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| Sustainability and Changing the Way We Do Business
A Conversation with Sissel Waage, Ph.D., Director of the Sustainability Research Group for The Natural Step, San Francisco, California
Event flier [PDF] |
 Sissel Waage |
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The current view on businesses tightly circumscribes the “system” within which a firm operates. Often, customers and the supply chain are the immediate focus. Business decisions seldom consider that healthy ecological systems provide critical resources and that these natural systems may be both limited and unable to absorb our waste. Corporate actions also tend to overlook the destabilizing effects of growing disparities in wealth and increasing inability of many people to gain access to basic resources and address their fundamental needs. However, a new, alternative perspective on businesses is emerging. It is informed by understanding basic interconnections between ecological, social, and economic systems.
The work of The Natural Step—an international sustainability-focused think-tank and advisory services non-profit organization—reveals early visible signs of efforts to operationalize this new perspective within enterprises. Ongoing efforts reveal the enormous opportunities for innovation that this new perspective offers and demonstrates that change is already occurring. This talk will describe the concept of sustainability and offer illustrative examples of work within multinational food and home improvement companies. A conversation about integrating environmental, social justice, and financial decisions within large companies will follow.
About the Organization
As an international advisory and research organization, The Natural Step has over a decade of experience in working with some of the largest resource users on the planet to create solutions, models and tools designed to accelerate global sustainability. The Natural Step brings to this partnership both a strong grounding in research and applied work related to sustainability. With a staff comprised of MBAs, PhDs (both social and bio-physical scientists), engineers, educators, and communication experts, the organization brings both in-depth theoretical and empirical knowledge of sustainability-oriented change.
For more information, contact Rich Pirog at the Leopold Center, (515) 294-1854, or Robert Brown at the Office of Biorenewables Programs (515) 294-6555.
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