assembles data on the underlying variables of interest and employs regression to estimate the quantitative effect of the causal variables upon the variable that they influence. The investigator also typically assesses the “statistical significance” of the estimated relationships, that is, the degree of confidence that the true relationship is close to the estimated relationship.
We have all heard the well worn phrase that India ... 'land of contradictions.' The more accurate is that it is a land of multidictions. Some of the best and worst examples of society's compassion and lack thereof occur everyday, in every corner of India. It is a target rich environment for any CSR professional or 3BL designer. It is a society that on one hand traditionally reveres nature and humankind, and on the other contains inhumane and deeply seeded abusive conventions re same. The business environment with its decade of meteoric rising development, complete with an all-costs fixation on breaking 10% annual GDP, has reflected moments of innovative and 'deep-ethic' CSR, but moreover resulted in an overall strategic disregard for basic human and natural capital resources and services. Although the government and policy is often blamed and complicit, it ultimately comes down to the failures of the business ethic that drives the economic growth we (perhaps mistakenly) call 'growth and development.' In this extreme environment, where so much is in need of improvement, PGI formed its ethos and gained unparalleled expertise and vision. In honor of our own fifth year as a network organization, we will focus on some of the critical philosophies our our mission statement. Starting with the two most critical: Woman Equality and Energy Poverty. They are far more entwined than you may think.
In this installment we reflect on the
art of paying attention. As 3BL planners and CSR professionals we must be accustom to becoming sensitive to the econometrics of various factors in the environment. Sometimes rapid societal changes can be explained by hidden macro shocks. This requires the use of active attentive regressive analytics. Practicing this as much and as often as possible makes ones forensic skills greater and thus a better 3BL designer.
Genuine 3BL and CSR requires critical analysis but it requires a curiosity for causation. Not always having the time or resources to engage an empirical study, an objective swag analysis of known factors should be employed. Standard regressive analytics such as participatory GIS is a tool that allows the professional to keep their eye on the ball so not to miss the story that is unfolding all around. It is something that the founders of PGI have made part of the business model and its business ethic. For example, Sand County Almanac is required reading for our new consultants and network members. (It's best read while traversing the ECR, the 'King's Highway' in Upper Assam and sitting standstill in India's Big 6 urban traffic.) We must always take a look around to remember what's at stake and what's important. It is this constant reading and quest that has continually honed our consultancy. Our goal is to follow the CSR need, and combat lip-servicing greed. This premise collectively led us to organically focus our 3BL business models and led us to pro-woman-Co-Op-ag-business, food security, land ethic CSR and most recently the realization that nearly everything from gender inequality to social-education gaps can be traced to energy poverty. Sounds strange but its undeniably true.
Genuine 3BL and CSR requires critical analysis but it requires a curiosity for causation. Not always having the time or resources to engage an empirical study, an objective swag analysis of known factors should be employed. Standard regressive analytics such as participatory GIS is a tool that allows the professional to keep their eye on the ball so not to miss the story that is unfolding all around. It is something that the founders of PGI have made part of the business model and its business ethic. For example, Sand County Almanac is required reading for our new consultants and network members. (It's best read while traversing the ECR, the 'King's Highway' in Upper Assam and sitting standstill in India's Big 6 urban traffic.) We must always take a look around to remember what's at stake and what's important. It is this constant reading and quest that has continually honed our consultancy. Our goal is to follow the CSR need, and combat lip-servicing greed. This premise collectively led us to organically focus our 3BL business models and led us to pro-woman-Co-Op-ag-business, food security, land ethic CSR and most recently the realization that nearly everything from gender inequality to social-education gaps can be traced to energy poverty. Sounds strange but its undeniably true.
It's all too much to distill into one installment,
and frankly we enjoy much more putting our models into practice on
the ground than speaking in platitudes. But what can be said as we
rapidly approach our fifth anniversary (and Rio+20 is that 'it works'. There is
another way. 3BL is real. We have been to the promised land and we
have seen lives transformed because of our models performing to spec in India. We have
met some of the most inspirational people the world has to offer, and
we are positive the green revolution will be won or lost based on the
weight of India's minds. This is no exaggeration. This is not a statement made to curry favor of Indian readers. This is true whether you are in Paris, France, Paris Texas or Parrys Corner, Chennai. India is huge and growing. I am not speaking in terms of economic prowess. I am talking about weight of consumption, weight of waste, weight of energy required to maintain its status quo.
The traditional
attachment that is core to the traditional Indian and vedic ethic is
the Land Ethic that Leopold and Steiner tried to implement in their day. Neither
had such a following as they do now. They are notably unheard of in India, which is ironic in the case of Steiner. Decades later and just now realizing they were right and we nonetheless remain on
the same road to perdition. Ufortunately the weight of
minds in India have likewise ignored the sage advice of tradition and
harmonics in favor of the same hollow promises of the consumerist economy. But this time, on the
mind bending scale of a consumer base of 1+ billion, the thought of which leaves MNCs breathless in anticipation and the rest of us facing the grim reality of being drown in a mountain of disposable razors. Be sure that the first
to suffer will be and always are the women and children, who due to inequality
and malnourishment are the first victims of everything from rising
petrol prices to newly minted drug resistant viruses.
This critical component of what makes us human has probably never been written about more succinctly and beautifully as the
legal writing of Justice
Rubello of Bombay High Court as he addressed the complexity and contradiction of adoption law
in India. He found the single citation that sums up our present status as a
human race:
We are guilty of many errors and faults
but our worst crimeis abandoning the children,
neglecting the fountain of life.
Many of the things we need can wait.
The child cannot.
Right now is the time his bones are
being formed,
his blood is being made,and his senses are being developed.
To him we cannot answer “Tomorrow”
His name is “Today.”
-Gabriella Mistral
So how can the subject of human ethics and our inalienable obligation as CSR professionals be answered on a bus. Well, it will comes as no surprise to anyone
who knows me well that I noticed something interesting on the bus1
today. Something telling as it relates to social adjustment to
shocks, and something about dealing with statistics in India.
For years I've daily taken the 21D bus
to PGI's Parrys, Madras office. Through my western eyes it looks like
something from Clint Eastwood's The Gauntlet, but that bucket of
Ashok Leyland bolts charges up and down Marina Drive daily like a
champ. Inefficient, dirty, rugged, used and abused are some good
descriptors of 21D. She sits 48 and the Tamil board at the front of
the bus says 24 can stand so 72 is supposedly her max...her 100%. Of
this 100% the gender split is 60% women/40% men. Of the women, most
are in school uniforms or get off at the half dozen centenarian
universities along Marina Boulevard. This always made me feel good
that our future may end up in the hands of these young ladies. Alas,
if so, there's still hope for the human race.
Things happen in India in waves.
Opinion and social habit moves in similar fashion and because of the
sheer number of citizens, in spectacular fashion. When the bus fair
doubled a few months back, the bus operated at 80% occupancy...I
assume as some form of protest...or perhaps while the usual occupants
checked out light rail, bike-pooling or otherwise breaking out the
calculator to figure out efficiency ratios. (Indians love to do
these kind of calculations from top to grass roots, which is part of
their innate cultural sustainability ethic.) Eventually within a week
21D came back to 100% occupancy, for reasons I can only fondly
speculate.
Last week, petrol was notched up 3 more
rupees, the third hike in six months and reports now have India
petrol (gasoline) prices as the highest in the world bar none. http://www.mypetrolprice.com/petrol-price-chart.aspx
This,
in a country where the middle income household GDP can be less than a lakh ($2000)
per annum or at the opposite end of the spectrum, in league with the
top billionaires in the world. For India's huge 400 million and
growing 'middle class' three more rupees per liter, on increasingly
crowded roads, hits the household economic equation rather hard.
Particularly in light of the number of dual income families that have
come into being over the past four or five years.
So to my point, since the petrol hike
21D has been operating at a very uncomfortable 120% occupants. I
could write an entire installment on what that extra 20% does
economically to the public transport system infrastructure and
efficiency, but there is something far more important to note. Here
it is:
The gender split is now 40% men and 80%
women. Yes, in India, most things do not sum neatly into 100%. If you
come to India to do business and do not understand this, then either
don't come, or better yet (ha) call PGI.
So here;s the SWAG: The extra 20%, (after a quick toe ring
count) are married working women, (and a quick sari fabric check) middle to upper middle class.
They are the set that has to now been seen tooling to and from work
on a variety of shiny 'scooty' mopeds. (The new symbol of India's development, the two motorized bike family.)
So what can be gathered with
(less than scientific) common sense logic is that there has been
a shock (price of petrol increase is the obvious one), that some
household adjustment had to be made (decrease weekly household petrol
consumption cost) and the woman has been 'elected' to absorb the
shock. Whether it can be seen as a positive (more humans taking
public transport) pales in comparison with the more disturbing and
continuing trend of women being the sacrificial lamb of economic and
ecologic shocks. I use the bus example as an example of paying
attention to the world in the way that we must, and testament to the
many shocks that societies absorb that lead societies to shift
behavior. The troubling part is that the absorption and shifts are
seldom if ever equal.
The male of the species assures that the female and
child is the buffer in order to preserve the male 'standard of
living'. If anyone would like to debate this, I'd warn that I and
others at PGI have a mental inventory of first hand examples that
make this bus exercise trite. Horrific and inhumane examples of
shocks resulting in women and children being thrown into the abyss in
the name of 'development' and social 'integrity.' The status of the gender is no doubt improving and recent laws that give women rights to alimony in divorce and abandonment cases are long overdue but welcome. Today's times of India reported that the mother-not the father- is the priority and first named in guardianship cases. (This is dear to me personally, as I had to insist to my advocate and Court that my wife's name be included in the pleadings for the adoption of our son.) 
In fact, professionally, we at PGI advocate that development that is not sustainable and 3BL is not development. The 'developed' world is developed on a myth that is proving itself an illusion. The transitioning world is not developing unless if follows a new model and create a new inalienable ethical and equality based delivery system of development. And for PGI and our network, we have come to use the woman and the child as the measure of sustainability in the environment. When the land-human-gender factors are all in balance, then and only then can we ascribe the model is healthy. The testament of same is reflected in the smile and confident twinkle of a mother's eye and the glow of her healthy children.
We looking forward to seeing you all in Rio in June so we can share and shape a vision for the future through economic models that make sense and accounts for every stakeholder no matter the strength of voice to demand a share.
-Frank Costanzo
Peerless Green Initiatives
1At
PGI we ask that all our network members use the public transportation
system where-ever available. Some of us including myself have
converted our automobiles to LPG and are attempting to do some CSR
for organizing a recycled cooking fuel and bio-gas filling station
for diesel and CBG respectively. The interesting co-benefit of
public transport is that it gets us closer to the social ground and
infrastructure requirements where shocks are better felt than in the
AC confines of our comfy cars and homes.
Shared info is very helpful.
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