leadership

ISSP Board of Directors to Announce Recipient In Mid-June

“The ISSP Pinnacle Award acknowledges those people that have contributed the most to the emerging field of sustainability,” says Marsha Willard, president and executive director of ISSP. “It honors those that have given their time, their knowledge, their creativity and their hard work to blazing the trail for other professionals to follow.”

Who are the finalists?

• Ray Anderson, CEO of Interface Corporation and one of sustainability's earliest pioneers. He is a frequent conference speaker and author of “Mid-Course Correction: Toward a Sustainable Enterprise: The Interface Model and "Confessions of a Radical Industrialist: Profits, People, Purpose: Doing Business by Respecting the Earth."

• Gil Friend, president and CEO of Natural Logic. Friend has been a central figure in helping drive the creation of the sustainability consulting arena over the past twenty years. He is the author of The Truth About Green Business, which was ranked as a top "must read" sustainability book in a recent Triple Pundit survey.

• Amory B. Lovins, an American consultant, experimental physicist and 1993 MacArthur Fellow. He has been active at the nexus of energy, resources, environment, development and security in more than 50 countries for 35 years, including 14 years based in England.

• Karl Henrik Robert, a Swedish cancer researcher and founder of The Natural Step framework for sustainable development. In recent years, he has focused his scientific research through the Real Change Program, an international initiative linking university research specialization in real worapplication using The Natural Step framework.

• Bob Willard, a leading expert on quantifying and selling the business case for sustainability. He is a consultant, teacher, speaker and author whose books include The Sustainability Advantage, The Next Sustainability Wave and The Sustainability Champion's Guidebook.

“All of the finalists are certainly giants in the field of sustainability, whose shoulders we all stand on as a profession,” says Marsha Willard. “Establishment of the ISSP Pinnacle Award reflects the continued evolution of the sustainability field, and sets a high standard for those who will come after us.”

How were finalists chosen?

The ISSP Pinnacle Award is an honor granted to professionals by their peers. In the autumn of 2010, all members of ISSP were invited to submit nominees, along with a short rationale for each nomination. The ISSP board of directors then narrowed the list to the finalists that most closely met criteria for service, research, innovation, advancement of the case for sustainability, participation in the adoption of sustainability in sectors or regions, and/or contribution to the definition of the profession.

During the next month, the ISSP board of directors will accept comments on the five finalists from the ISSP membership. The ISSP board of directors will use this input to inform their choice, and will announce their selection in mid-June. The recipient will be notified at that time and will be invited to attend the ISSP Conference to be held September 21 – 23 in Portland, Oregon, where the award will be presented on the second day of the conference.

About ISSP

The International Society of Sustainability Professionals (ISSP) is the world's leading professional association for sustainability professionals. ISSP is a member-driven association committed to moving the profession of sustainability forward through building strong networks and communities of practice. Formed in 2007, ISSP boasts more than 500 members from every continent in the world. Members share resources and best practices, and develop themselves professionally. Webinars, Webchats, on-line classes, special reports, resource directories, salary surveys, and a professional competency study are just a sampling of the rich content offered to members. For more information about ISSP, its offerings and the upcoming ISSP Conference, please visit http://sustainabilityprofessionals.org.

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Parkin, Sara (2010) The Positive Deviant: Sustainability Leadership in a Perverse World. Earthscan: London, England.

When I first started reading this book, I was really excited. The intro claimed the book was for those of us who “does the right thing for sustainability, despite being surrounded by the wrong institutional structures, the wrong processes, and stubbornly uncooperative people.” I was so hungry for a book that could help me and others deal with our role in society, of being Cassandra, trying to convince the oblivious masses on the Titanic that we need to turn the ship. I wanted tools and techniques, or at least some commiseration. But the book never fulfilled my hopes.
Section 1 is a nice review of the state of the world and sustainability concepts, with some new info I hadn’t seen (eg a table showing the rates of depletion of critical metals and minerals).
Section 2 covers our dysfunctional system including leadership models and business schools that contribute to the status quo.
Section 3 covers sustainability-literate leadership, including four habits of thought: resilience, relationships, reflection and reverence.
Section 4 is the global to do list.

 Pink, Daniel (2009) Drive: The surprising truth about what motivates us. London, England: Riverhead Books.

The best part about this book: The message. “When it comes to motivation, there’s a gap between what science knows and business does. Our current business operating system—which is built around external, carrot-and-stick motivators—doesn’t work and often does harm. We need an upgrade. And the science shows the way. This new approach has three essential elements: 1) Autonomy—the desire to direct our own lives; 2) Mastery—the urge to get better and better at something that matters; and 3) Purpose—the yearning to do what we do in the service of something larger than ourselves.” (p203-4) Given the values of Gen-Y and the increasing need for creativity, this is an important message. This is an important aspect of social sustainability.
 
The most discouraging thing about this book: The message. Geez Louise. Marsha and I were teaching this stuff, along with Self-Directed Teams in the 80’s and 90’s. Eric Trist and Tavistock, where socio-technical systems theory was born, was in the 60’s. Alfie Kohn’s work, Punished by Rewards, was released in 1993. Why does each generation of managers have to rediscover certain truths about human nature? Why is it so easy for the ‘system’ to revert to paternalistic, controlling paradigms?
 
The best idea to emulate: The structure of his book. The table of contents includes little quotations from the text as an advance organizer. Then after engaging and witty chapters, he provides a set of tools for different audiences (how to help yourself, how to do this at work, how to do it at school). And at the very end, he provides a summary chapter, including a Twitter-length summary, the cocktail party summary and then a chapter by chapter summary. Brilliant.