Systems Thinker Wins a Much-delayed Prize

This year’s Japan Prize was awarded to Dennis Meadows for his contributions to the 1972 shocker, The Limits to Growth. Shocker, that is, only to those who saw the world through a soda straw. After pointing to other accomplishments, the award statement adds: > Based on the foundations established in “The Limits to Growth” over the past 30 years Dr. Meadows has consistently proposed, through model analyses, efforts aimed at forming a sustainable society. He has continued to exert a large influence on the entire world. This, it is believed, is highly praiseworthy and deserving of the 2009 Japan Prize,… Read More

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No more outdoor grilling

I don’t know whether to cheer or cry after reading this [story](http://www.newscientist.com/article/mg20126921.500-one-last-chance-to-save-mankind.html) about a rather unusual way to combat global warning. At least, it’s not one that shows up among the usual suspects. Instead of burning up charcoal briquettes in our backyard barbecues, we need to turn our grass cuttings, pruning waste, and everything organic to charcoal and bury it. Farmers and foresters are the key players, but here’s a chance for everyone to contribute to the reduction of unsustainability. The photo shows soil with a very high carbon content (terra preta). The article is an interview with James Lovelock… Read More

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Where the Future of Business Is Coming From

I have just come home from a short visit to Ann Arbor to speak at an event sponsored by the Net Impact group at the Ross School of Business. They had asked me to speak at the dinner kicking off their Forum 2009: Next practices to address future challenges. In their own words, “Net Impact is a global network of leaders who are changing the world through business.” I also had some time to spend in a small group with some of the students. Many are in a very special program (Erb Institute) that couples an MBA with a MS… Read More

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A Friend, Indeed?

This story is from today’s New York Times. I encourage you to read the whole article. But here is the part that woke me up today. Facebook, the very popular social networking program, has spawned some new language–defriending or unfriending. It has become so easy to accumulate a very long list of facebook friends that paring down that list has become a social puzzle. Burger King saw an opportunity to attract business by offering a free Whopperâ„¢ to anyone that got rid of 10 friends by deleting them from the list. If Esau sold his birthright for a mess of… Read More

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Waste Not, Want Not

The NYTimes had a long story in the Sunday Business section about Wal-Mart and their green initiatives. The lede was all about the history behind Wal-Mart’s decision to “go green.” By going green, the company committed itself not only to putting products with lower footprints on the shelf but also to building the shelves themselves (and their stores in general) in a greener manner. While undoubtedly helpful in reducing the environmental load relative to the past, the impact of Wal-Mart and their program is not entirely clear. Responding to advocacy groups, and with the leadership of the then CEO, H.… Read More

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Not for the Faint-at-heart

I came across a paper written a couple of years ago that makes very interesting reading. Collapse and Transformation , by D. M. Taylor and G. M Taylor is a not quite apocalyptic, but very close, rendering of the future we face. There are only three possibilities for the future of civilization: (a) Cascading environmental crises will rapidly escalate, producing uncontrollable economic and political crises. At some point these crises will cause the catastrophic collapse of the societal system. This process may produce irreversible damage to social and biophysical systems. (b) Political and business leaders will proactively respond to the… Read More

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Sustainability MBAs

I’m away from home for a few days visiting one of the very few business schools committed entirely to creating MBA’s with sustainability as their core learning. Bainbridge Graduate Institute is now in its fifth year. I’ve been working with them from their start with a few years off. But I am back here during one of their weekend intensives. The program is based largely on distance learning plus a set of face-to-face weekends. I am here to talk about sustainability in general and pair with my colleague, Tom Johnson, to teach a couple sessions of their sustainable operations course.… Read More

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Post-Inauguration Thoughts

I watched the formal part of the inauguration ceremonies at the Lexington Library where a happy group gathered around a large screen. After the formalities, anyone that so desired added a one-minute request or suggestion to a videotape that was to be sent to the new President. Lexington is where the first shots for freedom were fired. I had an uncanny sensation that I was hearing a modern version of the first shots, but aimed at new targets. What did all this have to do with sustainability? I believe a great deal. Sustainability is always, first, a possibility of realizing… Read More

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Pragmatism in the White House

David Brooks’ Inauguration Day column focuses on the ideological past that has so dominated government for the last 60 to 70 years. He hopes that what many expect will be a strong pragmatic framework in the Obama White House will return balance to the American political scene. Part of that will be done with his governing style. Obama aims to realize the end-of-ideology politics that Daniel Bell and others glimpsed in the early 1960s. He sees himself as a pragmatist, an empiricist. Politics is not personal with him. He does not turn political disagreements into a status contest between one… Read More

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