{"id":1208,"date":"2012-06-19T19:44:53","date_gmt":"2012-06-19T19:44:53","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/earthsayers.tv\/sustainabilityadvocate\/?p=1208"},"modified":"2012-06-20T17:40:45","modified_gmt":"2012-06-20T17:40:45","slug":"my-best-advice-is-seek-out-and-listen-to-sustainability-leaders","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/earthsayers.tv\/sustainabilityadvocate\/?p=1208","title":{"rendered":"Seek Out and Learn from Sustainability Leaders"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>In a recent article, <a title=\"MIT\/Sloan Review Summer 2012\" href=\"https:\/\/earthsayers.tv\/sustainabilityadvocate\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/06\/HT-MIT-SUSTAINABLE-COMPANY.pdf\" target=\"_blank\"><em>How to Become a Sustainable Company<\/em><\/a>, in the Summer 2012 issue of the MIT\/Sloan Management Review they ask the question, &#8220;What differentiates sustainable companies from traditional ones?&#8221; To the answer in a minute.<\/p>\n<p>Although the article references commitment to sustainability, noting that few companies are born with it, an issue arises for me that goes beyond terminology and suggests a fundamental misunderstanding\u00a0 &#8211; to be a sustainable company is not equal to being a company committed to sustainability. <strong>The adjective, sustainable and the noun sustainability are not one in the same.<\/strong> Unfortunately, the former is what is popular in business, both public and private and the answer to the question above demonstrates what I mean. According to the article the differences are:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Sustainable organizations are effective at engaging with external stakeholders and employees<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li> They have cultures based on innovation and trust<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li> They have a track record of implementing large-scale change<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>These are <strong>not unique<\/strong> to sustainability nor to sustainable companies. Petroleum and\u00a0 toxin-based companies, for example, may be successful at all three and yet have no commitment to sustainability, to the seven generations, mired as their leadership may be in the short term, and, ultimately, in denial about global warming and the inability of an economic system that externalizes risk and costs to ever bounce back.<\/p>\n<p>Sustainability is a goal, a desire, a hope and it signifies the ABILITY to drive change, first, at the personal level. We need sustainability leaders to drive a sustainability culture in their organizations. This point is raised in the MIT\/Sloan report:<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\">&#8220;When leadership commitment drives the process, it usually comes from the personal resolution of a CEO to create a more sustainable company. In general, top-level executives have the ability to create an enterprise-wide vision and the clout to see that it is realized. Without this commitment, becoming a sustainable company is a \u201cnonstarter.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>While leadership commitment is talked about as critical,\u00a0 the report continues with the language of &#8221; leaders of traditional and sustainable companies&#8221; rather than <strong>sustainability leaders of companies<\/strong> directing our attention to how things are not working rather than <span style=\"color: #ff6600;\"><strong><span style=\"color: #333300;\">who is working<\/span><\/strong><\/span><strong>. <\/strong>Our sustainability leaders need to influence their &#8220;traditional&#8221; peers, first,\u00a0 to raise their consciousness as quickly as possible.\u00a0 There are two very effective ways to advance the personal and model the behavior that is desperately needed.<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #ff6600;\"><strong>Online Video <\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n<p><a rel=\"attachment wp-att-1211\" href=\"https:\/\/earthsayers.tv\/sustainabilityadvocate\/?attachment_id=1211\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignright size-full wp-image-1211\" title=\"Screen shot 2012-06-19 at 11.30.53 AM\" src=\"https:\/\/earthsayers.tv\/sustainabilityadvocate\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/06\/Screen-shot-2012-06-19-at-11.30.53-AM.png\" alt=\"Screen shot 2012-06-19 at 11.30.53 AM\" width=\"158\" height=\"150\" \/><\/a>Here&#8217;s an interview with <a title=\"Dominque Conseil\" href=\"http:\/\/www.earthsayers.com\/special_collection\/Changing_Our_Habits_by_Dominique_Conseil_of_Aveda\/15\/18144\" target=\"_blank\">Dominique Conseil<\/a> , Global President of <a title=\"Aveda's Mission\" href=\"http:\/\/www.aveda.com\/discover\/mission.tmplhttp:\/\/\" target=\"_blank\">Aveda<\/a> and <a title=\"EarthSayers.tv\" href=\"http:\/\/www.earthsayers.com\/special_collection\/The_Roots_of_Sustainability_Thinking_by_Karl-Henrik_Robert\/15\/14731http:\/\/\" target=\"_blank\">Karl-Henrik Robert<\/a> founder of the <a title=\"Natural Step\" href=\"hthttp:\/\/www.naturalstep.org\/tp:\/\/\" target=\"_blank\">Natural Step<\/a>, both sustainability leaders. Or listen to The Regeneration Project&#8217;s Ray Anderson Memorial video series, here is one video, <a title=\"Earthsayers.tv\" href=\"http:\/\/www.earthsayers.com\/special_collection\/Why_Meaningful_Progress_Depends_on_Activists--Spotlight_on_Civil_Society\/52\/23082\" target=\"_blank\"><em>Why Meaningful Progress Depends on Activists &#8211; Spotlight on Civil Society<\/em>,<\/a> featuring sustainability leaders <a title=\"Jonathon Porritt\" href=\"http:\/\/www.jonathonporritt.com\/\" target=\"_blank\"> Jonathon Porritt<\/a>, <a title=\"Vandana Shiva\" href=\"http:\/\/www.vandanashiva.org\/?page_id=2\" target=\"_blank\">Vandana Shiva<\/a>, <a title=\"Nitin Desai\" href=\"http:\/\/www.un.org\/News\/ossg\/sg\/stories\/desai_bio.html\" target=\"_blank\">Nitin Desai<\/a>, <a title=\"Lester Brown\" href=\"http:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=IvTCZ94ucqM\" target=\"_blank\">Lester Brown<\/a>, <a title=\"Bill Ford\" href=\"http:\/\/media.ford.com\/article_display.cfm?article_id=93\" target=\"_blank\">Bill Ford<\/a>, <a title=\"Kris Gopaladrishnan\" href=\"http:\/\/www.infosys.com\/about\/management-profiles\/pages\/s-gopalakrishnan.aspx\" target=\"_blank\">Kris Gopaladrishman<\/a>, <a title=\"Yoland Kakabadse\" href=\"http:\/\/wwf.panda.org\/who_we_are\/organization\/presidents\/\" target=\"_blank\">Yolanda Kakabadse<\/a> and <a title=\"Gro Harlem Brundtland\" href=\"http:\/\/www.un.org\/News\/dh\/hlpanel\/brundtland-bio.htm\" target=\"_blank\">Gro Harlem Brundtland<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p><strong><span style=\"color: #ff6600;\">Online Video and Research<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n<div>Dr. David Hall of Portland State University stepped out of the box and advanced the personal by producing a series of sustainability leadership videos as part of his research called Native Perspectives. <a title=\"Voices of Salmon Nation\" href=\"http:\/\/www.nativeperspectives.net\/\" target=\"_blank\">Here<\/a> you can listen to the indigenous voices, sustainability leaders, of the Salmon Nation.<\/div>\n<p><span style=\"color: #ff6600;\"><strong>Face-to-Face<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n<p><a title=\"The Regeneration Project\" href=\"http:\/\/theregenerationproject.com\/http:\/\/\" target=\"_blank\">The Regeneration Project<\/a>,  between July and October, will host a number of Salons \u2013 curated,   facilitated conversations <a rel=\"attachment wp-att-1212\" href=\"https:\/\/earthsayers.tv\/sustainabilityadvocate\/?attachment_id=1212\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignright size-full wp-image-1212\" title=\"sustainability leaders\" src=\"https:\/\/earthsayers.tv\/sustainabilityadvocate\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/06\/sustainability-leaders.png\" alt=\"sustainability leaders\" width=\"237\" height=\"234\" \/><\/a>with influential stakeholders from across   industry and sector. <a title=\"The Regeneration Project\" href=\"http:\/\/theregenerationproject.com\/events\/http:\/\/\" target=\"_blank\">These Salons<\/a> will take place in major international  cities across  the world. Attendance is to be limited\u00a0 to approximately  50 people, on  an invitation-only basis.\u00a0 Great work and hopefully the start of  something fresh in sustainability awareness, education, and innovation.\u00a0  The project is an inititiave of <a title=\"GlobeScan\" href=\"http:\/\/www.globescan.com\/expertise\/expertise-overview.html\" target=\"_blank\">GlobeScan<\/a>, a public opinion research company and <a title=\"Sustainability Think Tank\" href=\"http:\/\/www.sustainability.com\/\" target=\"_blank\">Sustainability<\/a>, a think tank and strategy consultancy.<\/p>\n<p>All of this is to say go ahead and read the research digging into sustainable companies,\u00a0 <span style=\"color: #ff6600;\">but give more time to listening to your peers <\/span>who are  sustainability leaders, pioneers, heroes, and innovators.\u00a0 Look for research and events that emphasize the personal over organizational. Rely less on processed information when you can now hear directly from the  sustainability leadership as found in the hundreds of companies that  are <a title=\"bcorporations\" href=\"http:\/\/www.bcorporation.net\/\" target=\"_blank\">for-benefit<\/a> and in the hundreds of voices of sustainability from across the Web, the reason we invested in bringing together these voices for you in one place,<a title=\"earthsayers.tv\" href=\"http:\/\/www.earthsayers.com\/\" target=\"_blank\"> EarthSayers.tv<\/a>, voices of sustainability.<\/p>\n<p>Ruth Ann Barrett, Sustainability Advocate, June 19, 2012, Portland, Oregon.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>More research from MIT\/Sloan Management on &#8220;How to Become a Sustainable Company&#8221; which is the old school question to ask.  How to Become a sustainability leader and using research about their companies is a better teacher, but our educational institutions don&#8217;t give much &#8220;credit&#8221;  to finding and garnering the voices of sustainability when it comes to research.  Our learning is constrained and sustainability awareness stunted by outdated approaches to conveying management expertise and leadership thinking relying instead on highly processed, printed information and, in this case especially, a focus on sustainable organizations, rather than sustainability leadership. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[361,435,5],"tags":[450,452,166,451,456,119,457,421,198,161,454,449,422,367,117,453,146,384,666,115,455,220,448,458],"class_list":["post-1208","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-culture-and-consciousness","category-leadership-sustainability","category-sustainability","tag-academics","tag-aveda","tag-b-corporations","tag-dominique-conseil","tag-dr-david-hall","tag-earthsayers-tv","tag-globescan","tag-karl-henrik-robert","tag-leaders","tag-leadership","tag-memorial-video-series","tag-mitsloan-managment","tag-natural-step","tag-online-videos","tag-portland-state-university","tag-ray-anderson","tag-research","tag-ruth-ann-barrett","tag-sustainability","tag-sustainability-advocate","tag-sustainability-pioneers","tag-sustainable","tag-the-regeneration-project","tag-think-tank"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/earthsayers.tv\/sustainabilityadvocate\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1208","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/earthsayers.tv\/sustainabilityadvocate\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/earthsayers.tv\/sustainabilityadvocate\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/earthsayers.tv\/sustainabilityadvocate\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/earthsayers.tv\/sustainabilityadvocate\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1208"}],"version-history":[{"count":19,"href":"https:\/\/earthsayers.tv\/sustainabilityadvocate\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1208\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1217,"href":"https:\/\/earthsayers.tv\/sustainabilityadvocate\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1208\/revisions\/1217"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/earthsayers.tv\/sustainabilityadvocate\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1208"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/earthsayers.tv\/sustainabilityadvocate\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1208"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/earthsayers.tv\/sustainabilityadvocate\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1208"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}