This coming week is the 30th anniversary of the Rio Earth Summit (which launched the sustainable development paradigm) and the 50th anniversary of the Stockholm conference (which alerted world leaders to environmental dilemmas). Such anniversaries previously brought much fanfare from the UN. Not this year. The backsliding on poverty and the environment is so shocking and underminingContinue reading “EARTH SUMMIT REFLECTIONS”
Category Archives: Economy
EU PLANS to ACCELERATE RENEWABLES
Europe’s plan to slash Russian fossil fuel imports and accelerate renewable energy production will test its ability to find the minerals, metals and other components that are needed for a dramatic shift to clean power. The plan, outlined by the European Commission, would speed the continent toward a historic transition to wind and solar energy,Continue reading “EU PLANS to ACCELERATE RENEWABLES”
COHORT 2040 CHALLENGE
How Can Future Leaders be Better Prepared for a Future of Worsening Environmental Crisis (https://www.ippr.org/files/2022-01/cohort-2040-jan-22.pdf ) This report from the Institute for Public Policy research(IPPR) is yet another wake up call for all of those who are asking where the leadership will come from to tackle a worsening environmental and social crisis created by humanitiesContinue reading “COHORT 2040 CHALLENGE”
Quality of the Student Experience and the Levelling up Agenda
Since its inception in 2018 the Office for Students (OfS) has not placed any priority on the environmental and social sustainability agenda unlike its predecessors (Higher Education Funding Council; Quality Assurance Agency). So, I was interested to see it announce a new consultation on its next strategy. What caught my attention was the propositionContinue reading “Quality of the Student Experience and the Levelling up Agenda”
Doing More with Less: Ensuring Sustainable Consumption and Production
Still Only One Earth: Lessons from 50 years of UN sustainable development policy Today the International Institute for Sustainable Development (IISD) sent out a relatively short-for them- reflection on how far we have progressed over the past 50 years on the journey towards a sustainable future . It struck me as a prescient and harshContinue reading “Doing More with Less: Ensuring Sustainable Consumption and Production”
A HIGHER PURPOSE FOR HIGHER EDUCATION
….in order to act as a driver for change, education itself needs to change, to become transformative, to change values and behaviours. ( Leicht, Combes, Byun, Agbedahin 2018, p29).Steve Sterling and I recently argued in a short paper for the International Association of Universities( https://iau-aiu.net/IAU-Horizons) that in our experience there is a growing and urgentContinue reading “A HIGHER PURPOSE FOR HIGHER EDUCATION”
IS ARIZONA STATE UNIVERSITY A TRANSFORMATIVE UNIVERSITY?
I once wrote a book review on effective executive sustainability leadership in our universities in which I declared that, in my experience, there were none who could live up to this accomplishment. I can now report that there is at least one: Michael M Crow, the President of Arizona State University. Today I listened toContinue reading “IS ARIZONA STATE UNIVERSITY A TRANSFORMATIVE UNIVERSITY?”
NEW WAYS of THINKING AND ACTING in the ANTHROPOCENE
Guest Blog by Barry Carney: MSc (Centre for Alternative Technology, UK); Change Agents UK research associate. In the age of the Anthropocene, we urgently need new ways of thinking and acting. Economists are predicting that biophysical limits will determine the post-growth world and, as things stand, this will be characterised by mass migration, profound naturalContinue reading “NEW WAYS of THINKING AND ACTING in the ANTHROPOCENE”
IDEAS FOR A GROWN-UP ECONOMY
As we enter week 8 of the lock down, along with thoughts of returning to work or sending children back to school, there is a growing chorus of voices talking about the need for a new form of economics. One of these voices is called the Wellbeing Alliance (WEALL for short: https://wellbeingeconomy.org/ ) WEALL isContinue reading “IDEAS FOR A GROWN-UP ECONOMY”
THE HIDDEN POWER OF SYSTEMS THINKING Governance in a Climate Emergency
In many of my recent blogs I have begun to focus on how we can implement transformational change. During my time as the CEO of a new company in the fastest growing city in the UK- Milton Keynes in the late 1990s, I found myself engaging with some of the foremost creative and influential academicsContinue reading “THE HIDDEN POWER OF SYSTEMS THINKING Governance in a Climate Emergency”
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