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ORGANIZATIONAL LEARNING for a SUSTAINABLE FUTURE

Integrating sustainability strategies and organizational leading -- one approach focused on content (where we need to go) and the other focused on process (how we'll get there) -- may hold unprecedented potential for producing sustainable ecological and economic development. We have termed this synergy Sustainable Organizational Learning (SOL). Although the development of SOL is only in its initial stages, we can imagine a variety of learning practices through which SOL practitioners will work toward long-term economic and ecological sustainability:

• Aligning industrial cycles and natural systems. Conversations around strategy and future planning will include the question, "What business activities should we engage in that will be aligned with the systems conditions for sustainability?" The answers to this question will strongly influence investment decisions with respect to new products and services. In this way, SOL practitioners will begin to align their company's industrial cycles with natural systems.
  
  
• Building cross-company consortiums. By building consortiums of companies engaged in a similar inquiry, sustainable learning organizations will participate in company-to-company conversations that will enable them to learn from each other's challenges and successes in the pursuit of sustainability strategies.
  
  
• Engaging in ongoing practice. By studying and practicing the disciplines of SOL, practitioners will foster new learning in themselves, their companies, and their communities.
  
  
• Creating diverse learning communities. Perhaps most challenging, SOL practitioners will form diverse learning communities made up of the many stakeholders in the sustainability conversation: industrial representatives, environmental activists, government regulators, community members, and others. By practicing the learning disciplines that foster productive conversation, these communities will break through the entrenched debate and create new solutions to some of society's most intractable issues. They will develop a shared vision that encompasses the needs of all members of society, and take coherent action to ensure that these needs are met.
  
  

SUSTAINABILITY IN ACTION

A number of pioneering companies around the globe have begun to employ strategies for sustainable development. Already, they have seen substantial contributions to the bottom line via cost savings and revenue generation. For example, McDonald's Sweden is now composting food scraps that it formerly paid to have disposed of, and is selling this compost at a profit. The company has also reduced its packaging waste and has advertised this progress on its new, biodegradable tray covers.

The New England Power Company has opened a new coal ash recycling facility (coal ash is a waste product of the power production process and costs $15 per ton to dispose of in landfills). The ash is now being recycled via a patented process at a production rate of 20-25 tons per hour. New England Power is selling the recycled ash at a profit as a cement substitute in the manufacture of concrete. The material makes the concrete stronger, easier to pour, more resistant to salt water, and less expensive to produce than the standard cement currently used in concrete.

In 1975, 3M began its 3P Program ("Pollution Prevention Pays"). The program currently saves the company close to $500 million a year in reduced air pollution, water pollution, sludge, and solid waste disposal costs. In addition, 3M is saving $650 million through energy conservation.

Dow Chemical, a firm that has been much maligned for its past environmental performance, now has a program called WRAP ("Waste Reduction Always Pays"). WRAP decisions include the installation of corrosion-resistant pipe, the purchase of purer raw materials, and a redesign of the company's catalytic converters. These changes have increased Dow's annual net profits by $890,000. From 1984 to 1988, Dow cut its emissions in half, and in 1991 it ranked 29th among chemical companies in total emissions, even though it is the second-largest company in the industry.

These companies, and others like them, are using innovation to develop strategies that improve both their economic and ecological viability.

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