insights

When asked recently to design a course in Sustainability for Systems Thinkers I wondered who could be considered the foundational thinkers who have inspired the present leaders in the sustainability field?

So I went to my community of practice and asked 12 leaders in sustainability thinking who I have had the privilege to work with to name their sources of inspiration. Their responses were worth sharing.

Being from many disciplines and backgrounds the composite list had many names in common and a diverse range of inspirations. Combining the contributions of all suggested the following three groups of writers, philosophers, activists, artists, architects, theorists and environmentalists (in no particular order):

The Inspiring (the pioneers):

E.F. Schumacher
Donella Meadows
Buckminster Fuller
Amory Lovins
Francisco Varela
John Elkington
Joanna Macy
David Holmgren
Peter Senge
Christopher Alexander

The Inspired who we follow in their work: Lance Gunderson, C. S. Holling, Gunter Pauli, Paul Hawken, Lester Brown, Ingrid Stefanovic, Lynne Margulis, James Lovelock, William A. McDonough, James Grier Miller, Jane Jacobs, Bill McKibben, Anne Wilson-Schaef, Margaret Wheatley, Myron Kellner-Rogers, Peter H. Kahn, Stephen Kellert, Jack Turner, R. Bruce Hull, Dexter Dunphy, Bill Torbert, Joseph Tainter, Thomas Homer-Dixon, Jared Diamond,

And The Inspirational who are applying their thinking in contemporary practice: Paulo Lugari, Frank Fisher, Darcy Riddell, Alexander Lazlo, Vandan Shiva, Ann Dale, Brian Walker and Graham Harris.

We hope to see your name on such a list some day soon.