Linked with The Natural Step TNS, and with … a way of talking about « systems thinking ».
He says: ”How do we get from reductionist to systems thinking? A system is, as everybody knows, constructed by a concept of overall principles for the system. In football, for example, you have eleven players in each team in that system, you have one ball, two goals and a lot of other rules. You don’t approach the referee before the match and say, “Please couldn’t we have fourteen players in our team today?” All the players share the overall principles of what football is and those rules are non-negotiable, at least while you play the match. There are people with different skills in the team: a goal-keeper, attackers and so forth, and they can work together as an intelligent organism because they share the non-negotiable rules of what they are doing. They have exact images of that. (Read the 12 pages of The Ecology of Business).
Karl-Henrik Robèrt, M.D., Ph.D., is one of Sweden’s leading cancer scientists. In 1989, Robèrt initiated an environmental movement called The Natural Step TNS.
Read: Seeding a quiet revolution.
Karl-Henrik Robèrt – Sweden
Karl-Henrik Robèrt is one of the world’s foremost sustainability experts. In 1988 he founded The Natural Step in Sweden, an international environmental non-for-profit that coaches organizations to become role models in sustainability.
A surgeon by training, Dr Robèrt is a prominent cancer scientist. As a former Director of Research at the Karolinska Institute he has lectured widely on leukemia, lymphoma, lung cancer and their clinical implications. During his 5 minutes speach on Big Pictures, recorded in April 2006, he describes how businesses, municipalities, universities and other organizations can become positive role models for sustainability.
In an increasingly unsustainable world, businesses will not be able to pursue ‘business as usual’. With a better understanding of the growing constraints of unsustainability, strategies can be implemented to avoid future costs and seize opportunities. On six following pages you may listen to other short speaches on Big-Pictures.
… The basis for that book, according to the TNS Web site, came from a Swedish oncologist who, in 1989, became frustrated by the convoluted approach to his country’s methods of addressing environmental issues. Dr. Karl-Henrik Robert brought the leading scientists together to try to find a common consensus for a sustainable society. Sustainability is defined in the book as “a way of life that meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs”. (Read the whole on Royal Purple).
New York, May 3 2005 – Dr Karl-Henrik Robèrt, who founded The Natural Step in 1988 and is Chairman of The Natural Step International, has been named the 2005 inaugural winner of the prestigious global award, the Social Responsibility Laureate Medal. The Award, one of three made by The Global Center for Leadership & Business Ethics for achievements in leadership, corporate governance and social responsibility, was announced today by William W. George, chairman of The Global Center. (Read all on naturalstep).
links:
Environmental Health: What Mainstream Media Doesn’t Tell You.