The document discusses how agile principles and mindsets can be applied to help drive sustainability transformations. It argues that agile approaches can help impact key dimensions like processes, products/services, organizational culture, and ecosystems. Specific agile tools and techniques like lean, value stream mapping, and empiricism are highlighted as being useful for addressing challenges like waste reduction, collaboration, and sensing weak signals. The document calls for injecting sustainability into everything agilists do and leading by example in helping achieve environmental goals.

1. AGILE FOR SUSTAINABILITY
Vincenzo Lanza
Emiliano Soldi
AgileTriathlete
https://www.EmilianoSoldi.it
https://medium.com/@enzomelke

3. SARNO river is one of the causes
and also one of the most polluted river in Europe
GUL F OF NAPL E S
Source: https://www.greenpeace.org/static/planet4-italy-stateless/2018/11/549f2090-549f2090-ismar_report_finale.pdf
3,53 items/m3 Microplastics
F ROM T HE WORL D
Source: https://plasticoceans.org/the-facts/
100 %
Of Mussels tested have
contained Microplastics
10 million
Tons of plastics are
dumped in our oceans
every year!
180 kg
Of Plastic that we eat
during our entire life.
1 million
Marine animals are
killed by plastic pollution
every year
«THERE WILL BE MORE
PLASTIC IN OUR OCEANS
THAN FISH IN 2050»
The Ellen McArthur Foundation

5. ACT NOW!

6. DAMN
GOOD
HABITS
N O T E A S Y A N D
T H A T ’ S N O T E N O U G H …
I S N ’ T I T ?

7. …AND, UNFORTUNATELY,
WE HAVE SOME BUGS TOO
COGNITIVE
BIAS
LINEAR
THINKING
A cognitive bias is a systematic
pattern of deviation from norm
or rationality in judgment
Individuals create their own
"subjective reality" from their
perception of the input
Linear thinking is that way of
thinking in which we consider an
idea or a process to begin from a
point, follow a series of connected
steps, and end at a point
Source: https://psychologenie.com/linear-thinking-vs-non-linear-thinking
Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cognitive_bias

8. … B U T E X T E R N A L S T A K E H O L D E R S
P R E S S U R E I S I N C R E A S I N G
Sources: Accenture Future of Work Study; Accenture Covid-19 Consumer Pulse Study; Principles for Responsible Investment; Accenture Global Consumer Pulse Research; Blackrock
Employees
believe organizations should be responsible for
leaving their people “net better off” through work
65 %
Consumer
plan to make more sustainable or ethical purchases
over the next six months
66 %
Investors
of sustainable indices outperformed their peer
benchmarks in 2020
81 %

9. … A N D B I G O P P O R T U N I T I E S A R E R I G H T
B E H I N D T H E C O R N E R
Companies pursuing
a Twin Transformation
are 2.5x more likely to
be among
Tomorrow's Leaders
2.5x
Source: https://www.accenture.com/_acnmedia/PDF-
144/Accenture-The-European-Double-Up.pdf
Combining
sustainability and
digital technologies is
key to igniting future
competitiveness for
European countries
Source: https://www.mckinsey.com/business-
functions/sustainability/our-insights/accelerating-toward-
net-zero-the-green-business-building-opportunity
More than $12 trillion in potential
annual sales by 2030 due to growing
demand for net-zero offerings
12$
Trillion
DIGITAL TECH
+
SUSTAINABILITY

10. Julie Sweet – Accenture CEO
SUSTAINABILITY
IS THE NEW DIGITAL
Julie Sweet – Accenture CEO
“Just as the digital revolution transformed how
we live and work, so too will sustainability,
driving new value and growth and permeating
everything that we do”

11. Pursuing that business
opportunity is, however,
the greatest chance we
have to leave a better
world for those who will
come after us

12. United Nations Conference, June 3-14 1992 in Rio de Janeiro
It was created as a response for member states to cooperate internationally on issues
relating to sustainability being too big for individual member states to handle
Source: Wikipedia
EARTH SUMMIT

13. In a linear economy, natural
resources are turned into
products that are ultimately
destined to become waste
because of the way they
have been designed and
manufactured.
LINEAR ECONOMY WAS IDENTIFIED AS THE MAJOR
PROBLEM THAT BROUGHT THE WORLD TO THIS POINT
Take
Make
Use Dispose
Pollute
This process is often
summarised by
"take, make, waste"

14. DISCUSSIONS
IN SUBSEQUENT
YEARS
Economic Debate
Recycle, Reduce, Reuse
Environmental Debate
Reduction, Limit,
Decrease,
Happy Degrowth

15. A green economy is an economy that aims at
reducing environmental risks and ecological
scarcities, and that aims for sustainable
development without degrading the environment.
GREEN ECONOMY
Source: Wikipedia

17. “The world will not
evolve past its current
state of crisis by using
the same thinking that
created the situation”
Albert Einstein

18. THE ANTS OF THE PLANET, AS
A WHOLE, HAVE A HIGHER
BIOMASS THAN HUMANS
THEY HAVE BEEN INCREDIBLY
INDUSTRIOUS FOR MILLIONS
OF YEARS, YET THEIR
PRODUCTIVITY FEEDS PLANTS,
ANIMALS AND THE SOIL.

19. WHILE HUMAN INDUSTRY HAS BEEN RUNNING
AT FULL CAPACITY FOR A LITTLE OVER A CENTURY,
AND IN THIS SHORT TIME IT HAS RUINED VIRTUALLY
ALL OF EARTH'S ECOSYSTEMS IT IS NOT NATURE
THAT HAS A DESIGN PROBLEM, IT’S US

20. Source: https://www.raconteur.net/infographics/worlds-digital-carbon-footprint/
3,7 % +9 %
…AND T E CH US E S L OT S OF E NE RGY
0,2gr
Tweet
Of total greenhouse
emission
4gr
Regular email
Annual increase in
energy consumption
THE FOOTPRINT OF
USING INTERNET
Measured in grammes of CO2
equivalent emissions
Videoconferencing
of an hour
150gr
Streaming video
of an hour
55gr
THE WORLD’S
DIGITAL FOOTPRINT

21. A MODEL OF PRODUCTION
AND CONSUMPTION, WHICH
INVOLVES SHARING, LEASING,
REUSING, REPAIRING, REFURBISHING
AND RECYCLING EXISTING
MATERIALS AND PRODUCTS
AS LONG AS POSSIBLE
Source: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:The_Circular_Economy_concept.png
CIRCULAR
E CONOMY
CAN HE L P

22. WAIT, WHAT HAVE WE DONE
UP TO NOW?
…and, if we Agilists have not been part of the solution till now,
we must have been part of the problem…

23. HEY! IT’S NOW TIME TO STEP
IN AND PUSH THE CHANGE
OUR COMMUNITY OF AGILISTS
HAS HUGE POTENTIAL

24. “Our aim is to have removed
90% of floating ocean plastic
by 2040. We plan to do this
by cleaning up the legacy
plastic -the plastic already
floating in the ocean- and by
“closing the tap” through river
plastic interception.”
Source: shorturl.at/gjqvN
T H E A G I L E - L E A N M I N D S E T I S K E Y T O A N Y
T R A N S F O R M A T I O N S T O W A R D S S U S T A I N A B I L I T Y
The Rio Motagua based n in Guatemala suffers
yearly trash tsunamis, devastating
the environment. 20,000 estimated tonnes
of plastic currently flows through the Rio
Motagua into the Caribbean Sea
on an annual basis.

25. S US T A IN A BILIT Y T RA N S F ORMA TION S
IMPACT FOUR KEY DIMENS IONS
Addressing lost value along the
various steps and through recovery
or reuse of any by-products of
business processes in terms of
energy, emissions, water and waste
Rethinking products or services in terms
of design, life cycle and end of use
to optimize its use, eliminating
waste and "close the loop" of the product
Collaborating and establishing reliable and stable
partnerships with public and private sector actors
to create an enabling environment for collective
transformation and collaboration
PROCESSES PRODUCTS & SERVICES
Reviewing vision and values, and redefining work
practices and policies to Integrate circular principles
into the DNA of the enterprise culture
ORGANIZATION CULTURE
ECOSYSTEMS
Seems to ring a bell ...don't you?

26. Define
Value
Establish
Value
Stream
Flow
Pull
Contin.
Improv.
I M P A C T O N
P R O C E S S E S
I N J E C T I N G
A G I L E - L E A N
C A P A B I L I T I E S
Lean
Principles
Identify the emission points within the primary and secondary
production processes and brainstorm on what interventions to
put in place and carry out
Energy
Assess what energy is being used (gray or green) and
brainstorm on how to, firstly, reduce consumption and then
move to renewable sources
Water
Review the production processes to reduce water
consumption, by processing products in innovative ways or
using different raw materials, fostering water reuse
Waste
Reach zero-waste intent by eliminating waste within each
process step, maximizing asset usage and reuse
Emissions
Lean Tools
✓ Gemba
✓ Value Stream Mapping
✓ Waste Reduction
✓ Bottleneck Analysis
✓ Kanban
✓ Root Cause Analysis
✓ Causal Loops (sys. think.)

27. I N J E C T I N G
A G I L E - L E A N
C A P A B I L I T I E S
I M P A C T O N
P R O D U C T S & S E R V I C E S
Design
Ideate from the beginning a circular product or service by
using less raw material, being modular, easy maintenable,
extensible and with a long life cycle
Use
Think on how to extend product usage by projecting it as a
service or by using dedicated platforms which allow users to
share the product multiple times
Extension
Maximize value creation by increasing obsolescence through
proactive maintenance, refurbishing or remanufacturing or
resell on second-hand market
End of Life
Identify how value can be created out of a product the
reached its endo of life as, for instance, re-usage, re-cycle or
special treatment of waste to create secondary raw material

28. I N J E C T I N G
A G I L E - L E A N
C A P A B I L I T I E S
I M P A C T O N
O R G A N I Z A T I O N C U L T U R E
Vision
Establish a long-term inspiring objective, with high level
milestones and quantitative objectives; the vision has to drive
the subsequent activities identification
Innovation
Encourage innovation by establishing a ‘’lab’’ mentality to
promote lateral thinking. Instill a circular mentality so that it
can influence how product and service are built
People
Involve people from the very beginning of the transformation
having them participating on strategic iniatives; organize
training and coaching sessions to establish the right mentality
Governance
Governance needs to focus on creating the conditions and the
context where sustainable and circular initiatives can unfold,
despite the status-quo and any normal resistance
https://www.scrum.org/resources/s
crum-values-poster
https://agilemanifesto.org/

29. I N J E C T I N G
A G I L E - L E A N
C A P A B I L I T I E S
I M P A C T O N
E C O S Y S T E M S
Sharing
Transparent and non-competitive knowledge and experience
sharing, to increase opportunities and value creation; often
key initiatives and data are shared also with
Collaboration
Creation of key partnerships with local or regional third
parties, to jointly design and develop sustainable circular
solutions for the benefit of all the involved stakeholders
Funding
Solid funding aiming at promoting sutainable, circular
initiatives that can be used to acquire or invest in startups,
new business models, new product or services, etc.
Policies
Review or create dedicated coporate policies and norms which
aim at promoting, favouring and supporting any sutainable
initiatives
It’s all about Weak Signals:
✓ Fragmented
✓ Uncertain reliability
✓ Unpredictable
✓ Apparently no utility
✓ Unusual, singular
✓ Submerged
Organizations need to
create habits for
systematically collect
insights from the field.
People need to meet, share
and discuss to discover
any emerging patterns, from
their first appearance
CoPs Open
Space
Lean
Coffee
World
Café
Sprint
Reviews
Sprint
Retros

30. BUT THAT’S NOT
ENOUGH
WE NEED TO CHANGE
OUR VERY OWN
MINDSET INJECTING
SUSTAINABILITY
IN EVERYTHING WE
DO, IN EACH AND
EVERY OF OUR
ENGAGEMENTS

31. Sustainable development
Agile processes promote sustainable
development. The sponsors, developers, and
users should be able to maintain a constant
pace indefinitely.
Sustainability Technical Excellence
Continuous attention to technical
excellence and good design enhances
agility. (Sustainability)
SUSTAINABILITY MUST BE BUILT IN,
NOT BOLTED ON
At regular intervals, the team reflects on
how to become more effective
(sustainable), then tunes and adjusts its
behavior accordingly.
Sustainability Empiricism
Simplicity--the art of maximizing the
amount of work not done--is essential.
Sustainability Solution and NFR
Business
iabilit
Human
Desirabilit
Te hnolog
Feasabilit
Design
Thin ing
Business
iabilit
Human
Desirabilit
Te hnolog
Feasabilit
Smart
Design
Sustainabilit
Cir ularit
Source: https://www.threebility.com/

32. We are uncovering better sustainable ways of living this planet,
using Agile in doing so, leading by example and helping others do it.
A G I L E F O R S U S T A I N A B I L I T Y
D E C L A R A T I O N O F I N T E N T
We want to envision long-term and execute fast on a daily basis
to help preserving the environment and serve our clients at best
We want to leverage inter-dependencies
to foster collaborative generation of sustainabile value
We want to promote win-win relationships
to build networks of responsible people to accelerate value creation
We want to face complexity by adopting empiricism
to get rid off linear thinking and any biases to reduce waste
We want to design for collective intelligence
to sense for any weak signals and help addressing any wicked problems
We want to design and launch diverse and autonomous teams
able to develop sustainable solutions
This is where we want to start from today onward; doing our part to support the environment, so that those
who will come after us will find the same wonderful planet we have been able to enjoy since now
Source: Agile Triathele Blog -https://www.emilianosoldi.it/

33. THANK YOU!
Emiliano Soldi
AgileTriathlete
https://www.EmilianoSoldi.it
Vincenzo Lanza
https://medium.com/@enzomelke
GOAL 1: No Poverty
GOAL 2: Zero Hunger
GOAL 3: Good Health and Well-being
GOAL 4: Quality Education
GOAL 5: Gender Equality
GOAL 6: Clean Water and Sanitation
GOAL 7: Affordable and Clean Energy
GOAL 8: Decent Work and Economic Growth
GOAL 9: Industry, Innovation & Infrastructure
GOAL 10: Reduced Inequality
GOAL 11: Sustainable Cities and Communities
GOAL 12: Responsible Consumption & Production
GOAL 13: Climate Action
GOAL 14: Life Below Water
GOAL 15: Life on Land
GOAL 16: Peace and Justice Strong Institutions
GOAL 17: Partnerships to achieve the Goal
UNDP SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT GOALS
sdgs.un.org/goals