The Next Ten Years: Getting to Scale

A ten year anniversary allows us to reflect on what has happened in the past, but also calls us to plan for the future. Most Network members did not need to be convinced that sustainable development is necessary, for them The Natural Step provided a path for how to get to sustainability. At the same time most companies and government entities have gone on with business as usual. The past 18 months have certainly seen a drastic sea change. It didn’t start with movies like An Inconvenient Truth and The 11th Hour, however, these films are powerful artful messages of the problems we face. It seems that nearly every day newspapers, radio programs and television news tell stories of the rapid effects of climate change, species threatened by extinction, water shortages, the struggles of refugees from drought, storms, and wars around the world. We are reminded every day that our work has just begun.

The evidence of rapid climate change is both good and bad. For many the problem is so great, that a natural response is despair, and then indifference. However, most folks, particularly Natural Step members, look for answers. For us it isn’t acceptable not to try to make our children’s world as good as the one we’ve known. We need to act.

At one end of the spectrum of action are the things individuals and companies can do that make incremental changes: switching to CFL lightbulbs, using energy efficient appliances, reducing the number of miles we drive. These are good things, but alone they are not enough. The Natural Step has taught us that what is needed is systemic change in nearly everything we do in order that we align our activities to conform within the most basic laws of nature.

In order to achieve this goal, business and government must work together. Our leaders must recognize and speak the truth about the type of changes needed. And we must lead by example. We believe that the Natural Step’s role must be to provide more understanding and education about the Framework. In addition, Network members can provide leadership by making commitments to pursuing real systemic change. This is the idea behind a project we’re calling the Challenge. We’re asking organizations to pledge to take on four big goals toward sustainability in the next 10 years. We’ve outlined twelve as a starting point and allow organizations to choose four of the twelve goals. These goals aren’t the end point, they’re designed to stimulate discussion and to stimulate organizations to think beyond incremental efforts and strive for systemic change.

We’ll be rolling out the Challenge this fall after the 10 year event. Please consider taking the Challenge and being part of an effort to make systemic change a reality in the next 10 years.