BEYOND SUSTAINABILITY - a vision for the world we all love

Why “beyond” sustainability?

When the karate master seeks to smash the plank of wood or block of stone, they know to aim beyond the obstacle.?Their target is not the obstacle.?It is the place beyond it.?

For many of us, the same is true of sustainability.?I deliberately use the word “many” because there are millions of people doing amazing work to avoid the devastation of the ills that challenge our precious world.?They wish to see an end to poverty, hunger, poor education, runaway climate change, destruction of habitat, war, injustice and much more.?I totally and utterly celebrate their essential work in the world.

Indeed, when world leaders, signed onto the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) in 2015, I celebrated with many others.?Here, for the first time in the history of humankind was a vision we could all buy into.?A world free from the scourges described above.?I was inspired and re-arranged my career plan to devote time to play my part.?I wrote “Designing the Purposeful World – the Sustainable Development Goals as a blueprint for humanity” (Routledge 2018) as a sequel to “Designing the Purposeful Organisation – how to inspire business performance beyond boundaries” (Kogan Page 2015).?I established the Harrogate branch of the United Nations Association (UNA) to encourage local action and I set up a Facebook Page for the SDGs (which now has over 30,000 followers).?

I also began to speak wherever I could to engage audiences in the SDGs.?I consider myself fortunate to have worked in this way with thousands of people from the age of seven to well over seventy across three continents.?I typically began by asking them to close their eyes and visit anywhere in the world they would like to go.?These explorers have (in their mind’s eye) visited cities, forests, oceans – indeed every corner of our precious world.

We each hold a better world in our hearts

I am always inspired when audiences share their adventures with each other but two hold a very special place in my heart.?

A young man visited a place deep in the ocean and commented how beautiful it was – teaming with life and free from plastic and other debris.?This was a stark contrast to his experiences as a scuba diver.?He commented that this journey inspired him to devote his career to cleaning up the oceans.

A ten-year old girl visited a playground in Syria.?The children were smiling, laughing and playing, whilst their parents sat in cafes in the street opposite enjoying coffee and some working on their laptops – and the buildings were beautiful!

Paradise

To me, these are visions of a world “beyond sustainability”.?They are visions of a fabulous, gorgeous world that we will be delighted to live in.?They are visions of paradise.?This world inspires me.

Recently, I challenged myself to summarise my paradise under six headings.?Why six??Because even after working intimately with the seventeen SDGs, I still struggle to list them all and remember their numbers.?So here are my six.?I would really love to know whether they resonate with you.

I’ve also done an analysis of these six to see how they encompass the essence of the SDGs.?Here is my analysis.?It’s not an exact science.

One thing I noticed after my analysis is that “Wisdom” stands out as one that I didn’t attribute any one SDG to.?I guess we could argue that all 17 of the goals require wisdom but I’ve left it as a new part of my “beyond sustainability” vision.

Celebrate your part

Another thing that really inspires me is the fact that there are so many individuals and organisations working towards one or more of my set of six.?If you are (or represent) one of them, please let me know.?I would like to celebrate your work in a sequel to this article and ultimately in a book of the same (or similar) title.?Just contact me on Linked In so we can discuss the best way to do this.

Love or connection?

I would also love to know your views on the heading for one of my six “sub-visions”.?Labelled in the diagram as “connection”, I actually started with the heading “love” but chickened out as I thought it might not resonate in the corporate world – this being my target audience.?Again, I welcome your thoughts and guidance.?Am I being too cautious??Does “connection” work well in your world?

In future articles

I would like to delve deeper into each of my set of six sub-visions and share case studies of people, organisations and projects that are already making them happen.?I also want to share with you my ideas on the concept of Earth Warriors – archetypal people who are making all this happen.?Watch this space.

Most of all I will be guided by you.?Where does this work need to go??And, if you’d like to be involved in any way just let me (or any of the team at Primeast) know.?I’ll be doing a lot more thinking, writing, speaking, facilitating and coaching in the months ahead.?I’d love you to be part of it.