It's time to give your leadership
Bruce Nixon
Veteran Change Agent & Author
Bruce Nixon sets out an impassioned argument for sustainable business leadership in the face of the biggest crisis the world has ever faced – climate change.
Leadership is needed, more than ever before. Our eyes need to be wide open to what is going on in the world. It’s difficult, working as a change agent within an organisation, putting one’s living and career on the line. Yet you are important: change happens from within organisations as well as from outside. It requires both courage and astuteness. I know from personal experience of working in the City for eighteen years, later consulting to many organisations. Most organisations respect courage. To help you meet the challenge, here is my thinking, much of it rooted in my experience as an OD consultant.
We face the biggest crisis in recent human history
Recent floods in the UK have brought it home to us. Every day there is more news about the potentially devastating effects of climate change. Both businesses and individuals will be affected. The Stern Review1 warns that the global economic cost of climate change to business and governments could eventually reach 20% of world GDP. The scientific consensus is that the environmental crisis is man made, largely caused by CO2 and methane emissions. Even if, as some argue, it’s mainly down to solar activity, we still face a crisis. It’s more complex than just climate change. The two big issues are:
• We are destroying the planet
• Poverty.
The degradation of the planet and poverty are inseparably linked. Climate change is a symptom of a broader and deeper malaise. The universe is trying to teach us a big lesson.
We are consuming and destroying the planet’s resources at an unsustainable rate
We’re taking more than our fair share. London’s “footprint” is huge: it requires 125 times its surface area to provide its needs. If everyone consumed like “Westerners”, we would need three planets. Most countries aspire to this unsustainable way of life.
We face soil degradation, increasing pollution and growing shortages of fossil fuels, food, land and water – already leading to conflicts. We have exported much of our manufacturing with all the pollution problems, to poorer, developing countries, less able to operate sustainably.
Sustainability also includes global economic and social justice
We know the facts: millions living in poverty and starvation, afflicted with disease much of which could easily be prevented or cured. Millions of children die or their lives are stunted by lack of education and opportunity. Millions live in fear and insecurity generated by violence.
There can be no security without global economic justice and respect for difference. The “West” is largely unaware of its violent militarism and the effects of its huge military economy. It created the threat of nuclear annihilation. Unfair foreign policies create hostility and contribute to international “terrorism”. These problems affect business and countries like ours in many ways.
Growth isn’t working
Economic growth isn’t working as a means of reducing poverty. Certainly some countries, like Singapore, have been lifted out of poverty but in many cases, this has not been achieved through free trade2. A one-size-fits-all approach to reducing poverty flies in the face of economic history.
As a means of reducing poverty, rapid economic growth is unsustainable, inefficient and too slow. Between 1990 and 2001, for every $100 of growth in the world’s per person income, only $0.60 contributed to reducing poverty below the $1 a day level. It is making a growing elite of super rich vastly richer, raising the incomes of middle classes and wealthier nations. It is also rapidly fuelling climate change, global warming and the degradation of the planet. It is creating problems everywhere, most of all in poor countries and in the poorer areas of developed countries.
Britain is the 4th wealthiest economy
The success of the UK economy comes at a cost. It is partly based on London’s attractiveness as a place for billionaires to live and make money. The murkier side of the City’s financial expertise includes tax avoidance and evasion, offshore tax havens and money laundering. The rich pay least proportionately.
Disproportionate wealth contributes to the problem of unaffordable housing in London and similar problems in the countryside. The happiest countries tend to have more equal income distribution. In the seventies, incomes were getting more equal; now the reverse is happening. Sourcing for “lowest cost” externalises and does not count social, health and environmental costs. The UK ranks low on most measures of wellbeing. Social mobility in Britain is worse than other advanced countries and declining.
The challenge
Reversing climate change
We need to cut CO2 emissions to a sustainable world average of 3 tonnes per person. Yet, emissions are rapidly rising. Wealthy countries pollute most – poor countries least. People in the UK and the EU account for 12.5 tonnes (average) greenhouse gases per year and rising; US and Canada some 20 tonnes; China four tonnes; India two tonnes and sub Saharan Africa less than one tonne. Individuals are directly responsible for 44% of CO2 emissions – indirectly we are responsible for far more.
The EU and the UK need to reduce their emissions by 80% (some argue 90%) and we do have the capability and technological skills to achieve this. Seen by other nations to have created the problem, we need to set an example and help poorer nations. It’s our turn to help the world.
We all need to act decisively and urgently
The momentum is gathering. Business really is responding and a huge amount of change is going on. But it is not happening fast enough. Government strategy is not joined up. People, companies and government are taking steps, but too little, too slowly to avoid catastrophe. UK government schemes are having too little impact. Government needs to set an example, provide enabling legislation and remove obstacles, reward the sustainable and make it affordable for everyone, penalise the unsustainable, nurture nascent technology and help make “going green” profitable. We can’t wait for or blame others. Everyone has to take personal responsibility and use their purchasing and “people” power.
Businesses that respond to the challenge can enhance profitability and their competitive position. Interface, a worldwide company producing floor coverings, fabrics for airliner seats, speciality chemicals and interior architectural products is a good example of a sustainable businesses. Interface’s principle is “do well by doing good” says Ray Anderson, Chairman and founder of Interface. Companies like this are a minority but their number is growing, often from small beginnings. Sustainability is at the heart of Interface – it aims for a “zero footprint” and is more than half way there, helping to create a host of sustainable companies in its
supply chain along the way.
Why are we so slow to respond to this crisis?
Why do years of successive summits, meetings and concerts produce so little action? Part of the answer is inertia, fear of change and vested interests. Complex changes take time to emerge. An unsustainable economic system influenced by big business and militarism and driven by powerful elites, large corporations and unrepresentative global institutions (World Bank, World Trade Organisation and IMF) is at the root of the crisis. Using GDP as a measure of progress combined with an uncritical belief in globalisation as the way to end poverty contributes to the perpetuation of this system.
It is little use addressing symptoms. Instead we need to see the “whole system” and identify the underlying issues. We are part of a living system, an interacting relationship between the planet and all living things on it, which cannot be controlled like a machine. Living systems hit back hard if not respected.
We need a new economic system and reformed global institutions, focused on the key worldwide priorities: protecting the planet; eliminating poverty and violence; meeting human needs; offering meaningful work and balanced lives for everyone. It requires fair, not free, trade and the freedom of each country, with support from richer ones, to develop its own unique way – not having free trade and privatisation imposed on it before developing its own agriculture and industries. It may seem daunting but we created the system and we can change it.
What we need to do
We need to transform the way we live. We need a total change of awareness and consciousness. It means consuming less – that does not mean fewer jobs – just different ones; minimising use of non-renewable and non-biodegradable resources; avoiding toxic substances and products that cannot be recycled.
Principles for sustainability:
• Reduce
• Recycle
• Reuse
• Repair.
A prudent “Green” strategy makes money, regardless of ethics. Sherwood Energy Village3, created on a former colliery site, provides a site for industry, housing, recreation and education is another example of a successful, sustainable business. It exemplifies energy efficiency, promotion of renewable energy and biodiversity in all developments.
There are five spheres in which we need to work: in ourselves, the source from which change begins; our family and home; our community; our workplace; the world.
How can trainers as catalysts make change happen?
1. First, be the change. Change begins within and in your own home. Decide who you are; what really matters to you, your values and purpose. Why are you on this earth? Follow your energy and do what you feel passionate about. Prioritise what is most important to you. Own up to your deficiencies and take responsibility for them.
2. Lead transformation in your workplace. This means being a change agent.
3. Finally, be a global citizen. Lobby. Press for local, national and global change. Use your purchasing power. Play a part in your community. It is your responsibility to have your eyes wide open and be fully informed.
Here is an approach that works. It applies to your workplace but equally in your community, including the world.
Getting sustainability into the heart of your workplace and society
• Prepare the ground for change.
• Spread a philosophy of seeing opportunities in the big issues.
• Be a trustworthy mentor. Make friendships amongst leaders; get alongside the CEO; listen to people; ask them how they would like things to be; how they think the business is helping and where it is doing harm.
• Work with the energy for change, “crusading forces” – also listen to and respect “restraining forces”.
• Facilitate co-creation. Bring key stakeholders together. Challenge them to think it through. Help them: identify the big issues; grasp the opportunities; study what’s working inside the organisation and elsewhere; articulate inspiring vision and outcomes; examine and make the case; and implement successful strategies for change.
• Develop leaders of leaders.
• Help people review, evaluate and learn from what works, not working and what needs to be done differently. Celebration, giving and receiving appreciation, fuels energy and recovery from setbacks and learning.
• Sustain yourself. Take inspiration from good models. Allow time to reflect and renew. Get yourself friends who will tell you the truth – even if you may not like it.
References
1. Stern Review,
www.hm-treasury.gov.uk/independent_reviews/
stern_review_economics_climate_change/sternreview_summary.cfm
2. NEF report, Growth Isn’t Working, June 2007
3. Sherwood Energy Village www.sev.org.uk/about-us/energy-village-concept
Further reading
Go radical. Here are some suggested campaigns to support if you want to help change the system and save the planet – Google for websites:
1. Agriculture, Not Agribusiness (Soil Association, Garden Organic, Vandana Shiva)
2. Company Law Reform to Embrace the Interests of the Environment & Society as a Whole (Centre for Tomorrow’s Company)
3. Ending Poverty - Global Trade - A Radically New Framework (Christian Aid, Oxfam, World Development Movement)
4. Localisation, Power to Local Communities, Local Healthy Food, Restoring High Streets & Communities (New Economics Foundation, Local Works, Ecologist, Transition Towns).
5. Reforming Democracy - Giving More Power to Local Communities, Giving Greater Power to Parliament to Prevent the Executive Withholding Information & Overriding the Wishes of Citizens – Going to War (Pressure Works, New Politics Network’s Power to the People, WriteToThem.com)
6. Sustainable Buildings, Cities, Communities & Transportation (Friends of the Earth, Herbert Girardet CitiesPeoplePlanet - Liveable Cities for a Sustainable World & Transport, 2000)
7. New Economics (New Economics Foundation, James Robertson Working for a Sane Alternative)
8. Violence - Resolving Conflict Non-Violently (Oxfam, CND, Greenpeace)
9. How to Live a Low-Carbon Life, Earthscan (Goodall, C 2007)
10. Heat, How to Stop the Planet Burning, (Montbiot, G 2006, Allen Lane)
Useful sources of help
• ACORN: www.iema.net/acorn (first steps to an environmental management system)
• Carbon Trust - energy and carbon: www.carbontrust.co.uk
• Envirowise - waste and water: www.envirowise.gov.uk
• Friends of the Earth: www.foe.co.uk
• Getting your house in order: www.imc.co.uk/news/professional_consultancy_article.php?item_id=654&issue=18
• Good Corporation - wider than just environment, an audit-type assessment: www.goodcorporation.com
• More sources on sustainability and change: www.brucenixon.com
Bruce Nixon is a veteran change agent and author (www.brucenixon.com, brucenixon@waitrose.com)
His latest book Living System – Making Sense of Sustainability, forewords by Anita Roddick and Meg Wheatley, is published by Management Books, 2000.
To purchase this book for a special price of £13.50 per copy, p&p free (normal price £14.99 plus p&p), simply call: 01285-771441/2 or email: mb2000@btconnect.com and mention The Training Manager’s Yearbook.
web: www.mb2000.com
Also available in bookshops and www.amazon.co.uk
First published in The Training Manager's Yearbook 2008, October 2007