ISIS Academy GmbH launches in Germany with catalog of Master Classes in sustainability …

Master Class in Change and Sustainability
Join us in Stockholm, May 16-21!

Everyone working on sustainability needs a break sometimes … but often, the best kind of “break” comes in the company of other people like ourselves, from other parts of the world, who are also dedicated to making change. I personally take this kind of “break” at least once a year to refresh my knowledge, sharpen my skills, and re-ignite that feeling of inspiration.

So I am very happy to announce the opening of the new ISIS Academy! Because our intention is to help you do just that. I and Axel Klimek, the CEO of ISIS Academy, warmly invite you to participate in one of our Master Classes on change and sustainability.

If you are intrigued, you can jump directly to our new website here:

http://isisacademy.com

Below, you’ll find a letter from myself and Axel describing how came together to create this exciting new enterprise. You’ll also find a list of the courses we are currently offering.

Our 3rd Annual Master Class in Change and Sustainability will happen on May 16-21, here in Stockholm Sweden. Please join us!

Please spread the word about this and other Master Classes. See the website for details!

We are also developing our network of trainers to deliver core classes on the ISIS Method and on our sustainability tools and methods; watch for more information on this in the near future.

Finally, in this newsletter you’ll also find information about some other initiatives that are launching this Spring … for 2011 seems to be a time for creating new projects, programs, even whole new institutes.

Please be in touch! We would love to see you in Stockholm this May …

Alan AtKisson, CEO, AtKisson Group

A Letter from Alan AtKisson and Axel Klimek

… on the launch of ISIS Academy GmbH

We are happy inform you of the launch of our new company: ISIS Academy GmbH. Offering an array of Master Classes and professional development services in sustainability and change, ISIS Academy has just opened its doors. But it already has a solid history …

For more than 20 years we — Alan AtKisson and Axel Klimek — have had the chance to work on many different aspects of sustainability and change, from large multinational companies to development programs, in many different countries.

And since 1992, ISIS Academy workshops have been helping people responsible for sustainable development projects and programs, all around the world. ISIS training programs help people build the understanding and expertise they need to work successfully on some of the most demanding — and critically important — challenges of our time.

The new ISIS Academy GmbH, based in Germany, serving an international market, will build on that history.

Over the years, we have learned that the success of sustainability and change programs depends on much more than a technical solution, or a logical project design. In almost all cases, there is also the need for a change of attitudes and behaviours, a shift in the existing culture, a transformation of organizational processes. In addition, it is very important to integrate the interests of different stakeholders and develop shared goals. These human skills must be effectively integrated with intellectual and technical knowledge to achieve lasting success.

So last year we decided to take the ISIS Academy to a new level, and create a world-class professional training institute offering the best in current knowledge about what makes sustainable change processes work. Our sincere hope is that ISIS Academy will help make the transformation towards a sustainable world more possible.

Attached to this email you will find a brochure for ISIS Academy’s first offering, three five-day Master Classes, which we will offer in the coming months:

• Master Class in Stockholm in May 16-21, 2011: Sustainability Change Agentry: how to accelerate transformation

• Master Class in Frankfurt in June 2011: Transformational Coaching in sustainable change processes

• Master Class in Frankfurt in September 2011: Designing, implementing and steering sustainability change projects with success

To learn more about the new ISIS Academy, please visit us at our new homepage, http://www.isisacademy.com. There you can also find out about ISIS Academy Core Classes, short workshops offered by our affiliates around the world on the essential tools for making sustainability happen.

Or please contact us directly at:

ISIS Academy GmbH
Quellenweg 31
D 65719 Hofheim GERMANY
Tel: +49-6192-9558094
office  [at]   isisacademy.com

With our very best regards,
Axel and Alan

Watching Egypt, Helping Serbia, Visting Japan … and Exploring Happiness

[NOTE: This newsletter was written prior to the earthquake and related events in Japan. Our thoughts are very much with our friends and colleagues in Japan as they cope with this severe set of challenges.]

As we all know, early 2011 brought with it enormous changes in the Arab world. Alan AtKisson was working in Egypt last year on a project to help create a new “Green Transformation” strategy for the country, and also visited Syria just before the “Arab Spring” began. You can read his reflections on what the future holds for this fast-developing region on his blog, http://alanatkisson.com.

Alan has also been working with the Research Institute on Managing Sustainability, in Vienna, on a project to support the Serbian Government on its new Sustainable Development Strategy. Serbia, too, is a land in enormous transition, and a place where sustainable development could made a huge difference. For a sense of what that nation is thinking, you can visit the English-language website:
http://www.odrzivi-razvoj.gov.rs/eng/o-projektu/

And finally, Alan AtKisson recently returned from Tokyo, Japan, where he was the opening speaker for the launch of the newly formed Institute for Studies in Happiness, Economy, and Society (ISHES).

Over 200 people attended the event on March 4, 2011, including government officials and business executives.

The Institute has been formed at the initiative of Junko Edahiro, a well-known figure in Japan’s sustainability movement and a frequent advisor to government and corporations. She is also an author and professional translator, and she has translated the books of Al Gore, Lester Brown and others into Japanese (in addition to Alan’s book Believing Cassandra).

ISHES is dedicated to exploring the meeting point between the emerging science of happiness and well-being, its measurement in economic terms, and the implications for social development and economic policy making.
Alan summarized the “state of the field” for the audience, covering the historical background, the relationship between economic growth and measured individual and social well-being, how recent brain research has increased our knowledge about what makes us happy, and other topics.

The lecture made the point that this is a field still in formation, with more questions than answers. In fact, the title of Alan’s talk was “37 Questions on Happiness, Economy, and Society … and One Statement.”

What was the statement? you might ask. Watch for the next issue of WaveFront … or, sign up for our upcoming Master Class, and Alan will send you a personal email that includes a very interesting quote from one of history’s most influential economists …

See you next month!

Here is my personal list of the most important global-level events in sustainability last year. This is a very subjective list! The ranking is in the order of the impact I think these stories could have going forward into 2011 and beyond.

What do you think? Join the conversation by hitting reply, or by following the link at the end of this email.

1. Rescue agreement for biodiversity

The UN-sponsored Nagoya meeting on biodiversity accomplished the near-impossible: a global agreement to significantly raise the bar on humanity’s commitment to preserve and protect other species. It doesn’t go far enough, and everything depends on implementation … but setting aside 10% of the Earth’s oceans, and 17% of the land, as part of global biodiversity preserve was about ten times better than the commitments that existed before.

2. Rescue meeting for climate negotiations

The United Nations grabs the second spot in this year’s roundup by pulling off a success in Cancún. Yes, expectations were low after Copenhagen, and the steps forward were relatively tiny, especially compared to what needs to happen if we are to have a chance of stabilizing the climate. But the mere fact that the global negotiating process on climate change is considered back on track — rather than dead in the water and doomed to epochal failure — is a major come-back story.

3. Volatile, weird, dangerous weather all around the world

The third spot in this annual review of top stories goes to Nature — as in, the natural systems of the planet (not the scientific journal). The awesome and deadly floods in Pakistan, the raging fires in Russia, the record-breaking snowfalls in Europe, more floods in Australia, and many other events served to underscore the heartbreaking reality of the changes we are making to global ecosystems — and their unpredictable, volatile effects. Scientists may be professionally cautious about blaming Pakistan’s floods on global warming … but just why was all that unusually super-heated, moist air heading north from the Indian Ocean in the first place, before it smacked into the Himalayas and dumped its load of water? The year 2010 gave us a dangerous foretaste of what is likely to become the norm on Planet Earth in coming decades.

4. The Gulf oil spill

In 2010, the word “Gulf” became linked to “Oil Spill” in a way that replaced its previous link to “War” (as in “the Gulf War” of the early 1990s). BP’s weak and even ridiculous risk-management planning (reliance on dead experts etc.), combined with the usual tendency for big technical things to go occasionally wrong and blow up, created a mega eco-disaster, which launched a media feeding frenzy, as well as a research bonanza (research vessels were as thick as news helicopters in the Gulf of Mexico). The world learned a lot about its dwindling supplies of oil, too, as the media explored just why dangerous deep water drilling was now the norm. Deepwater Horizon not only spilled massive amounts of oil; it spouted the truth about oil drilling in the 21st century.

5. Business “gets” sustainability

While this item is more of a wave than an event, the wave seemed to crest in 2010, as more and more CEOs (though perhaps not BP’s) revealed to more and more pollsters that yes, sustainability was serious and valuable and strategically important. At the same time, more and more of the world’s largest consultancies are now offering (or expanding) sustainability services, which means they see a growing and stable global market. They were also, often, the organizations doing the polling of CEOs, too. (That a smaller consultancy like mine has survived in this maturing sustainability market is something I take as a minor miracle — and a sign that long experience has significant value. Please see the Winter 2011 AtKisson Update, our corporate newsletter, for more on this.)

6. The launch of ISO 26000

While it drew very few headlines, the launch of the International Standards Organization’s “Guidance on Social Responsibility” served as a major indicator that practices once thought to be marginal are now mainstream. Just as ISO 14000 led to the global spread and standardization of environmental management systems, ISO 26000 — although it is not a certification standard — makes it clear what companies and organizations should be doing if they claim to be practicing responsibility in all its forms, from environmental to social. The release of the ISO standard is sure to accelerate an already rapidly spreading practice, and will provide needed clarity and support in those places where “CSR” is not just the norm, but even the law (as it is in Indonesia — see more on that country below).

7. UN decides to go ahead with Rio+20

This story slipped by under the radar for most people, and was suddenly just a fact:  the UN has decided to return to Rio de Janeiro twenty years after the original Earth Summit (formally the UN Conference on Environment and Development). This was not a foregone conclusion:  even the UN itself called the Johannesburg meeting of 2002 (the World Summit on Sustainable Development) something of a disappointment. But now the commitment is made, and the powers are in motion, and the next couple of years will be busy with preparation and reflection. Regardless of whether Rio+20 provides us with another UN-facilitated breakthrough (hope springs eternal!), or ends up being a nostalgic look back at what the original Earth Summit might have been, at the very least it will serve as an enormous focusing lens on sustainability. You can expect the buzz to start early in 2011, and grow and grow.

8. “Chindia” takes center stage

With Europe bogged down in currency problems, and Obama bogged down in the Washington political swamp, China and India seem to be emerging as the surprise global leaders in many areas of sustainability (in nation-state terms). China was the splashiest on the world stage, with its Shanghai Expo focused on “livable cities,” its shiny new 5-year plan (which even includes subsidies for electric cars), its domination of the world market on solar panels … and its new championship position as the world’s top emitter of greenhouse gases. India is pushing hard in that dubious emissions competition as well, but it is also getting very serious about sustainability, technology, and economics. Indeed, India may finally do what China previously tried to do (before getting cold feet), and what no other country has actually done:  publish national GDP figures adjusted down for environmental damage costs. Given the momentum they have established coming out of 2010, China and India are without a doubt the countries to watch on sustainability this year.

9. Solar energy becomes cheaper than nuclear

While many headlines about renewable energy grabbed my attention during 2010, this one summed it up best, and established that renewable energy has arrived as the truly competitive solution — at least in some places, and relative to some things. It still has a long way to go to become the default energy option for the planet, especially in the developing world — a goal I still see as centrally important (see my blog post on this, and watch this space for news of a new initiative along these lines).  But outcompeting nuclear is probably even more important than outcompeting coal in the long run, lest we pox the planet with thousands more radioactive time bombs in the name of “clean” energy. I’m not anti-nuclear; that’s a story for another day. But I do believe that the safest nuclear reactor is the giant fusion reactor around which our planet orbits — the sun.

10. The Green Economy takes root in the developing world

In 2010, the president of Indonesia followed the example of South Korea and declared his country to be on the path of transformation to a Green Economy. Billions of dollars and serious policy signals are attached to that political declaration. Egypt, a country where I’ve had the privilege of working this past year, may not be far behind, as it is currently developing its national competitiveness strategy around Green Economy ideas. Mainstreaming the Green Economy is another success that should be credited, in large part, to the under-appreciated United Nations: it has quietly facilitated the process by providing analysis, advice, and a great deal of encouragement to countries willing to consider a major switch in their development strategies. In fact, the United Nations Environment Program is now something like a competitor in the global consulting market described above, with its Green Economy Services division. Go UN!

That’s my take on the biggest sustainability stories from 2010 … but there were many other stories that were wonderful and uplifting, such as 350.org’s global Earth Art exhibit:  it could be fully appreciated only from the perspective of satellites in space. The global movement launched by writer/activist Bill McKibben has managed to seriously raise the bar on what successful global climate activism looks like, both in substance and in symbol, and has imprinted a nerdy scientific conclusion — 350 parts per million of CO2 in the atmosphere is the only true “safe” level — onto the planetary zeitgest.

And what about 2011? I predict a year of action, action, and more action on sustainability. That’s certainly what I’m going to be working for … and what I’ll be looking for, as I continue to scan the news, blogs, tweets and emails on sustainability this year.

What were your favorite stories in 2010? Join the discussion by clicking over to the AtKisson.com website leaving a comment under this issue of WaveFront … or just hit reply and write us an email.

And from all of us at the AtKisson Group, a happy — and sustainable — new year to you in 2011!

Alan AtKisson, Pres. & CEO

P.S. Don’t forget to reserve your spot in our May 2011 Master Class …
Click here to download our in-house newsletter, the AtKisson Update, or write to Cassandra [at] AtKisson.com for more information.

This special issue of WaveFront is devoted to the release of my book Believing Cassandra in an updated new edition. Also, if you would like a behind-the-scenes look at the AtKisson Group, see our Winter newsletter, the AtKisson Update, which you can download here.

One of the small-but-important differences between the original 1999 edition of my book Believing Cassandra, and the new one (just released by Earthscan – click here to skip straight to a special offer) is the subtitle:  How to be an optimist in a pessimist’s world.

The subtitle used to be An optimist looks at a pessimist’s world. That subtitle pegged me, publicly, as an optimist. Okay, I admit to being more optimistic than pessimistic by nature. But it is hard, perhaps impossible, to look on what is happening today on this planet and not have the occasional gloomy moment.

The new version of Believing Cassandra, in addition to being completely updated for the 20-teens, is not about “being an optimist.” It is about creating the possibility of optimism. It is about understanding what’s happening, and maintaining your strategic focus, even when things are crashing down around your ears. It is about engaging in, and sustaining, action for sustainability.

… and the new paperback version of The Sustainability Transformation

Enter a second book title, The Sustainability Transformation: How to accelerate positive change in challenging times. This book, now in paperback, used to be called “The ISIS Agreement” — a title I now think was a creative-but-bad idea. Readers will think, ‘The Bourne Identity,’” I told myself. They’ll think “The DaVinci Code.” They’ll buy the book just to find out what “ISIS” means. I even wrote suspense into it: you find out what the “Agreement” is only on the last page.

Fortunately, people still bought my ISIS book in hardback (to learn the ISIS Method). But it never crossed over into the thriller section of the bookstore. The new title says what it is. The Sustainability Transformation is, as my friend Alex Steffen described (in an annoying-but-accurate review), a book for sustainability “geeks.” (He assured me later that “geek” was a positive word, coming out of the internet and hacker culture, and meaning anyone who was serious about mastering the subject matter.)

So, Believing Cassandra is for anyone who wants to understand how we got into this planetary mess — and what we can do about it.  The Sustainablity Transforamtion is for people who are willing to take a deep dive into theory, analysis, methodology, practice, and tools — and get entertained along the way. At least one reviewer, former top banker Herman Mulder, said he “read it in one sitting because I couldn’t stop.” (Thanks, Herman!)

… both in beautiful new editions from Earthscan

I am so happy with these new editions from Earthscan, the world’s best sustainability publisher. The covers are beautiful. And the new Believing Cassandra seems just as relevant now as it did in 1999 — in fact, more so.  (The mythical Greek Cassandra was always ahead of her time, after all.) Paul Hawken has written a lyrical new Foreword as well. (Thanks, Paul!)

Meanwhile, The Sustainability Transformation has a new preface designed to guide you straight to the sections that are most useful, practical, and meaningful for you.

So here comes the sales pitch:  Earthscan is offering a special 25% discount if you order both books at the same time.  Here is the link:

http://www.earthscan.co.uk/atkisson

My colleagues keep telling me, “Don’t forget to tell people why they should buy and read these books!” Apparently, I usually forget.

So here’s why: these books will help you …

1) Get people excited about the need for change — inspire them, and motivate them.

2) Help people and organizations see where they most need to change (using tools like Compass)

3) Identify imaginative and innovative initiatives, policies, and actions to promote change (using the ISIS Method and tools like Pyramid and Amoeba)

4) Set in motion creative collaboration within organizations to achieve change.

Speaking of creative collaboration, those four points were penned by my friend and colleague Peter Redstone of the Barefoot Partnership, a consultancy in the UK. In coaching me to communicate more effectively about these books, Peter also said, “I too read most of The Sustainability Transformation at a single sitting and found the tools and stories inspiring!”

In these books, I’ve done my best to bring together the best ideas, information, models, tools, explanations, stories, and sources of inspiration I could find, from twenty years of doing sustainability work, in over 40 countries. I’ve tried to package those ideas into books that are interesting to read — not “textbooks” — with a narrative structure, with humor, and with seriousness of purpose.

But you don’t have to be a “sustainability geek” to read these books; you just have to be interested in where our world is heading, as a world.  And you have to be interested in changing its direction, in large ways and small.

Can we quote you?

If you have already read these books, and you have something to say about them, here’s a request:  please send us quotes, comments, feedback, critique, testimonials … really, we need it. These days, books sell mostly by “word of mouth.”

So please, send us your words!  Click here to write an email to Cassandra [at] AtKisson.com

… and tell us something of your experience with these books. Let us know if we can quote you, or if you’d like to remain anonymous.

WaveFront will come back next month with our usual collection of sustainability news and trend analysis.  And from all of my colleagues in the AtKisson Group network around the world, happy end-of-2010, and our best wishes for an ever more sustainable world in 2011 …

P.S. Catch up with the AtKisson Group:
Click here to download our in-house newsletter, the AtKisson Update

To receive this newsletter by email, click here.

Good news, then bad news, then good news again … the last couple of months have left me scratching my head at the world’s halting, jerky, one-step-forward, two-steps-back, one-step-forward progress towards global sustainability. I know I increasingly need “booster shots” of optimism, myself!  So maybe it’s a good time for Earthscan to be releasing my books in beautiful, new, revised editions. (Think, “holiday presents!” Think, “great resources for the classes I teach!” See below …)
On the one hand, biodiversity may have been saved by the newly minted agreement struck in Nagoya, Japan last month. This is a fantastic breakthrough, and proof that the world really can come to global consensus and address the big challenges of our time.

On the other hand, climate negotiations are looking bleak as the world moves toward a new “Conference of the Parties” in Cancún, Mexico next month. This meeting is at risk of proving just the opposite:  that the world cannot get it together to face reality and prevent catastrophe.

In my own practice there are amazing bright spots:  I get to watch as whole countries and companies undergo (or sometimes, begin seriously planning to undergo) major transformations in the way that they run themselves and/or do business. I am truly astonished at how fast things can change, once they start changing. These shining stars make the future seem anything but dark.

But on the other hand, there are also amazing “black holes” as well:  situations where the dialogue on sustainability has just cycled back around to where it was 20 years ago, without any real change happening during the intervening two decades. Human energy sometimes seems to get sucked into these vortices, the way light gets sucked into a cosmic black hole, never to emerge again.

Should we be optimistic, or pessimistic, or both at the same time? Well, pessimism doesn’t usually change the world, even when it’s the rational response to a seemingly impossible situation. So I continue to find reasons for optimism — reasons for dedication to creating change — in both the bleak and the hopeful, including …

• Bill McKibben’s assessment of where we are today on climate, and how his 350.org movement has defied the odds and made inspiring change
• The recent gloomy-yet-enlightening climate seminar in Sweden that updated me on the status of global negotiations
• The expansion of our ISIS Academy training program, the development of our Compass Education program for schools and universities, and the continuing spread of our AtKisson Group Affiliate program — including the upcoming launch of ISIS in Africa and in the French-speaking world (more on that in a future issue)

… and much more. And while I’m on the topic of finding one’s energy to make change, let me take the opportunity to note that we have just scheduled our next 6-day Master Class in Change for Sustainability to be held here, in Sweden, 22-28 May 2011. We expect this one to fill quickly, so if you are interested, click here and drop us a note.

Keep the fires of hope burning …

Alan AtKisson, Pres. & CEO

P.S. WaveFront has a new/old look:  we revived our original logo, and changed email providers. Be sure that we are properly added to your address book so that we don’t end up in your junk or spam folder!

Believing Cassandra – revised and updated for 2010 … and beyond

This month, Earthscan releases beautiful new paperback editions of both of Alan AtKisson’s books, Believing Cassandra and The Sustainability Transformation (formerly “The ISIS Agreement”).

If you happen to be in London on Nov. 23, 2010, you are welcome to join us for the launch event with a free public lecture at London School of Economics – LSE.

Click here for more information, directions, Facebook “Like” button, and all of that!

Please CLICK HERE help us to spread the word!

On being a troubadour at an international climate conference

As most readers of this newsletter know, Alan AtKisson works primarily as a consultant and communicator on sustainability, and leads the AtKisson Group. But he has a parallel life as a singer/guitarist and songwriter. Lately that parallel life has been re-emerging more strongly, most recently with Alan’s performance at the “Climate Existence” conference in Sweden. He blogged about it here …

Click to read the “troubadour” blog entry

If you’d like to invite Alan to speak, and/or to perform in connection with a conference or workshop (he has often done a keynote in the morning, a musical performance in the evening), just write to Cassandra Troy, our marketing and customer service avatar (she’s also Alan’s agent).

Noted while riding the wave …

“It’s so bleak, it’s very depressing. But we are activists.  When things are bleak, we don’t give up. We get busy.”

Reading the news has not been easy for champions of sustainability in recent weeks, at least in the Western World. That means the news has not been kind to the interests of future generations, to new economic thinking, to accelerated innovation, to long-term prosperity, or to life on Earth, for that matter. It almost feels as though sustainability itself is under assault, at least from some national governments — just when its value in economic terms has been solidly established, and the need for it in environmental and social terms has risen dramatically.

Let’s review the situation.

First, the new UK government axed the Sustainable Development Commission (www.sd-comission.org.uk). This Commission, led by Jonathan Porritt, has been an extraordinary source of innovative thinking and clear-sighted critique for the past decade. Its impact on the UK has been very important … but its impact has also been global. And as a “cost-cutting” measure, dismantling it is wrong-headed.

The Commission was costing the UK government roughly 3 million pounds per year, but by following (some of) its advice on energy conservation and the like, the UK government was already saving many times that amount — and could have saved a lot more.

Outside the UK, the Commission’s reports helped to advance and even to reframe the debate on sustainability — especially Commissioner Tim Jackson’s landmark report, “Prosperity without Growth” (now a book, published by Earthscan. Hint: Download the original report free while the Commission’s website is still working.)

Across the pond in the United States of America, energy and climate change legislation died in the Senate — despite the fact that a supposedly pro-climate-action majority of 60 Democrats sits there. Barring a political miracle, the Senate may have wasted the best historical opportunity to get something serious into US law, and it has at least wasted precious time.

Crossing the Atlantic again, France has earned positive headlines for its recent legislative commitment to sustainability, both its new “Grenelle” package of laws, and its recently released national strategy on “développement durable” (interestingly, many languages use a word meaning “durable” or “enduring” in place of “sustainable”).

But at the same time, my colleagues in France tell me that actual money for sustainability programs has been drastically  cut; and according to the French papers, the new national strategy lacks “any detail … on how the necessary investments for the realization of its objectives are to be financed.” (Les Echos, 27 July 2010)

Meanwhile, the news on the state of the planet has not been heart-warming, either. A recent global report on biodiversity carries the scary title “Dead Planet, Living Planet” — a glass-half-empty message if ever there was one. Ironically, we are losing to fight to retain biodiversity, even as we get better at figuring out how much life on Earth is actually worth to us in cold, hard cash — somewhere between 21 and 72 trillion dollars per year, according to the United Nations Environment Program’s new report on The Economics of Ecosystems and Biodiversity. That’s roughly equivalent to the entire annual Gross World Product ($58 trillion in 2008).

Meanwhile (again), a new NOAA report is out on climate change, and US and UK scientists are using words like “undeniable” and “glaringly obvious.” Even Russia’s President Medvedev is talking like a climate activist these days, as his country swelters in record-breaking heatwaves.

So … what’s a sustainability optimist to do, in the face of such pessimistic news?

Veteran planet-watcher Lester Brown, lecturing in Stockholm, was asked how he maintained optimism in the face of the gathering gloominess.  “I get that question a lot, and I have a one-word answer,” he joked.  “Bourbon.”

Lester’s real answer, of course (both at that lecture, and as evidenced by his own years of extraordinary work), is not alcohol — it’s action.

And not just any action:  strategic action, designed to create the most powerful impacts possible, in the shortest amount of time.

At the moment, my publisher Earthscan and I are planning the re-launch of two of my books in new versions. Both of them are about what it takes to be optimistic and to continue making positive, strategic, accelerated change for sustainability — no matter what the odds.

So be on the lookout this November for the new Believing Cassandra: How to be an Optimist in a Pessimist’s World (you can already pre-order the fully updated new edition).  Also, my second book, The ISIS Agreement, will appear in paperback then with a new introduction, cover … and even a new title. I’ll keep the (very optimistic) new title for the ISIS book secret for now … but the new subtitle should give you a taste of it: “How to Make Positive Change in Difficult Times.”

Positive change in difficult times is what I and my colleagues in the AtKisson Group are dedicated to achieving … and to helping you achieve.

Because that’s what we’re all working for, and that’s what the world needs.

Now more than ever.

Warmly,
Alan AtKisson
President & CEO, The AtKisson Group

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Four New Affiliates Join AtKisson Group

The AtKisson Group is growing! We are pleased to welcome the following  new Affiliates to our international network of leading sustainability service providers. All of our Affiliates are fully authorized to provide AtKisson-branded services, and to provide training and licensing in the use of the ISIS Accelerator suite of sustainability tools.

Australia – FWR Group
Led by Michael O’Brien, FWR Group calls itself “the guiding hand through the green maze,” and provides a variety of consulting, planning, and education services in sustainability. Michael O’Brien (“MOB” to his friends) is a recent graduate of the ISIS Academy Master Class as well.

Poland – Fundacja Sendzimira (The Sendzimir Foundation)
Created to “help Polish society in finding solutions to complex environmental, economic and social problems,” the Foundation is leader in education, training, and research.  Several key leaders in the Foundation have received advanced training on the ISIS method and tools. More …

Poland – Center for System Solutions
The Center, led by AtKisson Senior Associate Piotr Magnuszewski, is an independent and innovative source of expert-level systems modeling, simulation, and game-design expertise. Piotr also serves as senior faculty with the ISIS Academy.

U.S.A. – Planet Partnership
Led by Roberta Fernandez – one of the first 100 people trained to deliver Al Gore’s famous slide presentation on climate change – Planet Partnership provides highly creative training and consulting services throughout the U.S. from its base in Tampa, Florida. Roberta and colleague Leslie Laney are ISIS Academy Master Class graduates as well.

More Affiliates will be joining us in coming months … click here to learn more about about our global network of Affiliates and our team of Associates, in over a dozen countries.

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Catching up on Sustainability in Europe

Alan AtKisson recently moderated the annual conference for the European Sustainable Development Network (ESDN), which brings together the top policy-makers on sustainable development, from throughout Europe.
ESDN’s materials — background papers, case studies and more — are an excellent resource to catch up on what is happening on sustainability in Europe (in two words: a lot). We highly recommend a visit to their website:
Click here to visit the ESDN website …

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Noted While Riding the Wave

Things we’ve heard or read that seem to sum it all up …

“For over 40 years I have campaigned for a great awakening from the fantasy that the natural world’s capacity to support unconstrained demand from us humans is infinite. ‘Think of your grandchildren’, we used to argue, ‘think of your children’. Now the cost of those decades of inaction means worrying about future generations has been overtaken by worries about this one.”

- “The Positive Deviant: Sustainability Leadership in a Perverse World,” Sara Parkin, Earthscan, 2010

Thank you for reading this issue of WaveFront.  Please write to us with ideas, suggestions, comments.

Recently, I moved into a new house.  Designed by my wife and partner, Kristina AtKisson, it aims to reflect our philosophy of “sustainability as normal.”  It’s not a “super-green” house — e.g., there is no grass on the roof, we’ve prepped it for future solar cells — but we thought through every feature of the design, construction, and interior from a life-cycle and climate-smart perspective. (You can read about it on my blog:  http://alanatkisson.wordpress.com).  What a trip! as they say.  Nothing goes exactly as you plan.  But now we are at the end of the journey … and we are living inside of something that, two years ago, was just an idea.

So much sustainability work is just this:  turning ideas into reality.

Also two years ago, I and my team began imagining a more comprehensive approach to our training offerings.  We gathered all our workshop offerings under one roof, and called the result the “ISIS Academy.”

Now, that’s a reality too.

As our flagship for this new ISIS Academy, we created the Master Class in Change for Sustainability — six days of intensive, reflective, inspiring, hands-on learning, in a stunning location outside of Stockholm. Despite the economic downturn, last year’s pilot was a lovely success, drawing students from as far away as Australia, California, and Indonesia. Nearly a year later, they are still writing to us to say how much the course advanced their careers and supported their professional and personal development.

So now, I would like to invite you to join us for the 2010 Master Class, 16-22 May.  We have a truly wonderful faculty, a fantastic location … and judging from the pre-launch registrations, this is going to be a very motivated and international group.

Please click here to learn more about the Master Class.

And I’m happy to say the ISIS Academy is spreading its wings more and more.  In the last two years, we have offered trainings at many locations in the US, Europe, and Asia, as well as on-line (with our partners the International Society for Sustainability Professionals – click here for information on our next on-line course with ISSP).  Just this year we offered the first ISIS Academy programs in Poland and Iceland, and this year we will offer the first-ever ISIS training in France (for French-speakers – Écrivez à Cassandra@AtKisson.com pour recevoir plus d’informations en français.)

And if you are an educator, don’t miss our next Compass Schools workshop in Thailand, 15-16 May 2010.  The Compass Schools program is growing, as educators and their institutions adopt the ISIS Method and the “Nature/Economy/Society/Wellbeing” framework for both classroom learning and school management.

Click here for information on the next Compass Schools workshop.

Soon, we will launch our new “ISIS-Net” learning community platform for our workshop graduates.  We decided that this growing global network of ISIS Method and ISIS Accelerator users needed a home as well.  Watch future issues of WaveFront for details.

Turning sustainability dreams into sustainable realities.  That’s what this work is all about.  We hope you will join an ISIS Academy training, and we look forward to keeping in touch.

Warmly,
Alan AtKisson
President & CEO, The AtKisson Group

*

Now Accepting Applications for the ISIS Master Class in Change for Sustainability, 16-22 May in Stockholm, Sweden

A COURSE TO ACCELERATE ORGANIZATIONAL TRANSFORMATION …

You are already committed to making change. You have knowledge and experience. But now you’re looking to learn the tools, techniques, and processes that will help your clients or your company to address risks and opportunities linked to sustainability to accelerate transformation.
The ISIS Academy Master Class, six days of intensive hands-on learning, brings years of sustainability learning and experience into laser-like focus.

Alan AtKisson and our international faculty of experts will guide you through theory, reflection, and practice, working in teams and individually.

You’ll go home refreshed, inspired … and equipped with the tools and insights to make change happen.

Learning objectives:

• Fluency in global sustainability issues … so you can help people grapple with the great challenges of our time
• Mastering the ISIS Method … working with Indicators, analyzing Systems, developing Innovations, and planning Strategy for sustainability …. and how to lead others through the process.
• Learning the best tools … how to apply ISIS through the AtKisson ISIS Accelerator tools, as well integrating ISIS with other popular tools, to greatly expand your capacity to respond to almost any sustainability challenge
• Developing practitioner excellence … using group facilitation, personal coaching, communication, training techniques, and technical analysis skills to help you be at your personal best in a demanding profession
• Understanding yourself … defining your strengths and planning for your own long-term development as an effective change agent for sustainability

To read the program details and to register, click here.

*

Becoming a Compass School:  2nd Workshop in Thailand, 15-16 May 2010

Our first workshop to support in-school facilitators to become effective change agents, using the Compass framework and the ISIS Accelerator tools, was so successful that we quickly scheduled a second one.

Especially if you are working on education and school sustainability in Asia, please come to our Compass Schools workshop, in Chiang Mai, Thailand. Taught by a team of very experienced education professionals, this workshop is a dynamic, inspiring, and empowering introduction to a new way of working on sustainability in your school.

Click here to read more about the Compass Schools workshop …

*

Noted While Riding the Wave

Things we’ve heard or read that seem to sum it all up …

“The shift to a low-carbon economy to mitigate global warming will require the creation of new technologies, industries and jobs on a massive scale. The absolute imperative to prevent climate change is therefore, also, I believe, the economic and investment opportunity of our lifetime.”

- Kevin Parker, Global Head of Asset Management, Deutsche Bank

Thank you for reading this issue of WaveFront.  Please write to us with ideas, suggestions, comments.

Things we’ve heard or read that seem to sum it all up …

The facts and figures on these pages might tempt some readers to write off the patient, or despair about treatment, but that’s not the case. These pages highlight significant, even worrisome, symptoms. But we also see a planetary organism that is boundless in its beauty and still reasonably healthy. We share a destiny entwined with global human cultures that share responsibility to care for the Earth.

EarthPulse is also an excellent interactive website on global sustainability issues and trends.  See:

http://www.nationalgeographic.com/earthpulse

Thank you for reading this issue of WaveFront.  Please write to us with ideas, suggestions, comments.

In this issue:  Planetary Boundaries / ISSP Course / Compass Schools to Launch Fall 2009

UPDATE:  The Planetary Boundaries paper, formally “A Safe Operation Space for Humanity,” was published in Nature in September 2009. Here is the direct link:  http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/v461/n7263/full/461472a.html

There have been moments in the history of the sustainability movement when things crystallized, and a new concept came into common usage:  “Limits to Growth” was born in 1972, “Sustainable Development” in 1987, “Ecological Footprint” in 1992 … even “Climate Change” is such a concept (though it emerged in a slower, more gradual way during the ’80s, ’90s, and ’00s). These ideas are the intellectual touchstones of sustainability work.

Things we’ve heard or read that seem to sum it all up …

We come here because we too feel a responsibility for the human community. To preserve and develop a human quality of life is the common responsibility of us all. It is not fitting that those concerned with the various aspects of the human be alienated from each other. Both you and ourselves represent forces too profound and aim at objectives too significant for either of us to succeed completely without the assistance of the other. The urgency of our work impels us to get on with our common task lest a new period of disaster erupt over the Earth.

“I am not someone who uses the word ‘transformation’ lightly. But I have to say, this course was transformational for me.”
- Participant in the ISIS Academy Master Class 2009, August 2009

Thank you for reading this issue of WaveFront.  Please write to us with ideas, suggestions, comments.

In this issue:  Last Chances / Results of the Optimist-Pessimist Survey / Training Opportunities

When the Secretary-General of the United Nations says we only have “ten years left” to save civilization from planetary eco-catastrophe and related dangers, then of course, we really should listen.  The problem is, sometimes we don’t.  After all, the first such warning from a UN Secretary-General came in 1969, from U Thant. We have had “ten years left” for forty years now.

Forty years of global warnings does not mean the warnings have been wrong.  Some things we were warned about losing, we’ve lost (I think now of many species, for example).  But as I write in The ISIS Agreement, some of those warnings, we actually responded to, as a world. For example, awareness of the population explosion drove the Green Revolution, which undoubtedly rescued untold millions from famine (though it caused other problems along the way).

This fall will see the publication of a new such warning, this time from a large global team of scientists, writing in the prestigious British journal Nature. Called informally the “planetary boundaries paper” (it is not yet released but is being talked about everywhere I go lately), it will detail, to the best of science’s ability, how close we actually are to reaching the “tipping points” in various global ecosystems such as the Himalayan Plateau (melting), the Amazon Rain Forest (turning from forest to savannah), and the world’s Oceans (acidifying).  It is not a general “ten years left” call; it will be much more specific than that, system by system.

This has got me thinking about how we relate to time generally, and to global “deadlines” specifically.  (Here’s a “global deadline” of a different kind: your last chance to register for our international Master Class in Sustainability Change Agentry, here in Stockholm, is 14 July. Click here or see below.)

Sometimes, we act just in time, and save the day — and maybe even civilization.  Think Montreal Protocol.  Other times, we squabble and fret and just don’t get it.  Think Kyoto Protocol … and worry about Copenhagen.

I spent a few days at the Tällberg Forum, an annual event in Sweden, bringing together hundreds of sustainability afficianados from every sector and every corner of the globe, from Micronesia’s President to a foundation head from Paraguay.  The high point, for me, was when the whole assembly played a climate game, using climate model and process developed by several of my Balaton Group friends. (See link below.)

In that game, we saved civilization just in time — but only by doing everything, absolutely everything, that needed to be done, starting right now.

You can read my six-part series, “Camping at Tällberg,” which documents the whole Forum experience, at my personal log site (I’m trying to get people to switch from “blog” to “log”).  You can try the climate change negotiations model — which is now being used by US State Department officials, Chinese government officials, and many others — at www.climateinteractive.org.

You can sign up for our Master Class from this newsletter, and you can also read the results of last month’s survey on whether people considered themselves Optimists, Pessimists, or Something Else.  (Hint: very few of you are Pessimists … but only half the rest were Optimists.) Can’t make the Master Class? Check out our new online training partner, ISSP (see below).

Meanwhile … pay attention to those deadlines. When they are set by the laws of nature, they are always non-negotiable.

- Alan AtKisson

Last Chance to Register for the Master Class in Sustainability Change Agentry

This special six-day experience in intensive learning, practice, and reflection on sustainability and change will refresh you and inspire you. It will also equip you with a wealth of knowledge and new tools to use in leading groups, doing analyses, training colleagues … and much more.  Registration closes 14 July!

There are still spaces available in this relatively small group, and you will get intensive personal attention. Come expand and deepen your understanding of sustainability strategy and practice. Download the brochure to get the details on the first annual Master Class … and join us in Stockholm!

Click to download the brochure … or

Click here to go straight to our online registration center

Questions? Please click here to send us an email.

Survey Results:  Optimist, Pessimist, and Something Else?

Last month, we asked readers to complete a very short survey that consisted of two questions:  (1) Regarding the global transition to sustainability, are you an optimist, or a pessimist, or something else? (2) Why?

We received over 40 very thoughtful answers, from a fascinating array of people, most of whom gave us permission to republish their answers.  So, we’ve decided to publish them all online, together with the overall results.

Curious how the answers broke down?  Click here …

Online Course to be Offered in October 2009

ISIS Academy is collaborating with the International Society for Sustainability Professionals in providing online training in the ISIS Method and Accelerator and other tools.  Alan AtKisson will be offering one of the core courses in the training program offered by ISSP this October.

More details will follow, or click over to ISSP to check out their offerings:  www.sustainabilityprofessionals.org

Summer Break in Sweden!

In honor of our summer break in Sweden, this newsletter is a little shorter than usual.  Even sustainability workers need a vacation!  We hope you too are enjoying fine days, wherever you are, and rest from your labor as well as success in your efforts.

Noted While Riding the Wave …

“None of [the great advances of the 20th Century] would have happened if there had not been high quality educational opportunities … for the world’s men.  Imagine where we would be now if women had had the same opportunities.”

- Nyamko Sabuni, Minister of Integration and Gender Equality, Sweden, speaking at the Tällberg Forum

(For more on what was said and done at the 2009 Tällberg Forum, read Alan’s personal log … http://alanatkisson.wordpress.com)

Thank you for reading this issue of WaveFront.  Please write to us with ideas, suggestions, comments.

© 2009 AtKisson Inc.

In June 2009, we ran a very short survey exercise for WaveFront readers.  We asked only two questions:  Regarding the global transition to sustainability, are you an optimist, or a pessimist, or something else?  Why?

We received over 40 responses to this question, and the results were interesting indeed.  Nearly 50% of respondents declared themselves optimists, and less than 10% were pessimists — not so unexpected.   But over 40% were “something else.”

Here are the unedited responses from those who gave us permission to publish their comments. They range from well-known authors and leaders in the field to people who identify themselves as parents or teachers. We welcome your comments on their comments!  Note: Ultimately I may write this survey up as an article, or incorporate some of these quotes into a future books. See the comment field down below.

- Alan AtKisson

The Optimists

[21 responses total - published answers below]

We HAVE TO be able to solve what lies ahead. There’s no other option. I can’t believe anything else, just because it’s too depressing, to “dead end-ish.” But I also truly believe that it’s during crises that we humans become more inventive, more focused and sharp. So, yes I have faith, but at the same time it’s difficult to know what we all, as individulas, should do first, what “small” actions and changes really matters in the big pictures.

- Karin Brodén, Sweden

Our problems are actually opportunities for remarkable social and financial profitability, hidden beneath routine our routine. We’re about to undertand that in all its glory.

- James Porteous, Managing Editor, Ecos: Australia magazine on sustainability

I believe we are able to learn how to live sustainably.

- Barbro

I have the pleasure of working with students in an international school and I see first hand how the globally minded, young people of this world are much more aware of the issues. Not only are they aware, they act on their awareness.

- Megan Settle, Teacher, Western Academy of Beijing, China

We will make it, it’s a question of how many of us there will be.

- A Parent

People will work together for our future generations.

- Clem Campbell, chair, Queensland, Australia Earth Charter Committee

I feel that grounded optimism is the only reasonable choice regarding the global transition to sustainability.  Informed by sound science and systems thinking analysis, an ethic of care for the Earth, humanity, and future generations, and a creative vision for sustainable living, grounded optimism only increases our potential for success.

I realize that many powerful players still discount the environment, life, and the future, eroding the integrity of ecosystems and quality of life even in the most optimistic projections.  I hold, however, that pessimism, while a “safer” and seemingly more rational position, is not bold enough to address the global challenges we face.

Pessimism leads to fear and paralysis; optimism to hope and action.  And what we need to bring about sustainability is well-informed action from grassroots movements to global negotiations and everything in between.  We need to engage all stakeholders, even our erstwhile “enemies,” as we are in this together.

- Dominic Stucker, Fellows Network Coordinator, Sustainability Institute (sustainer.org), USA / Germany

We’ll make it because we have to.  It’s just that simple.

Simple, however, is not the same as easy.  Simple and straightforward purposes often require deep commitment, difficult new approaches, and hard choices.

I am convinced that the issues that present as sustainability problems- climate change, fresh water scarcity, and declines in biodiversity for example- are among the growing list of anomalies of the paradigm of neoclassical empire that still dominates our planet.  I am also convinced that the next paradigm- which is still being formed, and will only be recognized after it is in place for a generation or two- is being built on our experience in the benefits (and mechanics) of global trade, new thinking in behavioral/network/innovation economics, the power of networks, and the ability of information technology to provide radical transparency and disintermediation.

These are exciting times.

- David Rankin, Vice President for Program , Great Lakes Protection Fund, Evanston, IL USA, www.glpf.org

Multiple levels – international, country, state, city, businesses, universities, etc. are talking, planning, and beginning to take action based on linking green (lower carbon) and the future of our economic prosperity.

As a company that has been providing green services since 1970, we are now one of America’s top 100 fastest growing companies (under $200 Million revenue Fortune Small Business Magazine – July/Aug 2009).  The services that we provide for renewable energy, transmission, energy efficiency and green services are booming.

- Kevin Neumaier, President & CEO, Ecology & Environment, Inc., www.ene.com

Because we will have to–since our very survival depends on it. There are signs that some nationalities of peoples are becoming aware of the necessity to change our lifestyles, to lessen our dependency on non-renewable resources, and to develop new ways of conducting business operations. It appears that “change” is taking place.  “YES We Can”.       Y

- Robert Meadows North Carolina Interfaith Power and Light (Steering Committee Member), United States

In a tough situation communication speeds up and time of action shrinks many times, that shortens the gap between  problems and decision making.

- Dmitry Kavtaradze, Moscow State University

Because we create what we believe in.

- Cindi Contie

Får nästan dagligen tecken på att vi tänker och agerar i rätt riktning. Kranen har öppnats på jättecisternens innehåll av möjliga lösningar.
Flera tappställen måste till!  [We get signs almost daily that we are thinking and acting in the right direction.  The faucet has opened on a reservoir of possible solutions. We need more outlets!]

- Kristina D

If I had my life to live over again, I’d still be an optimist.  There is so much to be optimistic about just now and the alternative just isn’t very motivating.

- Prof Tom Eggert, Director, Business, Environment & Social Responsibility Program, WI School of Business, USA http://www.bus.wisc.edu/sustainability/

I feel that we are facing a new global realization about status of our species. We have been living off the land and destroying it for too many years now. People are now beginning to see that the global economy is truly and deeply connected to the Earth, and now with a faltering global economy people are beginning to see that we too have failed the Earth.  I believe that this has created an opportunity like none before to really create a new system for living on this planet.

- Sheena Jackson, Farm & Fieldwork coordinator, Prem Center: Visiting Schools Program, Thailand, www.premcenter.org

The Pessimists

[4 responses, anonymous except for one:]

I am currently a student at an university in Germany. My fellow students have zero social or environmental “Problembewusstsein”. They just think everything is just fine. These people are studying engineering not to solve pressing problems, but just to get a job to make money.

What could you possibly expect from young people in a western industrialized country that with all the privileges they enjoy can’t even use a public toilet without soiling it?

- Björn, Germany. Engineering student.

Those Who Responded “Something Else”

[19 responses total - published answers below]

I really don’t know. There are going to be major global disturbances I believe, environmentally – species, chemical, weather, water supply etc, with major environmental impacts, and uprooting billions maybe. Bit I do believe we will survive as a species.

- Martin Squibbs, San Jose, California

I am an inevitablist (yes, I made that up); I believe that it is inevitable that we will transition to a sustainable society. We will react and change will be made.

- Ben

Well, the globe will surely transit to sustainability, that is, another physical and ecological equilibrium. Large parts (populations) of the human race will be part of this new state. To me, one of the important questions is: will the so-called Greek approach to scientific discourse, the Roman approach to the rule of law and the Christian approach to ethics remain fundamental in/for any of these populations?

To add another aspect: we could still make a (bumpy) transit, therefore we must dash for it, so why bother wasting time on betting on chances?

- Janos Zlinszky, Head Of Department for Strategy and Research, Office of the Parliamentary Commissioner for Future Generations, Budapest, www.obh.hu

The realist in me is pessimistic that we will voluntarily transition to sustainability on a global basis, at least in time to significantly mitigate the host of nasty implications facing the world over the next few decades. I’m afraid the rates of change are overtaking any possibility of reversing this paradigm’s trends and inertia.

However, I am an absolute optimist that over the long run this profound crisis will ultimately push and pull humanity toward a new collective level of awareness, an ecological consciousness, which represents a necessary evolutionary step we probably wouldn’t get to without having gone through this painful global initiation.

While there are no guarantees for such a positive outcome, I think our 13.7 billion year cosmic history bodes well for the ultimate success of our evolution of consciousness.

- Alan Zulch, Director of Educational Development, Global Oneness Project, USA, http://www.globalonenessproject.org

Unfortunately, it may take more than one regional eco-disaster to prod voters and governments into concerted action. Perhaps further collapse of fish stocks will trigger action. After that, we probably have resources and technology (iHelium-3 fusion?) to provide sufficient food and energy to sustain 9 billion people. But neoliberal capitalism has shown it is not the framework to achieve global sustainability, considering the burgeoning number of pensioners compared to the working population. I look to political economic models of social democracy in Scandinavia, continental Europe and other parts of the world to lead us to sustainability.

- Bruce A. Scholten, PhD, honorary research fellow in Durham University Geography Department, the UK, www.durham.ac.uk/b.a.scholten

Overall negative view bordering on pessimism. It is too late to contain the environmental balance and climate as we might have known it in the 17th century, but humans will (painfully) adapt and “bumble along” to mitigate large catastrophes and complete ecosystem and social system collapse at a huge cost to natural biodiversity.

- Sanjay Prakash, Principal Consultant, Sanjay Prakash & Associates, Sustainable Building Technologists, India, www.sanjayprakash.co.in

I am a Bittereinder – an Afrikaans word referring to someone who does not give up even though all evidence shows that, despite my side winning some small skirmishes, the war is already lost. I cannot give up, not because of any real hope that a miracle will save us at the very last minute, but out of sheer bloodymindedness and the need to be able to look at myself in the mirror and say I did everything I could right up to the end. And because there may be some survivors who will need every little bit of help we can leave them to regenerate society and the planet.

- Chrisna du Plessis, Principal Researcher, CSIR, South Africa

I am a born optimist but given the current state of affairs I have serious doubts if we could get our acts TOGETHER IN TIME. I see corruption as the major challenge. Corruption is so pervasive….  it is a bottomless hole for wasting limited resources; it adds unnecessary vulnerabilities and compromises resilience and adaptive capacity. My major hopes are in people of integrity and with vision and committment to act together.

- Andrea Deri, Consultant, UK

I need to see some changes before I’ll be optimistic but we mustn’t be pessimistic and give up. I hope the message will get through to those who are supposed to be our leaders (they shouldn’t just follow public opinion) that big changes must be made and that they can be made without wrecking the world (although some rip-offs must cease)(and not making them WILL wreck the world).

- GB

Hopeful:  Kierkegaard said that “hope is a passion for the possible.”  I believe it is possible to respond to climate change, peak oil, species extinction, and other critical trends.

- Duane Elgin, author, US, www.awakeningearth.org

Because it all depends on how both “the majority” AND individual decision-makers decide and act. And on the effectiveness of those who do know better than most. And the resilience of those who do not WANT to understand. It is a question of the balance between funded deliberate propaganda and attempts to spread the truth – the balance between the capacity of every human being to understand what is real and what is phony and the craftiness in tricking this capacity.

- Dr. R. Doebel, Institute of Sociology, University of Muenster

I call myself a pragmatic optimist. I believe we MIGHT make it if we work very hard RIGHT NOW!  Of course the degree of optimism varies day to day based on the news, but since I work hard locally I do feel we can make a major difference in our community. Whether that’s enough to save the world????

But I’ll keep it up! As was said in the Eiger Sanction when the two climbers on the cliff face are discussing whether they will make it – Clint Eastwood tells the other guy to hang in there, that they can make it. The other guy says, “I don’t think so, but we will continue with style.”

Whether we make it or not, I pledge to continue with style.

- Kris Holstrom, Regional Sustainability Coordinator for Telluride, Mountain Village and San Miguel County, Colorado, USA.  The New Community Coalition is the non-profit entity that houses us. www.newcommunitycoalition.org.  I’m also a high altitude (9000′ elevation), off-grid organic farmer so I’m used to challenges.

We’re working very hard in China  – training mayors, vice-mayors and other local senior officials about the benefits of public participation and cooperation to achieve sustainable community development.

While China is open to these ideas, the allure of profit and personal gain are significant hurdles.

Will we turn the corner in time?  I’m operationally optimistic, but intellectually a bit pessimistic – more than a “transition to sustainability”  is required.  Rather, an overhaul of human nature may be needed – a tall order indeed.

Give up?  Never…we are working harder than ever.

- Darrell Erb Jr., Associate Project Leader,  The Program for Leadership Training and Cooperation for Sustainable Community Development in China, Harmony Foundation of Canada, www.harmonyfdn.ca

I am, like Jakob von Uexkull, the founder of the “Alternative Nobel Prize”, a “possibilist” and say it will happen if we make it happen, and we can! Little people doing little things in little places have changed the world. I see a magnificant proliferation of such people and feel them connecting to make the power of ‘one’ accelerate to the power of ‘many’. Change can happen if we join in and make things happen.To those who say it cannot happen, I say what has been said by some great optimist before – please get out of the way of the people who are already doing it!

- Anwar Fazal, Director, Right Livelihood College, University Sains Malaysia, Penang, Malaysia, www.rightlivelihood.org

I think we have to be both. Optimism to drive us forward, to give us energy to imagine possibility and act on that possibility. Pessimism to keep from being lulled into complacency, inaction or even make things worse instead of better.

Being able to embrace this duality is for me a survival mechanism.

- Nancy White, Full Circle Associates http://www.fullcirc.com

I am an optimist and a pessimist. I am an optimist because I am aware that hundreds of thousands of new people, perhaps even millions, are taking action to create a more sustainable future all of the time. However I am a pessimist because we are destroying and depleting things so fast; pretty much none of our basic systems, nor communities, much less bioregions or countries, are anywhere close to operating in a sustainable fashion; and our governmental and intergovernmental organizations are still pretty slow at getting it – the scale and speed at which we have to change what we are doing so that it all becomes fully sustainable in nature as rapidly as possible.

I have represented a number of organizations at the UN for many years including the Global Ecovillage Network, US Citizens Network for Sustainable Development, etc; and I participate actively in the UN Commission on Sustainable Development every year. Every year the CSD Chairs say that they are going to achieve a substantive actionable outcome; but they never do. It is just a bunch of things that the governments all say they will try to do, but then they just leave it up to each country to try to figure out how and what they will do on their own.

Even when they do make agreements and commitments, they are incredibly slow in carrying them out. All of the UN Member States agreed in Rio in 1992 at the Earth Summit Conference that every community should create a Local Agenda 21 Sustainable Community Plan. But out of the millions of cities, towns and villages, and after 17 years, how many have actually done so. And where are the programs that will assist those communities, particularly in the developing world that do want to do so?

Still I am optimist because in both Europe and the US many of the larger cities have or are doing so. Now we just need to create programs and support for towns, rural communities, and cities in the developing world to do so as well.

Similarly, all of the UN Member States agreed to create National Strategies for Sustainability at the Rio Earth Summit in 1992 and then again during the World Summit on Sustainable Development in 2002 to begin to implement them by 2005. But how many countries are actually implementing their plans; and why hasn’t the US even developed one yet when it is probably doing more to undercut humanity’s sustainability than pretty much anyone else. And why is there no longer any support to help the developing world even develop much less implement their plans?

So, I am pessimistic when I think about how I have tried in so many ways during the past two years to get the Obama Administration, and earlier his Campaign, to take this commitment – to develop and implement a US Sustainability Plan – seriously and I can hardly even get their attention.

However I am hopeful and optimistic because I am working on an Campaign for a Sustainable America with the goal of making as rapid a transition to full sustainability as reasonably possible; and I have discovered that it is a very popular idea and that there seem to be millions of people in the US that would like to see it happen and are already doing what they can, in their own ways, to contribute to this.

And finally I am hopeful when I read Alan’s words in the Isis Agreement, when he lays out so clearly what is at stake and the imperative of making a rapid transition. And optimistic that AtKisson Inc. may be interested and willing to help us develop the Campaign for a Sustainable America and raise it to a level that it is a roaring success.

- Rob Wheeler

[Happy to help right away by publishing your web addresses, Rob! - Alan]

Campaign for a Sustainable America:

http://www.change.org/ideas/view/develop_implement_a_national_strategy_for_sustainability

Facebook CausePage:

http://apps.facebook.com/causes/causes/190111

US Citizens Network for Sustainable Development:  www.citnet.org

[And here is a great final answer from an educator ...]

I’d like to believe that I am an optimist and being from Canada and a place where people really seem to be conscious of sustainability and practice it daily I could easily say, “Yes,we’ll make it.” But as I travel around and live in different countries I just don’t see “sustainability” as a norm. In fact on my latest trip to Hungary, a member of the European Union, people do not recycle and still live as they did 100 years ago. They burn wood and coal, farm for their own personal use, buy cheap items that break easily and create masses of garbage. I think people just don’t know the facts. They don’t see the big picture as we do. So how can we reach the ones that aren’t transitioning to sustainability? Education…is the only key. And it must be practical and hands-on. The older generations are not going to change but the younger ones are our ONLY hope. So I guess I would say I am optimistic of the future and the generations that WE educate. As an educator myself I witnessed a 4th Grade class learn what it’ll take to “sustain’ this earth and you know what? They have the passion to do it. They have changed their lives in small ways and in turn their family’s.

- Rosanna Ellis, International Educator