SUSTAINABLE LEADERSHIP AND THE ENVIRONMENT
Poverty is continuously cited as the reason for environmental degradation on the African continent in general and even in our nation of Kenya. I’d like to suggest that is not poverty but rather greed, corruption and ignorance which serve to keep people poor which in turns forces people to take drastic measures to survive at the cost of the environment.
Our quest for development at all costs is putting unparalleled stress on our ecosystems. This requires environmental leadership provided by people like the late Wangari Maathai that will move us from crisis into transformation using innovation. Our counties need, leadership that is not only inward, but outward and forward looking and that sees the challenges we face in Kenya as opportunities for innovations, new ideas and new paradigms.
As a nation, we could beg to ask the question why our development trajectory must be curtailed by environmental concerns. After all so called developed nations got where they are by jumping on the Industrial revolution bandwagon of the 18th century which was not known for its environmentally consciousness. This was the old paradigm of leadership which emphasized money as the bottom line and saw people and nature as commodities to be exploited for financial gain. It was mortgaging the future for the sake of the present. We have a right to aspire to development, but if we go the western way we will be aspiring to an unsustainable way of life. We have the advantage of wisdom gained from others’ past mistakes.
What does good environmental leadership look like? We need leaders with the courage to learn from the past and who take calculated educated risks in the present without mitigating the future. The new paradigm sees business and the economy as tools to enhance humanity and the earth’s well being. The health of communities and living systems are the indicators by which we measure economic success and policy is formulated and assessed according these. We need to recognize that the strategies we have used in the past to feed and clothe ourselves, provide shelter and create livelihoods have compounded rather than solved our problems. We need leaders who embrace creativity and innovation in the discovery of solutions faced by our societies. Dare we dream?
American Scientist Ian Kay told us that “the best way to predict the future is to invent it.” So in order to affect change Sustainable leadership has to have the ability to both forecast and back cast our future. This means imagining where we want to be in the future and working backwards to figure out the steps we need to take to get there. What do we need to do in our counties to become energy independent, waste efficient and with the ability to circulate our waste water as examples? By setting sustainability goals and back casting as opposed to forecasting which is exploitative and based on what is happening today. What are the indicators that we will see on the way back to show that we are on the way to achieve our goals? It involves examining social indicators and value shifts along the way. You should find that there is a discontent between where you want to be in the future and the current trajectory that you are on.
Sustainable leadership acknowledges the paradoxes that exist in the quest to attain goals. So it’s not a linear pursuit towards achieving goals, but one has to have to have the ability to hold the tension of paradoxes as data comes in that does not fit with one’s original conception of the solutions. This will show you where you need to innovate and create breakthroughs in order to reach the envisioned future. It is not hierarchical and positional but more about networking and interconnectedness the way nature works. We need leaders who can mimic nature and adapt a leadership model that fits to the needs at hand while considering the impact on the future of choices made today. You can shape the future instead of accepting the future. Dare we dream?
The earth is systems composed of many systems and our misunderstanding or abuse of these systems according to economist Nicholas Stern (in The Economics of Climate Change) “could destabilize critical biophysical systems and trigger abrupt or irreversible environmental changes that would be deleterious or even catastrophic for human well-being. This is a profound dilemma because the predominant paradigm of social and economic development remains largely oblivious to the risk of human-induced environmental disasters at continental to planetary scales”. The strain we have put on the environment should encourage us to find more sustainable ways of existing on earth. Author and living economist Dr David Korten teaches that ecosystems and natural organisms are affected by the same challenges humans face, but they find ways of overcoming those challenges in a sustainable manner. In biology we learn that life self organizes. We learn that nature has been researching and developing ideas ever since its existence and it is nature’s best ideas that are thriving on earth today because, the process of natural selection has removed failures. There is an intricate relationship between earth’s living organisms that fashion and maintain the earth’s vibrant community of life. This system continuously regenerates the planet’s soils, forests, rivers, fisheries etc, while maintaining a balance of climate and chemicals in the earth’s atmosphere that is suitable to earth numerous life forms. Through the study of the systems created by these organisms we can learn new ways of designing and engineering in order to address the issues we face in, the economy, the environment, climate change, food production, energy, transportation, the way we heal ourselves and many more. This is known as biomimcry. We have instead created an economic system that exploits, suppresses and disrupts living systems.
Scientist Johan Rockstrom, in an address to participants at the July 2010 TED global event, cautioned that we have knowledge gaps that indicate an urgent need to recognize Earth System thresholds, to consider risks and uncertainties, to apply a precautionary principle, to identify planetary boundaries and to avoid crossing such undesired thresholds. The governance and management paradigms in use today are often neglectful to or lack a mandate to act upon these planetary threats. The reality is that legislators, the business community, and the public will only embrace efforts to protect the environment and preserve our natural resources if it makes economic sense.
The idea is to fashion new ways of living on earth that are tailored to life on earth over the long term. Biomimicry offers that crucial link. Each individual species in a biological system shares the fate of the network. By increasing efficiency and reducing costs, solutions inspired by nature can allow us to both achieve better standards of living and preserve the environment. It’s a new way of thinking that measures the health of a system by the well being of its living systems and promotes community based ownership of resources that is equitable and that is vested in the interest of future generations. We know that this new way of thinking will take some time to take root. Biomimicry offers leadership conducive to life.