Calling All Earthlings

Author: Sandy Thompson

With Earth Day approaching on April 22 it is timely to reflect on how our organisations impact on the planet. I would like to propose it is time for us to all make some changes to how we operate given the stark warnings being made across the globe about the sustainability of humans on Earth. 

It is an unfortunate fact that most organisation theory and business management theory is based on the misconceptions that:

• Resources are infinite

• Elimination of waste is a necessary financial cost 

• The world works in a linear fashion

• Growth is not only good, but should be a key goal.

Given the current issues facing our societies, we now know that this is very flawed thinking. In her book Doughnut Economics, Kate Raworth challenges conventional western economic thinking and the approaches of global governments that ignore the slow-burning issues of climate change and global inequality. In her common-sense analysis of economic and business theory (which Raworth demonstrates has come from the world of engineering), she offers suggestions for finding the sweet spot where our needs can be sustainably met. For our organisations, this means changing how we view our purpose and how we go about doing what we do.

One way we can think about sustainability is through adopting biomimicry. In its simplest form, this is using biological systems thinking to understand how organisations work.

The Biomimicry Institute defines biomimicry as “learning from and mimicking the strategies found in nature to solve human design challenges—and to find hope”. This is different to looking like nature (bio morphism) or using nature (bio utilisation) to generate solutions.

There are three essential elements of biomimicry:

1. If we emulate nature, i.e. learn from and then replicate nature’s forms, processes and ecosystems, we can create more regenerative designs. Just like nature does.

2. The philosophy of understanding how life works and then creating designs, can continuously support and create conditions conducive to life.

3. We (people and the organisations we create) are part of nature and need to find value in connecting to our place on Earth as part of life’s interconnected systems.

An example of biomimicry is the 2002 book, What We Learned From The Rainforest: Business Lessons From Nature by Tachi Kiuchi and Bill Shireman. They identify some important  lessons organisations can learn from nature. These  include:

• Think systems and gather feedback to enable change. In a rainforest processes and systems are web like not linear hierarchies , which enables responsiveness to changing environments and prevents wasted energy. In a rainforest each species can be eaten by between 10 and 1,000 other species – it is not a linear food chain. Feedback within the system as to what is needed for survival and what works is fundamental to the forest functioning and adapting.

• Scarcity is a perspective. In the face of scarcity and limitations the rainforest does not decline, it uses this an opportunity to create a positive force that either increases resources in different way, or increases complexity to ensure resilience.

• Adapt or die (both through a global or organisation lens).  Enough said.

• Verges create explosive innovation. Verges are where two ecosystems overlap and diversity is at its greatest. Think collaboration.

• Consider succession. There are four phases to life in the rainforest: innovation, growth, improvement and release.  At the release phase are you ready for what comes next or are you hanging on to obsolete ways of working?

A few years ago, I completed a piece of research on organisation sustainability. Part of the research was exploring how not for profits defined sustainability, but I also gathered information on how organisations engaged in environmental sustainability. Excluding contributions from environment and conservation organisations, I found that less than 10% of organisations take action to mitigate the environmental impact of their organisations and the communities they serve.

While they all had a good understanding of the importance of considering environmental impact and the impact of climate and other environmental issues on the communities they worked with, they tended to focus on their particular mission outcome and its dimension of sustainability. In this research this was predominantly the social and cultural aspects. The organisations I spoke to told me that when they think of themselves as part of the broader not for profit sector that includes environment and conservation groups, then they felt the sector had a good balance in addressing and promoting sustainable outcomes. Five years since carrying out that research I'm interested to know if that feeling has changed and if organisations are now taking more responsibility for considering climate impact as part of their work to achieve their missions

I would like to leave you with two questions. Given the interconnectedness of the economic, social, cultural and environmental dimensions of sustainability:

• How does your organisation minimise and mitigate its impact on the environment?

• How does your mission contribute to or support positive environmental outcomes for our community?

If this is a conversation you’d like to continue, please email me at sandy@lead.org.nz.