Page 114 - UPthEM_Program_Final_December 2020

UPthEM – Upskilling Pathways for Employability
№ 2019-1-BG01-KA204-062299

earth, ethically, happily and ecologically in balance with nature and all her natural systems for
a thousand generations, or 10,000 generations -- that is to say, into the indefinite future. But
does the earth have to wait for our extinction as a species? Well maybe so. But I don't think so.

At Interface we really intend to bring this prototypical sustainable, zero-footprint industrial
company fully into existence by 2020. We can see our way now, clear to the top of that
mountain. And now the challenge is in execution. And as my good friend and adviser Amory
Lovins says, "If something exists, it must be possible." If we can actually do it, it must be
possible. If we, a petro-intensive company can do it, anybody can. And if anybody can, it
follows that everybody can.

Hawken fulfilled business and industry, leading humankind away from the abyss because, with
continued unchecked decline of the biosphere, a very dear person is at risk here -- frankly, an
unacceptable risk. Who is that person? Not you. Not I. But let me introduce you to the one who
is most at risk here. And I myself met this person in the early days of this mountain climb. On
a Tuesday morning in March of 1996, I was talking to people, as I did at every opportunity back
then, bringing them along and often not knowing whether I was connecting. But about five days
later back in Atlanta, I received an email from Glenn Thomas, one of my people in the
California meeting. He was sending me an original poem that he had composed after our
Tuesday morning together. And when I read it, it was one of the most uplifting moments of my
life. Because it told me, by God, one person got it. Here is what Glenn wrote. And here is that
person, most at risk. Please meet "Tomorrow's Child."

“Without a name; an unseen face
and knowing not your time nor place,
Tomorrow’s Child, though yet unborn
I met you first last Tuesday morn.

A wise friend introduced us two,
and through his shining point of view
I saw a day that you would see;
a day for you, but not for me.

Knowing you has changed my thinking
for I never had an inkling
That perhaps the things I do
might someday, somehow, threaten you.

Tomorrow’s Child, my daughter/son
I’m afraid I’ve just begun
To think of you and of your good,
though always having known I should.

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