Understanding sustainability

We are part of nature, but our culture leads us to think and behave in ways that deny this reality with disastrous results.

Sustainability leadership requires a deep emotional and psychological shift in how we understand and relate to rest of the living world.

We live in a society that glorifies the worst of human nature, making us believe that people are inherently selfish.

This suppresses our natural instinct to look after each other. By recognising the reality that people are kind and caring we can break this vicious cycle.

There is no fundamental shortage of the resources needed for good lives for all.

By tackling over-consumption by the few, and switching our focus to what really determines wellbeing, natural systems will recover, allowing us and the rest of the living world to flourish together.

We to need re-imagine and re-shape the economy so that we can all thrive in the environmentally safe and socially just space between the environmental ceiling of our planet and the social foundations of our society.

We need a mental model to help us understand how change happens and to know if our work on sustainability is helping bring about positive, enduring change.

The Three Horizons of Change Model really helps.

The Three Horizons model offers an overview of the landscape of change. Ripples and Cascades helps us work out where in that landscape we can be most effective.