Seminar presentation to staff and students at Griffith University in Brisbane during Sustainability Week, 7-11 April, 2014. Repeated at the Institute for Rural Futures, University of New England, Armidale, 15 April, 2014.
How would we recognise a truly sustainable enterprise if we saw one?
1. Sustainability Week
7-11 April 2014
Institute for Rural Futures
Armidale, NSW
15 April 2014
Professor Jeremy B Williams
Director, Asia Pacific Centre for Sustainable Enterprise
TheGreenMBA
25. “The sooner you start
mitigating the easier it
is to adapt. Clearly
we could get closer
and closer to tipping
points and thresholds
which would make
adaptation totally
impossible beyond
that stage.”
(April 2014)
Rajendra Pachauri
Head, IPCC
33. 1: a project or undertaking that is especially difficult, complicated, or risky
2: readiness to engage in daring or difficult action
3:
(a) a unit of economic organisation or activity; especially a business organisation
(b) a systematic purposeful activity
34. There is a multiplicity of organisational and
business types that might be characterised as
Private
sector
Public sector Civil society
For profit Not for profit
In transition Start-ups
37. stakeholders and investors see value
creation opportunities and cost
reduction opportunities in the strategic
use of sustainability concepts, practices
and innovation
38. • a clear understanding of its role in the creation of
economic, environmental and social value
• more value is 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?’
52. People need more than to be scolded,
more than to be made to feel stupid and
guilty. They need more than a vision of
doom. They need a vision of the world
and of themselves that inspires them.
From Ishmael, by Daniel Quinn, 1992