Can a cup of coffee change the world?

It's been a while since my last edition of Wills Wonders and it's not because of a lack of wonderment :)

The past two years have been packed with wonders, in fact I've been dazzled with them so much was there to learn. I can only conclude that the past two years have been a transformative time with lot's of lessons & learnings to share so I thought let's pick up the Will's Wonders Newsletter.

Let me reflect as we close up for the year and bring you up to speed on what's been happening on my end. If you're more interested in my first documentary, just scroll down and get straight into the film.

Take care in the coming weeks. Enjoy the X-mas break with family and friends and all the best for 2025!

It's going to rock, one way or the other :)

Have fun and keep wondering!

Willem

2023 - Family first -

Since we moved to Australia in February 2022 Milou and I put the kids through a lot of changes. It took us until April 2023 to get all the schools sorted and get everybody happy. A lot longer than we anticipated. Moving home for five times in 2 two years doesn't help either. So we had to make decision on the "housing front". In August 2023 we bought a 40 acre block (16 ha or the equivalent of 21 soccer fields) of bushland across the road from Evens Head where we were renting. It's 20 minutes from the beach so not too bad at all. It was a big move to a very small 2 bedroom cottage, but it created a place we could call home. A few caravans provided the necessary extra "bedrooms" for the teenagers while we started to plan for the home extension.

Living in the bush also comes with completely new and unexpected challenges. I had to transform from talking about sustainable practices in a business context to becoming a sustainability practitioner on my own property. Living of tankwater for example doesn't combine well with four teenagers that like to take long showers twice a day. We only have 40,000 liters of water and if nature doesn't provide rain it means that you run out of water pretty quickly. We suddenly had to learn about bushfire zones, chainsaws, snakes, rats, kangaroos, power outages, long-term shopping and so much more. That's what kept me wondering haha!

We've managed to settle in now and are planning our home extension in a sustainable and circular way, keeping the development "footprint" small.

Personal Health

The first half of 2024 was great as I had a goal of running the Sydney half marathon in May. Lot's of running and getting fit for a sub 2-hour run. When I finally had the event in May it was great and completed it with a 1:55 so that was good. Feeling fit.

Not a lot later we were doing some clearing of trees on our land to make it bushfire safe. I pulled a branch and tripped over backward with the stick going straight into my shin muscles ... A deep cut so a visit to the hospital was next. It took two surgeries to take a small piece of wood out that infected my leg. It was the first time I really felt vulnerable and impaired. Now I know what is is if you can't do what you want to do to stay fit. I hated it that I could't do my running. It gave me time to reflect on our move to Australia though and think about the differences in culture between Australia and The Netherlands.

Culture mapping

One of the books I read when I had to sit still was Erin Meyer's The Culture map. It was so relevant now because I experienced the cultural differences in real life. Suddenly things started to fall in place. Dutchies like to know about the why, before they buy. Aussies are interested in the how and the what can it do for me. Concepts like the Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) are high level and not very pragmatic. Time to change my approach and turn the story upside down.

Sustainability Delivers Growth

The more I learned about the local context of Australian business, the more I became aware of why I sometimes didn't connect with people. We were speaking different "cultural" languages. Sustainability Delivers Growth (SDG) has the same letters as Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) but connects the WHY and the HOW. It connects the leading paradigm of capitalism with a more regenerative future in a pragmatic way. For me that's the way forward.

We can't change the future if we don't have the money to do so. We need to connect the dots. Once I had that figured out I started to move forward again, experimenting stories on different platform. I had to make my story personal and bring sustainability to a more pragmatic level, both in business as in my personal life. Here's one of the keynote talks I did in Sydney with SEVENTEENx that started the transformation.

Circular economy practitioner

Getting to the pont of the title of this edition can a cup of coffee change the world. I participated in the Coreo Circular economy intense course this year as part of my ambition to be a bit more grounded in my approach. I can now officially call myself a CE practitioner with a lot of new insights up my sleeve. It was interesting to have a lot of Dutch examples and showcases during the course Very insightful!

Big thanks to Ashleigh Morris (GAICD) Cameron Kaufman, LFA and Jenna Alex Savin for delivering the great content!

Can a cup of coffee change the world?

And finally the "piece de resistance"! My first documentary! Why do you want to make a doco? One of the things I struggle with is how do you simplify the story of Sustainability and Circularity? How can you bring it down to what I call the "soccer field test" as in the conversation you have at the sideline on a Saturday morning. Well I know that a film can help, but I never made one myself.

Then this call out on Facebook caught my attention:

"Hi all, Jordan Edmeades here, trusting some of you in Evans may be able to make the journey to Ignite Studios on a Tuesday to make your own film or doco and be part of this beautiful little filmmaking community that is growing.

The film & doco course will now be a 12-week course diving into camera, sound and lighting skills, as well as writing & development, producing, directing and working with actors & contributors...

"Most of all the the goal is to have fun, meet a bunch of fellow likeminded filmmakers and learn the knowledge and skills to make your own film."

"The course will culminate in a gala screening in late November where we'll get to see all of your stories up on the big screen."

It was the Big Screen dream that caught my attention! How cool is that!! Sure making your own doco wouldn't be that hard. What can go wrong? :)

What a journey! I had to learn so many new skills but I persisted and got the job done. Bringing more than 4 hours of video back to 11 minutes wasn't easy. A lot of times I just wanted to give up and create short cuts.... not possible in film making.. you got to put in the hours. As with many things, you don't see the hard work behind the scenes, but I know that it has made me respect the filmmakers I know even more :)

Well here we are a little bit more than 12 weeks later we had our big screening in Kyogle cinema.A great story with Samuel Allis the founder and barista of Hemlocks Books and Coffee in Woodburn on the right and Coffee roaster & Guru Gerard Dwyer in the middle.

The doco is intentionally "slow" and takes into account the story behind a cup of coffee. I hope it inspires to think about that daily cup of coffee, show your support for local cafes that buy organic and sustainably produced and roasted coffee. And don't forget the Huskee coffee cup :)

Be the change you want to see in the world and help make a difference. One cup of coffee at a time. Hope you enjoy it!