This document discusses building social-ecological resilience and the transition to sustainable enterprise. It notes that the Earth is full due to human impacts like climate change, resource extraction and waste. To avoid potentially devastating effects, a transition is needed to sustainable enterprise that considers economic, environmental and social value. Sustainable enterprises will need to build resilience through agile leadership, systems thinking and transdisciplinary skills to manage risks and preserve systems. Beyond sustainability, the goal should be regenerative business and leadership that operates within resilient social-ecological systems.

1. Professor Jeremy B Williams
28 August 2018
Sustainable Futures: Building Social-Ecological Resilience
@thegreenmba & @jeremybwilliams
facebook.com/profjeremybwilliams
linkedin.com/in/jembwilliams
Master Class Series
jeremybwilliams.net

2. Part 1:
Welcome to the
Anthropocene

3. http://www.anthropocene.info/
https://vimeo.com/39048998

4. The Earth
… is full

5. Full of us …

10. Full of our stuff

11. … full of our garbage

12. … and we take as if there
is no tomorrow

13. We dig it up …

14. We chop it down …

15. ... in pursuit of new sources of energy

16. ... and increased food supply

17. with potentially
devastating effects
in the form of
climate change

19. 19

20. (as of 28-08-18)

21. Nine
planetary
boundaries

23. The Keeling Curve

25. If you were born after July 1985, average temperatures will only
ever have gone up during your lifetime.
http://www.noaa.gov/news/july-2018-was-4th-warmest-july-on-record-for-globe

26. Part 2:
A month in review:
August 2018

27. 27
1 August 2018

28. 28
3 August 2018

29. 29
4 August 2018

30. 30
5 August 2018

31. 31
5 August 2018

32. 32
7 August 2018

33. 33

34. 34
7 August 2018
(September 2017)

35. 35
9 August 2018

36. 10 August 2018

37. 37
16 August 2018

38. 38
21 August 2018

39. 39
25 August 2018

40. 26 August 2018

42. <20C

43. Me
My kids
My grandkids?
This is the critical decade for action

45. Dr. Malte
Meinshausen
(as of 28-08-18)

46. Source: http://leave-it-in-the-ground.org/carbon-budget

47. Part 3:
The necessary transition to a
sustainable enterprise
economy

49. • Be able to master the new
cognitive ability required to
manage sustainable enterprise
 Eco-literate
 Systems thinkers
 High EQ
 Agile leadership
 Transdisciplinary
Successful managers in the 21st century will:

50. sustainable enterprise
There is a multiplicity of organisational and
business types that might be characterised as
Identifiable through desire to be part of an emerging, dynamic, innovative new
economy, based on principles of social responsibility and ecological sustainability
Private
sector
Public
sector
Civil
society
For profit Not for profit
In transition Start-ups

51. corporate social
responsibility (CSR)
≠
sustainable enterprise

52. • a clear understanding of its role in the creation of
economic, environmental and social value
• more value generated if it is driven by a compelling
sustainability vision accompanied by the monitoring of
performance relative to that vision
‘How much closer to sustainable success are we?’
is a much better question than:
‘How much less unsustainable are we?’
Sustainable enterprise will have:

53. The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change
(IPCC) defines resilience as:
‘the ability of a system and its component parts to
anticipate, absorb, accommodate, or recover from the
effects of a hazardous event in a timely and efficient
manner, including through ensuring the preservation,
restoration, or improvement of its essential basic
structures and functions.’
Building resilience
Managing the Risks of Extreme Events and Disasters to Advance Climate
Change Adaptation: Summary for Policymakers (2012)

58. Beyond sustainability
• Settling for being less unsustainable is not an option
because this does not remove the existential threat
faced by humanity
• We need regenerative business – and, indeed,
regenerative leadership – redesigning organisations
to operate within and contribute to the creation of
resilient social-ecological systems
• This is a profound and fundamental shift from
mechanistic, control-based, egotistical operating
systems, toward living-systems in which
organisations become future-fit and life-supporting

59. 59
(Reed, 2007)

61. • ‘For the purpose of attaining
freedom in the world of nature,
man must use natural science
to understand, conquer and
change nature and thus attain
freedom from nature.’
Speech at the inaugural meeting of the Natural Science Research
Society of the Border Region (February 5, 1940).Chairman Mao

63. Long term prosperity needs resilience
not just efficiency
• The key to sustainability lies
in enhancing the resilience of
communities, not in
optimising isolated parts of
the system
• Need to think in terms of
social-ecological systems
• Build in redundancy to stay
within known thresholds
Walker & Salt (2006)

64. Case study: Alara Wholefoods Ltd

65. 65
@thegreenmba & @jeremybwilliams
facebook.com/profjeremybwilliams
linkedin.com/in/jembwilliams
jeremybwilliams.net