A key concept of the Living Product Challenge is environmental Handprinting. Footprinting has been useful in quantifying the negative impact of human activity, but it fails to capture any benefits of our actions. Handprinting seeks to measure both the good and the bad. Using a biomimicry example, a beaver’s footprint would include cutting down trees and localised flooding – but his handprint would also measure what the beaver created: downstream flood control, reduced erosion, biodiversity support, and water cleansing, both by the breakdown of toxins such as pesticides and the retention of silt.
As Greg Norris says, ‘Handprinting can expand the missions of organizations and our sense of our own lives, moving us from a mindset that focuses on minimising the harm we cause to one of being Net Positive healers of the planet. If handprinting also reframes our relationships with one another as co-creators of this healing, and clarifies the gratitude we share for each such accomplishment…that shift will bring an even more empowering energy, joy and clarity to all that we do.’
For more information on environmental handprinting, have a read of Greg’s Trim Tab article.
