Do you change the fish or change the water?

Working in sustainability I tend to think of water in the literal sense so it was sweet reminder of the importance of taking responsibility for acting with integrity in environments that can sometimes be pretty murky.  This story is good insight into keeping your water clean!Who 's Polluting Your Water? Liam Forde - The Zone

Will Education for Sustainability Influence Business Practices?

In many years of working with organisational change, I have felt at times that I have been complicit in a conspiracy to fit individuals into systems that were innately dysfunctional, whilst ignoring the need to make deeper cultural and structural changes that would really make a difference. 

My observations and discussions with participants of organisational change programs have led me to conclude that despite the huge amount of money and time spent, programs frequently fall short of delivering the intended change outcomes.  Typically, there is a buzz for a short time. People know what needs changing. The ‘Values Statements’ are framed and duly dispensed at prominent locations around the buildings walls and the expensive consultation reports are filed.  And like an elastic band that has been momentarily stretched, things go back to business as usual with no real commitment or clear articulation of how the changes might be made and sustained.  I suspect that many organisations can underestimate the complexity involved in making deep level change; as well as the need to stay the course until the change has taken root. 

The drive for business to prepare to operate in a low carbon economy and become more sustainable has upped the ante of organisational change to achieve tangible outcomes. Yet with a predisposition towards political and economic short-termism and the failure to recognise the combined impacts of complex global changes, this is no small challenge for businesses to address. 

Business can no longer afford to focus only on economic gains or they risk perpetuating a system that has reached its functional limits.  How much and to what degree organisations take on a culture of sustainability along with the practical skills needed to deliver their products in a sustainable way will set the scene for a feasible and equitable future for all.  

There are viable pathways for organisations to continue to make a profit, and address its social and environmental impacts.  One such pathway is to educate for sustainability (EfS) which provides practical insights and information that creates understanding, surfaces outdated world views and engenders behaviour change.  Where necessary it can be backed up with educate about sustainability (EaS) which provides factual science-based information about prevailing and predicted environmental, social and economic conditions.  The uptake of professional development in EfS can support a new kind of success in business.

Education for Sustainability (EfS) has already made a mark in the industry sector with some 1000+ vocational educators from around Australia in 2012 and 2013 trained to embed sustainability principles and practices into formal curricula.  As well, numerous private providers and community organisations have taken up the mantle. 

As the UN Decade of Education for Sustainable Development 2005 – 2014 draws to a close it reminds us that “all sectors of the workforce can contribute to local, regional and national sustainability,” and that business plays a key role. EfS hold the potential to change in the world of work, and have a flow on effect of making sustainable change that contributes to the environmental, social and economic wellbeing of all. 

This may be the Trojan horse that infiltrates a world view that will crumble a linear, hierarchical and fundamentalist way of being that no longer serves us.  Then wins for all will ensue.