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PER JOBS

Here at Björk Experience and Fish Your Dream, addressing and getting the whole picture and having definitive purpose is SUCH a challenge. Still, we’re trying.

Some parts of our business are not yet what I would like it to be. But, eliminating the complete footprint of our company means eliminating a whole lot of opportunity of doing good! (I mean, simply dropping dead would make the least impact!) When I consider the potential impact our travel business generates, I need to, at the same time, consider the positive changes and contributions we are making.

Small steps at a time sometimes. Sometimes, more in leap style. Conservation of the environment we work in, moving positions forward in cooperation with indigenous communities, making our transports more efficient and what not. Or, simply in building our team in new ways to include, allow, strengthen, and make the best use of everyone’s unique talents.

I started the business 15 years ago. Back then, the driving force was passion, wanting to create and develop, even though sustainability has always been a central issue. Being originally a musician, a composer, getting new things out of my hands was my whole life.

But now, the overall aim is to make a change for the better. Inside the industry, for the resources and communities we work with and in, as well as on the consumer end. And travelling is a way, if done right, to learn new things, get to know new things.

And, what you get to know, you might like or even love. And, what you love you want to protect and serve. So, helping people to travel in smarter ways, that actually educates and gives back to the local community, I would say is now the overall aim for me. Even if we sometimes must use a helicopter to get to one of our lodges.

Even before COVID, we approached our regular guests, to not visit our lodges on several occasions per year, no matter how lucrative it first seems, but instead visit one lodge and stay longer. I think Covid might have helped in this matter. My feeling is that in the light of virus spreading, short weekend breaks might not be as socially accepted in the future. It seems longer trips with a shorter travel range are indeed increasing. At least in our business.

On the personal side, the passion for making fast, radical change feels more accessible than in the company, at least I like to think so. Fewer aspects to consider, easier to maneuver. In my home, my dream is to become self-sufficient in food, growing enough crops to feed me and the family, permaculture style. The 10.000 square metres garden on the island of Gotland sure has the potential. At least if we can secure the water situation…

I am making the first moves now to start a forest garden that hopefully will feed my or someone else’s grandchildren. After all, most of what we consume today is something we robbed them of.

Long live long term stuff.

By Per Jobs, 25 November 2021