Three Steps Toward Making Business More Sustainable

We live in troubled times. The practices, institutions, and systems which our culture has evolved during the two centuries since the dawn of the Industrial Revolution are everywhere reaching and exceeding the limits of their usefulness to humanity as a whole, and, in many cases, have actually become detrimental to the well-being of the planet and its inhabitants. They are increasingly recognized as being unsustainable over the long term. Yet, as the oft-cited Chinese proverb points out, every time of crisis is equally a time of opportunity. The challenge before us is nothing less than the complete redesign of virtually all human systems, such that they are transformed from their present unsustainable forms into ones which instead reflect and maintain the sanctity of life and the dignity of all beings. Although this will be an arduous process extending over many generations, the end goal, the vision of the future world which we have to inspire us and lead us forward, is one in which many of the highest aspirations of the great sages of the past are finally fulfilled: a world characterized by peace, equality, freedom of individual expression, and harmony between human society and the natural world. Our task is to begin the process of bringing this vision into being by clearly acknowledging and working with the situation which this particular historical moment presents us with, regardless of how unpleasant, discouraging, or frightening it seems to be. Probably the most outstanding characteristic of our times is the extent to which economic concerns outweigh all others. The story of the last two centuries is, in large part, one of ever-increasing encroachment by economics upon previously uncommoditized realms of human experience. This implies two complimentary directions in which we need to move simultaneously as