Working in sustainability for a decade and a half, there is something that has always troubled me. It is this: despite our best imaginings about a sustainable world, we don’t really know where we’re going.
Of course, we have some good ideas: socially responsible businesses, energy-efficient technologies, green buildings and bike lanes and local organic wine. All good.
But as much as we tell ourselves to “think outside the box” (come on, you’ve said it!), there are times where we find it very hard to understand the box at all.
That’s the nature of transformation: the goal is something that lies outside your current reality. But we are products of this reality. The system most of us grew up with – an industrialized society with a giddy wealth of oil has been the dominant design for several generations. Its patterns are etched on our brains, its parameters are built into the structures and aspirations of our lives. We’re so habituated to it, we can barely recognize it as a box that frames our thinking, let alone see beyond it.
So we have some work to do. If you’re strong on innovation, join in. Your planet needs you. Here are a few places you can start.
The Transformational Company Framework
Thinking about your business as a tool for rendering service to humanity at a time of deep uncertainty definitely pushes the edges of the box. And why not? Business is innovative and nimble, and with good leadership, it can deliver much more than the sum of its parts.
Developed by Canadian Business for Social Responsibility, the Transformational Company Framework outlines 19 qualities of companies that are working to address systemic societal risks and challenges (and of course, harness opportunities).
On cbsr.ca, there are case studies of companies who exemplify these qualities. These are smart organizations that continue to make profit, yield shareholder value and thrive in a climate of change. But they’re also stepping up to take the lead in solving the problems that bedevil the system as we know it.
“Sustainability is a megaforce on par with the industrial revolution,” said Coro Strandberg, who helped develop the framework. A good reason to shake off that box.
Capitalism 2.0
If you like to think more broadly than the company level, pitch yourself at this one. Capitalism 2.0 is a term that’s popping up regularly now, recognizing that our economic system itself needs an overhaul.
Sustainability guru Bob Willard has a good post (May 28) by this name at sustainabilityadvantage.com. He says, “The current rules of the game reward companies that privatize benefits and gains, socialize harms and losses, and under-price risk. … Today’s capitalism has been fun, but it is under siege because it is not sustainable.”
You can join a Capitalism 2.0 (CAP2) discussion group on LinkedIn, and sign up for an imminent white paper on the topic, called Rebooting Prosperity, at ecoopportunity.net.
Co-authors Brad Zarnett and Michael Townsend promise the paper will explore elements of our current system such as wealth concentration, ownership models and the banking system. These are solid efforts to at least define the box we’re in, so we can start to see our way out.
Seeing your niche within system change
Finally, try thinking really big, right past today’s box. Check out an interesting short online presentation by a group called the Berkana Institute, depicting a way of understanding how systems transform (berkana.org/about/our-theory-of-change).
While one system is peaking and starting to decline, a new system forms through innovation and relationship-building. The old system responds by lashing out, fiercely guarding what it has, or in some cases, quietly protecting a space where the new system can form.
This explains the increasing fervour of more-oil-faster arguments, and it offers a compassionate way of looking at those who are vested in an existing system and terrified about its loss. But it also, importantly, provides a way to envision how we get to sustainability from where we are.
Understanding how your company sees change, and where you believe you stand in the midst of it, can help you see the risks and opportunities around you. It may help your team envision a way to help push transformation, instead of pursuing incremental business as usual.
Whatever you think is driving change – technology, climate, or consumer demand – it’s a safe bet things aren’t going to be the same in even 10 years, let alone 20. So it’s a great time to be asking big questions about leadership, opportunity, risk and challenge. Getting to sustainability is the biggest task facing every generation alive today. To use another well-worn business cliché, it’s time to get your head in the game.
