UN Secretary-General António Guterres is convening a summit to commence on
the 21st of September 2019 in order to hold world leaders accountable to the
goals set out in the Paris agreement and to raise collective ambition by
increasing climate action goals. Guterres is calling on attending
leaders to demonstrate climate action leadership by only giving leaders a
platform to speak if they presented plans in line with the IPCC 1.5 °C
report.
The true definition
of Sustainability leadership
Mary A. Ferdig offers a widely recognised description of sustainability
leadership, often cited in scholarly works.
“Anyone who takes
responsibility for understanding and acting upon complex sustainability
challenges qualifies as a ‘sustainability leader’ whether or not they hold a
formal leadership position or acknowledged political and social-economic
influence.”
Greta Thurnberg, and many other youths, who aren’t yet old enough to own
cars let alone businesses, are already displaying this understanding of
sustainability leadership in the actions they’re taking toward speaking up for
climate change.
The youth and sustainable leadership
The latter half of Mary A. Ferdig’s definition speaks to why the youth
are so effective in their actions and also speaks to what effective world
leaders will incorporate should they wish to be effective sustainable leaders.
Namely that; ”rather than providing all
of the answers, sustainability leaders create opportunities for people to come
together and generate their own answers – to explore, learn, and devise a
realistic course of action to address sustainability challenges.”
Many youths are already holding our leaders accountable to their plans
and actions thus far. Take the group of youths who sued the American government
for failing to protect them from the onset of climate change or the Parkland
School shooting survivors in Florida, who in a matter of days, mobilised
millions of supporters, thanks to Twitter, to march in protest of urgent need
for gun control policies. Their action saw the first real gun legislation
implemented in years.
Their drawing mass attention to the unsolved problems seems to be what
sets change in motion, rather than arriving on a podium, answers in hand.
By showing acknowledgement of value shifts with the vulnerability of not having
all the answers inspires communities to connect and manifest change, which is
by all accounts far more successful than playing the fear based denial card
favoured by some world leaders.
Greta
Thurnberg didn’t stand up at the World Economic Forum and tell business leaders
the globe over how to optimise their actions to solve the entire climate
crisis. She stood up and spoke openly about the fearful reality of not
attempting to solve the crisis. She shared her fears. Fears that echoed
collective truth and inspired the desire to be part of alleviating that fear.
What is needed from a sustainable leader?
Successful sustainability leadership can be carried out with the
following approaches:
●
Leading with society and the environment in mind
●
Being driven by a keenness to learn, challenge and improve current
situations
●
Inspiring cooperation between sectors and cultures
●
Setting the self aside and instead focusing on forging connections
within communities to enhance their co-creation and co-production
●
Casting light on as yet unanswered, but vitally important questions.
●
Open-mindedness and integrity
How businesses and communities will benefit
from sustainable leaders
Leaders who have faced and overcome adversity,
or who, at the very least have experienced living in parts of the world where
differing economic backgrounds are driving factors, are far more likely to
develop socially and environmentally inclusive practices. This type of
leadership paves the way for the upliftment and integration of communities.
According to Global Citizen, a movement of engaged citizens
who are using their collective voice to end extreme poverty, leaders with
emotional ties and ethical responsibility are a high contributing factor to
ending poverty by 2030.
The
sustainable leadership displayed by the youths taking action, whether they hold
political or social influence or not, didn’t necessarily come about because of
sustainability leadership or environmental education.
Being
inhabitants of this planet facing the climate threat is qualification enough to
fight, what is at the heart of all things, a human rights threat.
But
integrating their calls for collective social, business and political change is
a complex issue. Individuals who hold a strong education in business
sustainability management will be key assets in all future businesses.
Education
in sustainability management is highly beneficial in preparing an individual
emotionally in taking on the responsibility of navigating corporate and social
change. In order to affect any meaningful change, leaders will need to view the
systems of business and society as interlocking ecosystems within our
environment.
The SUMAS Sustainability Management Business School of Switzerland aims at empowering students
with the confidence to carry out this responsibility and make the decisions
required to right the collective course. The programs focus on delivering sound
business knowledge and an intrinsic understanding of sustainable development in
an innovative way.
Why we need sustainable leadership
If the
leadership of the world’s governments and organization thus far has shown us
anything, it is that the advancement of a singular agenda without consideration
of the environment that it transpires in is in and of itself an unsustainable
pursuit.
We cannot
be extricated from the societies we cohabit with or the environments we depend
on. Therefor no achievement that comes about at the demise of any civilisation,
culture or habitat can truly be considered an achievement.
The
climate crisis no longer allows for leeway in this or any disregard of the
acceptance of total interconnectedness.
Given
this context, leaders of businesses, organisations or governments can no longer
be considered leaders if they operate outside of the framework of
sustainability.
Leadership
without a focus on sustainability is not leadership at all.
If you are interested
in using education to further your agenda of becoming a sustainability leader,
take a look at the various programs that we offer.
