The necessary revolution : how individuals and organizations are working together to create a sustainable world / Peter Senge ... [and others].

Format:

Book

Contributor:

Senge, Peter M.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Sustainable development.

Industries--Environmental aspects.

Industries.

Social responsibility of business.

Physical Description:

vii, 406 pages : illustrations ; 25 cm

Edition:

First edition.

Place of Publication:

New York : Doubleday, [2008]

Summary:

The End of an Era. The Industrial Age Bubble-the "take, make, waste" way of thinking that has dominated the developed world for the past two hundred years-is coming to an end. Leaders from organizations and groups as diverse as Coca-Cola and Costco, DuPont and Google, Alcoa and Nike, Oxfam, the World Wildlife Fund, and the U.S. Green Building Council are leading the charge to change the very way we do business.

The Dawn of a Revolution. The environmental and social challenges before us-climate change, the depletion of natural resources, the side effects of rampant consumerism, and a widening economic divide-create an unprecedented opportunity for change. Initiatives from innovative organizations in every sector-from the EU's End of Vehicle Lifetime directive to Nike's new green products to Coke's transformative collaboration with the World Wildlife Fund-are proving that by working together, businesses, government, and nonprofit organizations are starting to bring about real, sustainable change.

We Must Act Together Now. The Necessary Revolution offers a toolkit with specific strategies and points of action to help change how organizations think and act. Our situation could not be more urgent. We need to cut carbon dioxide emissions globally by 80 percent in twenty years. We need to reduce our consumption of water and energy drastically. We need to stop pretending that the problems belong to someone else: In an interconnected world, it doesn't matter whose end of the boat has a hole. There are no "good guys" and "bad guys"-we are all responsible for our core sustainability issues: food, water, energy, waste, and toxicity. And every one of us has to be part of the solution.

Contents:

Part I Endings, New Beginnings

1 A Future Awaiting Our Choices 3

2 How We Got into This Predicament 14

3 Life Beyond the Bubble 33

4 New Thinking, New Choices 42

Part II The Future is Now

5 Never Doubt What One Person and a Small Group of Co-Conspirators Can Do 57

6 Aligning an Industry 68

7 Unconventional Allies: Coke and WWF Partner for Sustainable Water 77

8 Risks and Opportunities: The Business Rationale for Sustainability 101

9 Positioning for the Future and the Present 119

10 Getting People Engaged 140

11 Building Your Case for Change 157

Part IV Seeing Systems

12 The Tragedy and Opportunity of the Commons 168

13 Spaceship Earth 179

14 Seeing Our Choices 196

Part V Collaborating Across Boundaries

15 The Imperative to Collaborate 227

16 Convening: "Get the System in the Room" 234

17 Seeing Reality Through Others Eyes 250

18 Building Shared Commitment 267

Part VI From Problem Solving to Creating

19 Innovation Inspired by Living Systems 285

20 Unleashing Everyday Magic 292

21 You Don't Have to Have All the Answers 302

22 From Low-Hanging Fruit to New Strategic Possibilities 310

23 It's Not What the Vision Is, It's What the Vision Does 324

24 Redesigning for the Future 334

Part VII The Future

25 The Future of the Corporation 348

26 The Future of Enterprise Variety 356

27 The Future of Leadership 364

28 The Future of Our Relations 374

29 The Future of Us 378.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references (pages 387-399) and index.

ISBN:

9780385519014

038551901X

OCLC:

215176047