The Sustainability Challenge for Business and Society

More and more people are realizing that the Nation’s future progress requires the simultaneous achievement of a well-functioning environmental system, economic viability that creates new jobs, and livable communities that provide access to all for participation in their governance. Achieving more sustainable environmental, economic and social systems will require new research, education and technology development, and innovative policy approaches that are flexible and use market mechanisms while engaging relevant stakeholders from the private and public sectors.

It is also increasingly becoming clear that meeting the health, social, economic and ecological challenges of sustainable development requires, most of all, a new way of thinking (and learning) by individuals and institutions throughout society. This new thinking must be systemic, interdisciplinary and integrative in order to meet these challenges.

For example, a recent Arthur D. Little study of Fortune 500 CEOs reported that, while 90 percent agreed that "sustainable development is important to their company's future," only 30 percent say they have the "skills, information, and personnel to meet the challenge." Companies that attempt to embark upon a more sustainable pathway are being severely hindered by a workforce that is illiterate regarding sustainability, and by an equally illiterate public that does not adequately value – either on Wall Street, or on Main Street when considering product purchases - the corporate investment in this new direction.