The Wheel of Change Towards Sustainability

This article by Bob Doppelt identifies seven key ‘sustainability blunders’ made by organisations trying to reduce their impact on the environment, and 7 interventions to remedy these. It also looks at sustainable governance systems, and their role in implementing an organisation culture of sustainability.

To achieve environmental sustainability, Doppelt argues in his article ‘Overcoming the Seven Sustainability Blunders’, requires organisations to re-think and revise the way they operate, moving away from a linear ‘cradle to grave’ production mentality in which goods and services have a limited use and lifespan, towards a circular ‘cradle to cradle’ mentality.

The ‘blunders’ identified relate to common pitfalls made by organisations seeking to improve their management of environmental and socio-economic issues, which impede the creation of an organisational sustainability culture.

The blunders include: employing a patriarchal approach to governance, wherein employees only do what they are told to by management; having a ‘silo approach’ to environmental and socio-economic issues, rather than a holistic approach; and, the lack of a clear vision about what is trying to be achieved.

The Wheel of Change

For each blunder, Doppelt suggests 7 ‘interventions’ to remedy the ‘blunders’, using case studies as examples.

‘The Wheel of Change Toward Sustainability’ shows how the seven interventions interact to form a continuous reinforcing process of transformation toward sustainability.

Sustainable Governance Systems

The article concludes with a description of sustainable governance systems, based on the premise that: ‘For an organisation to make the kind of transformation required to become truly sustainable, power and authority must be skilfully distributed among  employees and stakeholders through effective information-sharing, decision-making, and resource allocation mechanisms.’

Follow this link to Overcoming the Seven Sustainability Blunders (opens in a new browser window)