leadership for sustainability - realizing opportunities in a time of great change

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Leadership for Sustainability

Realizing Opportunities in a Time of Great Change

Christer Söderberg

Open World Foundation

European Professional Women's Network / Oracle Women’s Leadership Network

Stockholm, September 9, 2013


The Big Picture

Where are we now?

Sustainability & Resilience

Quality

Leadership & Responsibility

Classical vs. Quantum Physics

Collaborative Coalitions for a Healthy Planet


”Minds are like parachutes, they only function when open.” - Frank Zappa


”To live inside that system and to actually feel it in your body was an amazing experience. Your body understood that you shouldn’t damage the plants – it was inconceivable, and you didn’t need to be reminded.” - Mark Nelson,”bionaut” From the book ”What Has Nature Ever Done For Us?” By Tony Juniper, page 23

http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Biosphere_2_-_1998_a.jpg


Sustainable Development

“Sustainable Development meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs.” - 1987 Report of the World Commission on Environment and Development: Our Common Future, by Gro Harlem-Brundtland


Human growth 20/80 dilemma

Ecosystems 60 % loss dilemma

Climate 550/450/350

dilemma

Surprise 9/11 dilemma

”The Quadruple Squeeze”

Stockholm Resilience Center, Courtesy Johan Rockström


Stockholm Resilience Center, Courtesy Johan Rockström


World Energy Outlook 2010, International Energy Agency


•  Shenandoah-2/Gulf of Mexico - 15 billion barrels of oil. •  Harpoon Discovery/Newfoundland - estimated to hold

between 100 million and 200 million barrels of oil. •  Offshore Cote d'Ivoire - potential reserves eclipsing 1.8

billion barrels. •  Gullfaks, North Sea - on 40-150 million recoverable BOE •  Santos Basin/Libra, Brazil - 12-15 billion barrels •  Coronado Prospect/Gulf of Mexico - The scale of the

reserves is still under appraisal for commercial viability

150 days

2 days

18 days 1.5 days

150 days

n/a

Total: 321.5 days


(The Guardian, April 26, 2013)

Paradigm Shift ?

”…IMF authors say it’s quite possible that a decent-sized decline in oil production could have “dramatic” effects that could prove very, very difficult for the world to adjust to.”


Paradigm Shift ?


Is Sustainability Still Possible?


Name top three ways your company positively impacts eco-systems.

1. 2. 3.


Resilience:

“Resilience is the capacity of a system to continually change and adapt yet remain within critical thresholds.” (Resilience refers to the capacity of a social-ecological system both to withstand perturbations from for instance climate or economic shocks and to rebuild and renew itself afterwards.) - 2008, Stockholm Resilience Center, Resilience Theory, as developed by Buzz Hollings


”… supply reductions of this magnitude would require a more than 200 percent increase of the oil price on impact, and an 800 percent increase over 20 years.” - IMF Working Paper: Oil and the World Economy: Some Possible Futures, Michael Kumhof and Dirk Muir, October 2012


Acknowledging the effect of our cognitive biases may be the first step towards building resilience against a future perfect storm of economic and environmental challenges. -  World Economic Forum, Global Risks Report

2013, p. 20


http://www.solarsystemquick.com/the_sun.htm


Quality? The standard of something as measured against other things of a similar kind; the degree of excellence of something: an improvement in product quality -  http://oxforddictionaries.com/definition/english/quality

In manufacturing, a measure of excellence or a state of being free from defects, deficiencies and significant variations. - http://www.businessdictionary.com/definition/quality.html#ixzz2e7ahg1QN

Quality (business), the non-inferiority or superiority of something Quality (philosophy), an attribute or a property -  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quality


Attributes? Criteria? Qualities of Quality? •  The Soil? •  The Water? •  The Air?


Example 1: Soil Solutions BioChar: •  Waste Management •  Water Retention •  Soil Fertility •  CO2 Sequestration


Example 2: Water Solutions Plant Trees: Recover springs Restore wildlife Increase biodiversity Generate income = Resilience


Example 3: Emissions Electric cars Public transport Trains = Lower costs


Questions:

Infinite growth on a finite planet?

What can we do?


Name top three renewable resources used by your company.

1. 2. 3.


The Good News: Transition Towns Movement http://www.transitionnetwork.org/

Global Ecovillage Movement http://gen-europe.org

Wiser Earth Movement http://www.wiser.org

The Internet – the inter-connected world


”We are drowning in information, while starving for wisdom.” -  E. O. Wilson, Evolutionary Biologist


Leadership

Courage

Responsibility (Response-Ability)

Healthy Planet - Healthy People - Healthy Profits


Painting by: Robert Storm Pedersen


Leadership:

Leadership is first and foremost about who you are; know yourself, and walk your talk,

. . . and be your ultimate potential

P = p – i

What is in your way? (Performance = potential – interference - Timothy Gallwey, The Inner Game)


”Every great and deep difficulty bears in itself its own solution. It forces us to change our thinking in order to find it.” – Niels Bohr


Classical vs. Quantum Mechanics Classical mechanics consists of the work done in the areas of chemistry and physics prior to the 20th century. This includes the organization of the periodic table, thermodynamics, the wave theory of light, and Newtonian mechanics. Quantum mechanics was born out of the inability of classical mechanics to reconcile theory with experiment. -  UC Davis http://chemwiki.ucdavis.edu/Physical_Chemistry/Quantum_Mechanics/Classical_vs._Quantum_Mechanics


Quantum Field Theory Quantum field theory is the language in which all of modern physics is formulated. It represents the marriage of quantum mechanics with special relativity and provides the mathematical framework in which to describe the creation and destruction of hoards of particles as they pop in and out of their ethereal existence and interact. -  University of Cambridge http://www.damtp.cam.ac.uk/user/tong/research.html


”The observer is the observed.” - J. Krishnamurti


Scene from ”A Beautiful Mind”, 2001. Directed by Ron Howard. With Russell Crowe, Ed Harris, Jennifer Connelly, Christopher Plummer.


Nash Equilibrium: ”The best result comes, from everyone in the group doing what’s best for himself, and for the group.” (A group of players are in Nash equilibrium if each one is making the best decision that he or she can, taking into account the decisions of the others.)


Name top three ways your company touches the heart of employees & customers:

1. 2. 3.


Collaborative Coalition

A practical example


Name top three sustainability/resilience projects/initiatives in your company.

1. 2. 3.


Tipping Point or Turning Point?


Thank You !

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