Hello, Tea & Water
We are often asked why we gave ourselves a name so simple and so modest. It is mostly a question, but often not. And the assumptions vary, of course. Some look at us in disbelief; maybe even feel a bit sorry for us. How do we expect success, if our name does not clearly spell out success? There are no big names attached to us. We do not have stars or big geometric shapes as symbols; just a strangely folded ampersand, tea—the beverage now seen as inferior to coffee—and water—a given resource—something that exists on the margins of economy and is available in almost limitless quantities. This is a blue planet.
Some hear the name and smile. “I get it”, they say.
Tea & Water are for me personally the symbols that mark the end of the age of unsustainability. For the last few hundred years we have used our hunter and gatherer brains to create an artificial abundance and to separate ourselves from the natural realities of the planet. We have grown as a species, and we have achieved never before imagined levels of expansion; on a global scale.
Yet more and more of us become aware that the current pattern of expansion and growth is not something we can continue forever. We might have even already surpassed the levels that make our survival as a species easily possible.
And it is obviously not just about us. Life will likely continue after us anyway, in some way. I have recently met a few life forms that will be very happy to take over the torch of leadership on this blue marble. But we are selfish enough to think about ourselves in particular.
We have reached a point in human history where we might need to start to use our intelligence to think in much longer periods of development than we are used to. This is not about the individual comfort anymore. It is not about instant gratification. It is not even about happy retirement. It should be about the ability to create a legacy and a path to a future that is worth walking towards.
I do not claim to have the answer to any of the big questions of humanity today. And there are many questions that need to be answered right now.
But I think I am not the only person who thinks that there might be too many of us here. And that the many of us also perhaps create too large of a strain on the planet to make this place as pleasant as it is for generations after us.
The first step towards any change for us humans is probably realization. And this is why we created Tea & Water. We want to look at ourselves as a species and we want to see what good can be done for all of us, or especially for those who deserve more.
We also want to help understand how we can apply our intelligence as a species to improve things, not just increase the amount of stuff pushed around and stored and discarded.
And we are very aware that all of this needs to happen on an individual level, as much as on the level of large organizations.
And just because a company is large, it is not necessarily a bad company. We believe that we can help organizations of any size to discover and document their progress towards new and better ways that will help us all create a brighter future.
I personally still love the Werner von Siemens quote: “I will not sell the future for momentary gain.” We want to help more and more people discover the importance of long term thinking, of legacies, of wide horizons. Long term communications. Ideas that are built to last.
This is the time to see ourselves as a problem-solving and intelligent species we are. And we need to not be greedy now, so we can be alive and successful and perhaps even happy in the long run.
We know how to tell stories, and we know how to observe and record and discover. And we are here to help close the metaphorical door on the unsustainable age, and open the door on the age of sustainability and respect towards the forces that created us, and have fed us since we were barely a few connected cells on a rock brushed by water.
Tea & Water are three symbols. They are humble, modest, calm. Tea is a simple word for an almost infinitely complex idea. The Ampersand is a symbol of collaboration and inclusion. Water is the incredibly underestimated resource that is on its way to become more precious than a lot of what we have valued and fought over until now.
We are not here to have a short-term blast for ourselves. We have created this global partnership to show that progress can be intelligent and desirable and beautiful. And that progress is not automatically more stuff. It is beauty and more attention to what makes us—and the world—better. It is harmonious and it is inclusive. We want to see more winners. Human or not.
Let’s come together and lift our cups to a new age of beneficial and inclusive ideas.
Hello. You are welcome to Tea & Water, with us.
