SUSTAINABILITY


5 steps to a sustainable organisation


Karen Tidsall argues that business needs a more sustainable way of working for long-term success


T


oday’s business mantra is ‘growth at all costs’. It’s become so endemic and so mainstream that we don’t even question it. But this global growth ambition has become the


economic engine-room that pushes human beings, organisations, societies and the planet beyond their limits. Globally we are consuming resources 50 per cent faster than we can replace them. We cannot grow indefinitely in a world with finite resources.


The World Commission on Environment and Development (WCED) argues that achieving sustainability will require an approach that de-emphasises growth and explicitly embraces environmental and social goals as the key dimensions of development. But the dominant economic paradigm


perpetuates the myth that growth is the only way forward. This is not workable and on a fundamental level it is de-humanising. Organisations increasingly require a more sustainable way to work in the future. There is a deep-seated emotional driver that is pushing the economy and people to beyond their capacity – boiled down to its essence this can be seen as the need to be loved. While we are not terribly comfortable looking at work through the lens of the psyche, emotions play a leading role in our life at work. Psychologists Teresa Amabile and Steven Kramer interviewed 600 managers and found that 95 per cent thought money was the key motivator for employees. But after analysing over


www.trainingjournal.com September 2015 23


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