Toward Sustainable Futures

Future Thinking

Question: do you think we can be sustainable in business?

I asked a group of business owners at a workshop I was facilitating what does sustainability mean to you and your business. All these businesses are associated with products and services associated with energy, energy efficientency and/or the built environment. The majority gave profitable as their main reason for being sustainable over and above the environment.

Having just said that I am in the process of developing a business plan that is based around sustainability which brings in the core values I have , that is, business needs to be more than just profitable it has be sustainable.

What is the meaning of sustainability to me. Humans can not be sustainable within a natural system, we manipulate and change a system to meet our needs, the only caveat I have is we maintain our natural systems for our survival.

One of the other beliefs I have is that I think humans will leave this planet and colonise other planets/systems, this gives us more choice for survival of the species, but first we need to maintain the system we life on at the moment and survive long enough to do it.

I like to think of futures that are beyond my life and that of my children, that to me is sustainability.