The following essay is reposted from The Wind of Change.
Author Unknown
Einstein said “no apparently insoluble problem can be resolved by the same order or level of thinking as that which created the problem.” In terms of our relationship with the planet, the word “sustainability” usually refers to economic growth and the associated rate of resource consumption and waste assimilation. The motivation and focus , even of those in the environment business (a very revealing term) is still profit maximisation . This is just “more of the same” in terms of our thinking—there is no sustainable change – Why? Because people haven’t changed. Change starts on the inside. Meanwhile researchers not under the influence of global corporations advise us that we have fifty years remaining until global climatic meltdown . See “The Ecologist” Volume 29, No2 Spring 99 . This special issue is given over entirely to the climate crisis and associated global politics.
A paradigm shift is required from “development” and profit maximisation for all, to selective growth for some, realignment for others, and optimal profits for all with “respect” to the local community. Pollution of the environmental and human communities (the two are inseparable) cannot be resolved in any fundamental way with “more of the same” in terms of our way of thinking. Sustainability is “in my back yard only” ie the sustainability of my profit margin, whereas self sustenance embraces adjoining communities as part of the one system. Whilst the planet serves business, and not the other way around , nothing will ever change permanently. This is thinking with the head, and not the heart. The heart of the matter is the matter of the heart! The heart of Mother Earth is a different order of thinking all together. It could be said to be almost childlike, but it is not naive!
Much of the effort thus far has been grant funded whether European or local, or is often targeted only at initiatives which yield a financial return. In terms of short term outcome this is laudable but it is not an investment in sustainable change—of people! There is no other type of sustainable change, so lets stop measuring our children’s inheritance against “the green back”—and finding it wanting!
What happens when the grants dry up and the initial potential for quick financial paybacks become more difficult? Are present measures even keeping pace with the rate of increase in pollution? We still think with our heads and not with our hearts. Most environmentally aware businesses act from a profit or survival motive and not from altruism, with conservation seen primarily as yet another business opportunity. How many “environment business” organisations are in it primarily for the sake of Mother Earth? How naive ! No more so than going blindly on to an environmental Armageddon on the wave of “bloody” good profits and fat grants. It is going to take a little heartburn without the antacid of grants to stabilise our intake of resources. We, as a community, the business community included, need to accept responsibility for sacrificing the earth , and it quite rightly requires a sacrifice from us. Only thus will the balance be permanently redressed. Accepting grants is not accepting responsibility.
We have lost faith in ourselves as a race and as custodians of the planet. We hide behind the false security of sustainable profits. Sustainable change on the other hand, starts in the heart of individuals, not necessarily “directors”, as part of the polluted local community system in which all stakeholders have a voice. Most importantly the ultimate customer; the child—the ultimate beneficiary (?)
Total Quality initiatives pride themselves in establishing the customer’s needs and even involving the customer in the product specification etc. Yet when it comes to the ultimate product (survival) and the ultimate customer (our own children) we go grab our money bags and say “it’s my ball (planet) and you’re not playing! How naive can we get? The forgotten untapped resource, the emergent characteristic is the creativity of the child in determining its own future. e.g. Craigmillar Project+ in Edinburgh. Only thus can we invest in and capitalise upon the limitless synergy of the heart / head strategic partnership. Sustainable change has to start in our back yard. Why? Quite simply because its the right thing to do, it doesn’t matter who else is or is not doing something, the buck stops with us all as individuals. One small step of a child can be more productive than that of an adult as it is made in trust, and hence helps us to regain faith in ourselves as a race. If we genuinely want to change the planet we have to change ourselves first however childish it may feel. Until the pin striped business gent bends down to pick up his own (and his neighbours) litter in the street, there is little hope for the planet, is there?
So how do we introduce the new paradigm of Sustainable Change?
Involve the forgotten ultimate customer—the child or young person!
Local communities are systems in which the child (even within the hard nosed business man/woman) is the ultimate customer, and his or her literal children the ultimate beneficiaries.
Pollution of the physical is the result of pollution of the Spiritual. Until that is addressed, no sustainable change will ever occur. The child needs a voice in the local and global community it will ultimately inherit. This will come about as business gives recognition to the ultimate customers by involving them in business decisions through strategic partnerships with schools and Spiritual groups, thus creating a model business environment within the community (common-unity).
Past initiatives between schools and industry, sponsored by organisations such as Understanding British Industry (UBI), didn’t involve the pupils as they were for example in the design a few years back of an “ideal” Edinburgh+. Some local authorities have already established schools/business partnerships. In Sweden there is a project named School 2000 based upon Systems Thinking and Chaos Theory (see notes) which could be expanded into the broader community This initiative capitalises upon the creativity of staff and pupils as each others customers, giving considerable autonomy to the child in the determination of her or his own learning. It also admits that the child knows best what its own learning requirements are and how through dialogue, these should be met. This includes older pupils helping younger pupils to learn. But in so doing older pupils learn how to teach, thus the pupil teaches the teacher. Consider the analogy between company directors and teenage stakeholders in the local community. Synergy may well result in pupils creating their own future jobs and careers. Business could subsidise such initiatives (there’s the rub). Whats the payback? Thats up to us to create, the sky’s the limit, make of it what we will. What’s the alternative? Is there one?!
The human species is unique as a “thinker” capable of contemplating its origin and destiny. Consequently, human ecology is concerned with the Cosmic relationship between man and planet Earth. The issue of pollution / conservation is therefore first and foremost a Spiritual one. The will to sustain change must therefore be Spiritual in the first instance and secular second. This is the difference between the environment business , and the business environment! The third element therefore in this “Trinity of the Community” are local spiritual groups. Not necessarily institutional churches, who may also have members in the other two elements. When all three groups work together the Spiritual element will be addressed in a practical manner without which sustainable change is impossible. Such is the very nature of systems functioning, and polluted communities are systems with all manner of stakeholders.
As such groups progressively form strategic partnerships, the creativity of the heart of the child will enlighten the community as to its products, processes, and procedures such that the heart of the community is sustained by the community accepting responsibility for itself.
Remember Einstein: to resolve the issue a higher order of thinking is essential to that which caused the apparently insoluble problem in the first place. It is the adult , secular, male intellect that has got us where we are today. Do we really need/want more of the same? What’s the alternative? Well, we could all go to the nearest star and do the same thing all over again. Or, a little nearer home we could develop such communities based upon Systems Thinking which will act as patterns for other Scottish communities, thus becoming definitive Learning Organisations within the Scottish Nation. The key “ingredient” is emergent creativity which only manifests when the system, that is the community, accepts responsibility and functions as an integrated whole.
In terms of change, we have entered not just a new millennium which is a secular concept, but a new planetary age in the true sense of a Spiritual Epoch each of which lasts two thousand years. We can therefore expect many changes to come more quickly than we anticipated. For the “Environment Business” to become the model “Business Environment” it must implement sustainable change.
Notes
+ In the Craigmillar Project (1997) school children worked with architects, engineering contractors, and teachers to design a huge scale model of their ideal ecological city. The professionals were amazed at the results.
* Cost internalisation: (See paradigm shift on following page.) Accepting some of the costs which would otherwise be borne by the wider community. eg forest regeneration costs and/or unemployment resulting from de-forestation. Should these be borne by business alone; the end user alone; or partly by both? Who should make this decision?
A System is an entity which maintains its existence and functions as a whole through the interaction of its parts. Systems Thinking therefore focuses upon the integrated nature of action and reaction for good or ill between individuals within a system; and between systems . It is concerned with causes as distinct from effects (symptoms). In the context of this paper the objective for the individual is to serve the community and thus themselves, whilst the objective for the community is to serve the planet.
Chaos Theory: One description of Chaos Theory suggests that the flutter of a butterfly’s wings may cause a hurricane on the opposite side of the world such is the complexity of global weather as a system. It maintains that there is an order at the centre of all (apparent) chaos, the objective of course being to discover the rule which when applied will result in order out of chaos.
The theory relates to the “twilight zone” between science and art or religion, as the ultimate system is the Cosmos. A more intuitive, and yet potentially more pragmatic “experience” of the theory is given below:
For want of a nail, the shoe was lost,
For want of a shoe, the horse was lost,
For want of a horse, the rider was lost,
For want of a rider, the battle was lost,
For want of battle, the Kingdom was lost!
The folklore quoted above exemplifies the chain of sequential and cumulative events that may cause chaotic outcomes in an orderly world. The Theory therefore studies such events to find the order in chaos. You may care to reflect upon global politics in this context!