Levels of Sustainability
The Institute for Sustainability and Technology Policy (ISTP), which has over 80 post-graduate and 100 undergraduate students doing research into the many fields of sustainability, recently asked that we help coordinate an Advanced Sustainability course in Organizational Sustainability for Engineers Australia.
While probably not the first Integral Organizational Sustainability course in the world, we did design the course structure to look at all the facets of sustainability across 4 quadrants, 6 levels and 9 lines for all different types of organizations. The case studies presented by different leaders in organizational sustainability on Argyle Diamonds, Water Corporation, Pilbara Iron and the Sultanate of Oman covered a spectrum of approaches to the concepts, culture, systems and measurement of sustainability.
Talking about the levels of sustainability is always difficult, mostly because everyone’s approach is completely right - just at different times for different organizations. One thing that was different about this course was the way we integrated the stages of sustainability within the phases of sustainability - to see all sustainability steps as appropriate.
A useful way to look at this major part of an integral approach is provided by Dexter Dunphy’s perspective on the six phases of sustainability commitment:
1. Rejection
2. Non-Responsiveness
3. Compliance
4. Efficiency
5. Strategic Proactivity
6. The Sustaining Organization
Each of the six phases builds on (and assumes) the economic, social and ecological mastery of all the activities of all previous phases. It also holds within it the many different models of corporate social responsibility and corporate citizenship that often confuse our sustainability thinking. It is a model of great depth that transcends and includes many initiatives across all stages. It correlates well with a 4Q approach.
What was rewarding about doing the course in this way was how the working groups were able to find the appropriate present level of sustainability existence for their organization and the (tetra-evolutionary) path to where their sustainability programs should be in the near future.
If we all only did this - how much better would our world be?
Read an early Chapter: (pdf)
Read the Book: Organizational Change for Corporate Sustainability - Dunphy, Griffiths and Benn (2003)
Read a Case Study: Argyle Diamonds
See tetra-evolution