Sustainability - what does it mean?
So what does Sustainability actually mean then? It would seem from reading through the press and CSR literature different things to different people and organisations. In the olden days we would take the tried and trusted ( or should that mean tired and dusty) English Oxford Dictionary meaning almost as gospel however perhaps nowadays we would turn to the global world for comment by referring to a Wikipedia definition:
"an attempt to provide the best outcomes for the human and natural environments both now and into the indefinite future. It relates to the continuity of economic, social, institutional and environmental aspects of human society, as well as the non-human environment. It is intended to be a means of configuring civilization and human activity so that society, its members and its economies are able to meet their needs and express their greatest potential in the present, while preserving biodiversity and natural ecosystems, and planning and acting for the ability to maintain these ideals in a very long term. Sustainability affects every level of organization, from the local neighborhood to the entire planet.Sustainability is an attempt to provide the best outcomes for the human and natural environments both now and into the indefinite future..."
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sustainability
1 comment:
The whole field of sustainability is important to us all, so pleased that your focus is there.
Much ground breaking work has been done but some of it is not as well known as it deserves to be (IMHO). Models of sustainability that are based on natural living systems seem to be the way to go, we can learn from nature about how we can interact to generate long lived organisations that are harmonious with their environment. Possibly the most advanced thinking in this area was done in MBS and Liverpool John Moores by Stafford Beer. His Viable System Model (VSM) and Syntegration stand out from the background. The VSM is a way of thinking about organisation as a living system. It is based on the way our autonomic nervous system works and is a rigorous, thoroughly researched and tested approach that is equally at home modelling and managing a small organisation, a multinational, the health service or an orchestra. The same principles apply when you look at all of them from a viability (being able to maintain an independent existence) perspective.
Syntegration is a way for a group of people to work together without hierarchy to tackle complex problems. I normally cover Syntegration as part of the Future Thinking lecture but we ran out of time. I have included some slide ware about it in the Future Thinking slides.
My colleague Patrick Hoverstadt will cover the VSM in his lecture. The best definition of the VSM I know of is "The Master Organising Idea". To date I have only seen other approaches fit in the VSM, not the other way around. Chasm, Scenario thinking and the like are all subsumed by it. It was designed by Stafford to be a way of generating requisite variety - he and Ross Ashby were close colleagues.
I could go on (who me?) for ages about Stafford's work, it represents possibly the most advanced management thinking of all. Worth a look....
cheers
ian
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