Society for Sustainable Business

Many factors are involved in catalysing a viable society. The articles annotated below amount to a short course in why we need to reorient our society to ecological sustainability and social well-being, and the positive means we have to do so.

We start with getting the big picture in view, and go on to make the case that we are indeed in a global ecological emergency. This lays the groundwork for the hopeful possibilities that follow.

The big picture

The mission of the SSB is to work through business to catalyse a change to a viable society. ‘Moving towards’ sustainability isn’t good enough. Our proper goal is to achieve it. We need to shift Australian culture to the point where, if there is a conflict of interest, ecological sustainability takes a higher priority than everything else.

At the same time, we do not believe that we are faced with a stark choice between ecological sustainability and the good life. On the contrary, we believe that much unsustainable consumption has its roots in stress and the striving for happiness, and that excess consumption does not make people happier. Our proper goal should be wellbeing at every level, which will allow us to adapt our institutional structures and personal aspirations to sustainable outcomes.

Similarly, a healthy economy does not necessarily depend on ever-increasing material production. It depends on adequate economic flow at every level so that people’s needs are met.

So our goal is ecological sustainability, supported by personal health, social well-being, an open democracy, and institutions that tend to bring out the best in people. The following articles spell out these connections in more detail.

CSR for a viable future Andrew Gaines

Redesign as deep industrial ecology: Lessons from ecological agriculture and social ecology Stuart Hill

The necessity for rapid change

This section makes the case for rapid change. It looks at global warming, ecological tipping points, the astonishing (and sickening) deterioration of the oceans, and declining mental and physical health statistics for children. This last serves well as a key performance indicator for social health; a society that systematically injures kids can not possibly be viable in the long run. Tipping points where adverse changes begin to amplify themselves have already started.

The Business Case for Early Action (633KB PDF) Business Roundtable on Climate Change

Footprints #12 John James

John James summarises the scientific evidence that the temperature rises that will lead to devastating global warming are inescapable under present conditions unless we take immediate action.

The Thirteenth Tipping Point Julia Whitty

Elaborates on an article in Nature asserting that we are at the threshold of at least a dozen major ecological tipping points. The 13th is our choice to make a difference.

Ocean mayhem as run-off feeds primitive organisms Kenneth R. Weiss

You need a strong stomach for this one. Agricultural run-off and sewage provide nutrients that are enabling primitive micro-organisms to proliferate in ways that destroy the rest of the food chain.

The Real Brain Drain (PDF 175KB) Fiona Stanley

In this National Press Club speech epidemiologist Fiona Stanley asserts that both mental and physical health statistics for children have measurably declined as a result of the social stresses produced by economic rationalism.

What should we do?

There is no one simple answer to this. Rather, there are a multitude of mutually reinforcing answers, all of which are necessary if things are to come right for humanity. However, since behaviour follows from our thinking and attitudes, our thinking is the place to start. Our lead article by systems thinker Donella Meadows makes the case.

Places to intervene in a system Donella Meadows

Our actions follow from our core values, of course. As futurist Riane Eisler points out (The Chalice and the Blade, 1987), there are two contrasting value systems that shape human relations. In domination/control relating people use force or intimidation for power over others. The dominator style finds expression in punitive child-rearing, the authoritarian education, wilful environmental destruction and war. Partnership/respect relating includes concern for the well-being of the whole group (the family, the nation and the larger ecology that we are part of). It finds expression in nurturing parenting, businesses that respect the initiative of employees, and the collaborative ideals of the United Nations.

The core value represented by partnership relating has been given other names, of course. They include love, concern for Tomorrow’s Child, social justice, goodwill to all… ‘Partnership relating’ is a good umbrella term because the style of partnership relating applies at every level from personal psychology to child rearing to global governance. Also, ‘partnership relating’ is an operational term. We can actually train to improve our personal capacity to operate on partnership values, and we can reorganise institutions (schools, business and government) to operate on partnership values.

We hold that if Australia is to become viable our entire society must reorient so that partnership values set the tone. In the past this view would have been dismissed as ‘idealistic’. Today it is the essential guiding principle of our time. A society operating on dominator principles, including commercially driven destruction of the environment, massive military investment, and the erosion of democracy, will simply self-destruct. We are self-destructing now. This article explores the partnership-dominator contrast in more detail.

Partnership or Dominator? − Facing the central psychological issue of our time Andrew Gaines

A technical example of the contrast in the two styles of thinking is given in another Meadows article.

Two Approaches to Sewage Treatment − and to the World Donella Meadows

Partnership thinking can be profitably integrated into business planning. Mega-planning, developed by Prof. Emeritus Roger Kaufman in United States, and championed in Australia by Dr Ronald Forbes and Dylan Forbes, is a well thought out methodology of strategic planning that takes account of the world we want for tomorrow’s child. In doing this, it brings into view the hidden opportunities of the future. The consideration of values and societal outcomes results in better business planning. This is because people find common ground and want to contribute to and support the enterprise. The result is enthusiasm and collaboration within the organisation, and partnership with its external stakeholders.

Profit and Benefits from Planning for Sustainability Ronald Forbes, Dylan Forbes

As we all know, consultants are often called in to help organizations to solve their problems. A breakthrough approach to organizational change occurred when a consultant instead of focusing on the ‘problems’, started by focusing on the strengths. What works well around here? How can we build on it? This led to the Appreciative Inquiry (AI) approach, which has been rapidly gathering momentum worldwide by its successes over the last decade.

What Is Appreciative Inquiry? Andy Smith

Many of us tend to think in silos, focusing on our own specialty, and seeing things like values and even ecology as peripheral. This is mentally easier, but can lead to suboptimal results. Systems thinking is a more comprehensive approach. In the following article Andrew Asher describes an approach to embedding sustainability planning at every level of a manufacturing organisation.

Operations Strategies for Industrial Environmental Management Andrew Ashner

If a cultural shift to well-being as our national direction is the fundamental basis for creating a viable society, then we have a new view of what Corporate Social Responsibility means. How cultural shifts occur is something of a mystery. But part of it is many conversations by people at different levels in a society, such that a new vision of what needed, possible and desirable emerges. Political leadership and practical action then follows.

Corporations can participate in what might be called Transformational CSR by taking all of their staff through a short training that orients them to what it will take to create a viable society. The whole culture must change, and your staff are part of the culture.

Developing a big picture vision as to why and how we can change is crucial, but not enough. We need to learn to embody partnership values. Training in interactive creativity, conflict resolution and even physical disciplines such as Feldenkrais and Aikido can help with this. We develop the skills to be more collaboratively adaptable.

A third stage is reorganising your institution − your business, school, or government department, to operate on partnership values. Models exist, such as Ricardo Semler’s Maverick, but the process is always improvised.