Despite the fact that the term sustainable is in theory binary (something is or is not sustainable), sustainability has a more nebulous quality. As used in the corporate world, sustainability often feels more like a journey than a destination.
It often reads like this: “We are doing a little bit less damage – or accounting for it differently – than last year and have plans to hide the damage completely by some arbitrary date (often 2050), a date so far in the future as to be meaningless for most readers.”
This may sound harsh but in truth most businesses are still focused on growing profits. Ensuring the planet can support as much or more life in 100 years is hardly part of the mission statement.
For example, if a company buys their electricity from a green energy provider, do they have to account for the mining, manufacturing, transportation, installation, maintenance or disposal (dumping) of the various devices or indeed all the fossil fuels used throughout the supply chain?
Using such green energy sources is, we are told, the epitome of sustainability and yet here too it is not so clear cut. Corporate leaders and particularly boards therefore need to be asking deeper questions such as:
– What costs are we currently passing on to society?
– How can we shift from trying to minimise harm to creating positive environmental benefits?
Possibly because sustainability has lost its allure as a term, the more clued in companies are now adding “regenerative” into the mix. In theory, this is a step beyond sustainable in that it seeks to restore, but we are yet to see the effects at scale on the ground. Language as ever is being appropriated for profit.
What regenerative does do is shift us from thinking in terms of reducing environmental harm to providing ecological benefits and possibly offers less room for accounting tricks. And that really is the key message: we need to challenge superficial fixes and start asking how we can give back more than we take out of natural systems.
What do you think?
Question in the Image:
- How can we shift from trying to minimise harm to creating positive environmental benefits?
Want to Further Explore This Topic?
This topic is a perfect example of the need for constant curiosity – for questioning received wisdom. A core assumption of the “sustainability” and “green transition” narratives is that wind and solar installations represent clean renewable energy. That is more nuanced than many suppose when looked at over their full lifecycle: Critical sustainability issues in the production of wind and solar electricity generation as well as storage facilities and possible solutions. For more in-depth exploration of such issues try out The Great Simplification podcast.
Nurturing Curiosity – Daily Practice: This is part of the Nurturing Curiosity series of tools, insights and questions designed to help nurture curiosity as part of our daily practice. In point of fact, every interaction we have is an opportunity to question what we are observing and how we and others are seeing the world. What might we assume is true that may not be? What might be more nuanced than we think?
About Tom O’Leary
Tom guides bold pioneers through inner transitions towards regenerative futures.
His primary offering – through a process he calls Ecological Coaching – is about working with leaders on the mindset, skillset and structural shifts that will power their organisation’s outer transition.
This means helping leaders thrive while creating ripples of positive change within their organisation and most importantly for the communities they serve and ultimately life on this planet.
It is thus not just about the leader as an “individual” but rather as part of an ecology of relationships. Within this ecology, he helps the leader feel heard, gain clarity, take action, build confidence and thrive all in service of something bigger.
How Might Tom Help?
- My first invitation is to take maximum advantage of the free content on this site.
- As you are reading this, you are clearly on a fascinating journey. If you feel you would benefit from us doing some work together on some aspect of your journey, please explore this page: How Can I Serve?
- I also endeavour to answer every email so if you have any queries do reach out.
