What Isn t Working?

What Isn't Working?

Toward Environmentally Sustainable Organizations

One of the most obvious examples of how today's industrial activities cannot be sustained indefinitely comes from the phenomenon of global warming. There has been significant disagreement for years about whether global warming is a reality. In 1995, however, the widely respected Inter-Governmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) published a report documenting a broad scientific consensus that global warming is, in fact, a reality. Even though there is still much uncertainty about the details of the phenomenon, the report concluded that human activities—such as the production of carbon dioxide—have led the average temperature of the earth's surface to rise over the last century, and if unchanged are likely to lead to continued temperature rises in the future.

One might expect large oil companies to be among the last to publicly agree that global warming is a problem. But John Browne, the CEO of British Petroleum, gave a recent speech in which he says that BP has reached the point where they take the potential dangers seriously and are actively beginning to address them:

We must now focus on what can and what should be done, not because we can be certain climate change is happening, but because the possibility can't be ignored. If we are all to take responsibility for the future of our planet, then it falls to us to begin to take precautionary action now.^[1]

In another response to the same report, more than 2,500 economists including eight Nobel Laureates endorsed a statement agreeing with this conclusion and saying that:

The most efficient approach to slowing climate change is through market-based policies. In order for the world to achieve its climatic objectives at minimum cost, a cooperative approach among nations is required—such as an international emissions trading agreement.^[2]

In this area, therefore, there is a clear need to invent new forms of production and new forms of organizations to use resources in ways that can preserve, rather than destroy, the physical environment of our planet.

Toward Socially Sustainable Organizations

In the U.S., the differences between high and low-income segments of the population have increased significantly in the last two decades. In fact, some observers believe that these economies are becoming increasingly stratified into two tiers: a privileged economic elite of "haves" and a broad mass of economically disenfranchised "have-nots".

In global terms, too, the differences between "haves" and "have-nots" are becoming much more apparent. While the economic differences between emerging market countries and industrialized countries may be decreasing in real terms, the explosive growth of television, international travel, and other forms of communication have made people in the developing world much more aware of the differences than they were before.

Of course, these trends are not caused (and cannot be reversed) by the actions of individual organizations alone. They emerge from complex economic and social systems of which business organizations are only a part. However, many people believe that these trends cannot continue without morally troubling inequities and, perhaps, major social disruptions. There appears to be a clear need, therefore, to invent organizations—and social systems within which they operate—that can be both economically efficient and also widely perceived as equitable.

Toward Personally Sustainable Organizations

In the United States today, many people feel that their work lives and their personal lives are out of balance. In many jobs, for example, the average number of hours worked per week has increased, and in many families, both adults now have demanding jobs outside their home. The reasons for these changes are complex, but their result is that even many of the people who are most successful in their work organizations often find their lives increasingly unsatisfying.

^[1]Browne 1997.

^[2]See the following Web site maintained by a San Francisco based organization called "Redefining Progress", http://www.rprogress.org/.