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Beyond the Greenwash - can we ensure Global Sustainability?

Mon, 21/07/2008 - 13:20 — Ronald Forbes

Ronald ForbesThis is the first blog in a ‘Sustainability Insight' online series created by the Society for Sustainable Business - a group of business and academic professionals motivated to provide leadership to accelerate the change to an economically viable, environmentally sustainable and socially healthy society.

As the pressure to be green and to do green, heats up, we run into two major questions:

1. What criteria do we use to choose the route we follow?

2. How do we know that we are successful?

Let's deal with the criteria. Any green measures may have pluses and minuses. We are working with a system that is not just the region, the state or the nation, but one that is ultimately global. How can we get to a level where the decisions we take are in the best interests of people everywhere and the environment?

There is only one way that I have found, and that is to define an Ideal Vision for the world that we and our grandchildren's children would be happy to live in. This was the idea of Professor Emeritus Roger Kaufman of Florida State University in 1992. Kaufman has tested this proposition on five continents with different political systems, different religions and different races, and has found an amazing degree of unanimity about the future that people really want.

So what do they agree on? They agree on: no war, no disease, no crime, no accidents, and they want health, happiness and a chance to live out their potential. There is also a growing concern for the environment.

Is this just ‘idealistic'? Think of the Ideal Vision as a guiding star towards which we get closer as we go. And please note that it is measurable - there are even surveys to determine the happiness of populations, as well as their health and ecological footprints.

This is the first step in choosing the way forward, and measuring our progress.

For more on the Ideal Vision, see World of Tomorrow's Child.

Next time I will take up the practical planning methodology that follows from this.

Managing Director of Leaderskill Group, Ronald Forbes has led projects ranging from scientific and educational research to systems and system consulting in Australia, the United States and Latin America. He has degrees in geology and geophysics from London, Paris and UCLA, is an Associate Fellow of the Australian Human Resources Institute and Associate Fellow of the Australian Institute of Management. Dr Forbes is a Foundation Member of the Society for Sustainable Business.

http://www.drronforbes.com/

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The Society For Sustainable Business (SSB) is a vehicle for multi-disciplinary professionals and their organisations to network, exchange ideas, support one another, build partnerships, and to dialogue on the technical, social and practical aspects of achieving sustainability.

Major goals include the creation of a network of qualified change agents who will give presentations, forums and workshops to senior business leaders, as well as provide presentations, education and workshops to business professionals at all levels.

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Comments

Mon, 04/08/2008 - 20:06 — Ronald Forbes

Higher ground for decision making

It's interesting that no one has added their bit to this. Does that mean that those who read it think that it's enough just to "do green" and hope it will all work out in the end? Or do they think that there is no higher level we can agree on where we can assess potential green actions, prioritise them in terms of the overall effects they will have (both positive and negative), and make wise choices? Or perhaps they think this is all too idealistic?

Frankly, I took up the cause of the Ideal Vision because I see it as the best way to bring together all kinds of different people and disparate groups to change our social-environmental system for the better. If anyone has a better way, I would really like to hear about it. And if you have anything to say about what I have presented so far - for better or worse - your comments would be welcome.

I note the suggestion "to find common ground, move to higher ground"
(E. Franklin Dukes, Marina A. Piscolish, and John B. Stephens. "Reaching for Higher Ground" in Conflict Resolution: Tools for Powerful Groups and Communities. San Francisco: Jossey Bass, 2000).

Pause for comment ...

Mon, 04/08/2008 - 20:56 — Ronald Forbes

What the Ideal Vision

What the Ideal Vision immediately suggests is that there is something that each of it can contribute to it, just as there are things we do that detract from achieving it. In other words, it offers a total framework for setting objectives and measuring results.

The first question to ask is simply:

What part of the Ideal Vision do you commit to contribute to? There are endless possibilities - health, happiness, learning, safety... Choose one or more and describe it in your own terms. From that you build your plan at the Mega level. Hence Roger Kaufman called his entire process MegaPlanning. The Mega level is the challenge that goes well beyond ‘how can you (or your organisation) be successful’ and asks how will you make the world you operate in successful?

The second question is:

What are you doing now that goes against the Ideal Vision? Non-renewable resources, cumulative pollution, ill-health, accidents, poverty and much more. Here is the other side of the challenge, how will you change your way of operating to eliminate these negatives?

Critical to MegaPlanning is measurement. You must know where you are now and where you want to get to, you have to know the gaps you want to close and you must measure your progress along the way.

However, before you start moving, it’s essential to prioritise where you put your resources and efforts. This is the point at which we may run into factional conflict and political confusion. Prioritisation requires clear thinking. Perhaps the best tool is Cost/Consequence Analysis. Applying this to each step of the way can bring out the priorities and distinguish between what must done long-term and what requires immediate attention.

Next time we will begin to cascade MegaPlanning to the nuts and bolts levels where everyone can use it.
Wed, 13/08/2008 - 12:34 — Ronald Forbes

Is Sustainability Enough?

Most people in business realise that reducing greenhouse and loss of species will only occur if there is some profit in it, or at the very least no loss. The very word ‘sustainability’ suggests that we are just treading water, not sinking. Because all the metrics tell us that we are actually sinking, sustainability seems all that we can hope for at the present time.
In contrast, MegaPlanning accepts sustainability as part of the Ideal Vision – like Hippocrates ‘Do no harm’, it's a starting point. But the real aim is to do some good, i.e. mobilise our enthusiasm and creativity to move our whole society forward to the point were we go far beyond sustainability and actually take control of the future. And there has to be financial gain in that or it won’t happen. ‘Sustainable’ is just the baseline below which we cannot allow ourselves to fall.
MegaPlanning lays out the future we agree on and gives us every opportunity to play within it, using our creativity to the full – provided always that we do not contradict any part of the Ideal Vision by our actions.
And that leads us to how we make this happen: Cascading the MegaPlan – next time.
Thu, 21/08/2008 - 10:54 — Ronald Forbes

Cascading the Strategy

If you have decided on the future you want for your children's children and selected the part that you plan to contribute, then you have created a strategy that should be proof against new social and environmental regulations. It will make you the market leader into the future, and also the best practice upon which new regulations will be created.

All that remains is to cascade the Strategy throughout your organisation in such a way that it informs decision making at every level. To do this is has to be a ‘one pager' that anyone should be able to refer to.

Our definitions are:

The Mega level - what we will contribute to society and the environment

The Macro level - how we will measure our success in doing this.

The Micro level - what divisions, teams and individuals will achieve to contribute to this success (Macro), while also contributing to and fitting within the Mega level.

With Objectives set at these levels, what remains is the ‘how to do it' part, defined as:

Processes - what we will be doing, our processes and activities.

Inputs - what we will require to operate them: the people, knowledge, skills, the material and financial resources, etc.

Note that Inputs and Processes can only be justified by the contribution they make at the three levels.

MegaPlanning goes far beyond a well intentioned aim to be ‘sustainable'. It points to a better future, gets us involved in creating it, and ensures that people at all levels (and our external stakeholders) understand it.

Articles can be found at www.360facilitated.com/articles.html

Thu, 21/08/2008 - 14:34 — Andrew Gaines

Tomorrow's child has already been born

I think it is a valid principle to integrate consideration of the kind of world we want to leave for ‘tomorrow's child' into present day planning - especially since tomorrow's child has already been born and will experience the consequences - beneficial or horrible - of decisions we make collectively today.

Yours for a world that works,

Andrew Gaines

Alliance for Sustainable Wellbeing
Accelerating the transition to a viable society
(02) 4782-200

andrew.gaines@alliance4swb.com.au