“Are we really about to tell the President of the United States that we have just over six months until humankind, basically every species, is completely extinct?”

Kate Dibiaski – main character in the movie Don’t Look Up

THE STORY:

As a sustainability leader, you are trying to solve huge problems at all scales and in all areas – economic and social and environmental. That is part, or all, of your profession. And just like all of us in all industries, you yourself have “pains” that are in the way of your performance.

This post is part of a series that explores these pains. In part one of The Pains of Sustainability Leaders, we explored an overarching problem that is causing or seriously influencing all of the other problems that humanity and the world have: The lack of knowledge about and practice of how to change human behavior. In this blog post, we will list many of the pains that sustainability leaders say they have, which, unsurprisingly, all stem from the same overarching problem.

THE PROBLEM:

Most sustainability professionals focus excessively on their outer world, the realities happening outside of themselves. The “climate change folks”, for example, focus on the heavens and how what happens there impacts the earth and our chances of survival. But are they paying attention to their own thoughts and feelings? Our mindset and our moods considerably affect how we see realities. A short mindfulness practice every day is enough to gradually show us how our mind affects our worldview, and therefore what we may tell ourselves and others about climate or anything else.

Sustainability leaders, your pains matter (to all matter)!

THE SUSTAINABLE SOLUTION:

In order to have a more integrated worldview, one that sees as many factors as possible, we must decide to have an introspective view of the realities inside of our own body and mind, in addition to whatever we may observe outside. When we do that, we are also gradually able to observe correlations between inside and outside. And that will blow the mind of those who try. Guaranteed.

In order to do a better job as sustainability professionals, we must become conscious of and address our pains. And the first step is to describe each one of them.

Throughout my career, when I have asked sustainability leaders about the pains, issues, or challenges that they face in their work, I have received similar responses.

Most leaders answer:

• “They just don’t get it! We’ve explained the problem, with the scientific results to prove it, countless times, but they aren’t seeing the obvious!”
• “Senior management doesn’t get it! The bosses in our organization say one thing but do another. They are the ones impeding progress towards sustainability”.
• “People and planet concerns are considered separate from the mainstream business and the profits concerns in my company. Sustainability is left out of the overall organizational strategy”.

And there are variants of the above pains, such as:

• “My organization sees the importance of people but completely forgets the planet”.
• “My organization sees the importance of the planet but completely forgets people”.
• “My organization sees the importance of people and the planet but within the category of people they do not prioritize health and well-being”.
• “The metrics and indicators of sustainability are all over the place. We all seem to have our own idea of what sustainability entails and how to measure it”.

And in the category of metrics and indicators we also have: 

• “Impact measurement is particularly problematic. We do not have universally recognized metrics for impact”.

Most sustainability leaders also mention:

• “We just don’t have enough time to do everything that needs to be done!”
  

• “We just don’t have enough money to pay for everything that these sustainability projects require!”

Do you see a pattern in the above pains?

Do you recognize your own experience or that of your team or organization in these pains?

Which pains stand out to you as the most problematic to you? Can you elaborate?

Do you have different pains, or other variants that stem from one of the pains above?

What has been done in your organization to address these pains if anything?

The more we know about the pains we have, the better we can address them. Now that we understand the overarching problem and common pains that sustainability leaders claim they are suffering from, we may “go deeper” and learn how to work with the pain itself – inside of our own bodies – and create more lasting solutions.

Stay tuned for Part 3 of The Pains of Sustainability Leaders!