Nothing in the world can take the place of persistence. talent will not; nothing is more common than unsuccessful men with talent. Genius will not; unrewarded genius is almost a proverb. Education will not; the world is full of educated derelicts. Persistence and determination alone are omnipotent. The slogan “Press On” has solved and always will solve the problems of the human race.
Paul Sheldon from the Presidio School of Management talks about the sustainability principles that they use in the Sustainable MBA from Presidio.
Many MBA schools are struggling to understand how to incorporate sustainability issues, strategies and principles in their courses. Paul suggests the following principles that Presidio uses to incorporate into their program.
1. Radical Resource Efficiency: Radically increase the productivity with which all resources are used, including energy, water, materials and people. The growing number of profitable solutions to environmental challenges can buy the time needed to implement measures that will go beyond mere compliance to attain true sustainability.
2. Design for Sustainability: Such innovative design processes as biomimicry, cradle to cradle and other forms of “green” design enable businesses to harness nature’s wisdom to drive innovation. These approaches allow us to create systems that eliminate waste and toxics while delivering superior products and services.
3. Manage for Prosperity and Sustainability: Employ the emerging practice of Sustainable Management to restore, enhance and sustain the natural and human capital needed for continuing financial prosperity.*
He concludes:
Sustainability also offers today’s business leaders an opportunity to develop meaningful work — work that people really care about, in ways that integrate radical resource efficiency, the redesign of every product and process with nature in mind, and in ways that restore financial, cultural, and natural heritage through profitable business ventures.
The Solve quarterly magazine from CSIRO has many sustainability related articles (Feb 2007 edition). The theme is the intersection of technology, science, multi-disciplinary collaboration and partnerships to create a sustainable world.
Water and IT
The Water theme is continuing on Worldisgreen.com and this time the problem is of data.
The first step in solving the water problem is getting the data on how much water is available, how much is used now and what may be available in the future. In order to achieve this, information technology may be the answer.
A Water Resources Observation Network (WRON) was instigated by CSIRO’s Dr Rob Vertessy in response to the clear need for more accurate monitoring of Australia’s water resources.
He says billions of dollars of investment are needed in new water-supply infrastructure as the urban population grows and the long-term effects of climate change become more apparent. “But where do we start? Good water information is the key to answering these questions.”
The problems being solved revolve around defining data standards, developing security solutions, managing historical data, and even created web-robots to gather dam-level data from multiple web sources.
I can appreciate the need to develop data standards and the ability to transfer data among many different organizations. My current work has been delayed by many months due to the lack of consistent data standards and unavailability of open standards like XML.
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The first week of the Turning the Ship on-line dialogue is about the Green Wave: Causes, Drivers, and Magnitude of the On-going Market Shift.
Joel Makower
Joel Makower is Executive Editor of GreenBiz.com, and writes the blog Two Steps Forward.
Joel Makower asks if the era of Green business finally arrived?
He cites the numerous coverage in major magazines in the past year, the increasing number of organizations working in this area and the companies working with activist groups in guiding legislation of climate change. No doubt, the Green Wave is well on the way.
He does not believe that the trend has reached a tipping point however, for this to go forward it “will require breaking down a host of political, economic, and cultural barriers.”
We’ll have to rethink some of our assumptions about the role of government. Politicians will need to decide whether to lead, follow, or get out of the way. Environmentalists will need to develop some new tools and rules of engagement. Wall Street will need to pay attention, and to better track companies’ environmental risks and opportunities. And the public will need to change its attitude, big time.
He urges us to move beyond the skepticism for business organizations trying to show a friendly face. Even though we need to be critical of corporations, now is the time to give them room to “to innovate, experiment, and fail.”
Most importantly, we need to have a conversation that help organizations to be green.
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