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 leading change toward sustainability ranked as ‘one of the best ten publications on sustainable development’
(GlobeScan Survey of Sustainability Experts)

Since Leading Change toward Sustainability was first published in late 2003, many leaders

leading change toward sustainability

have made significant progress in transforming their organisations into better social and
environmental citizens. But many have not. As the world struggles to cope with the growing
threat of a global carbon crisis, Bob Doppelt has revised one of the best books ever written
about change management, leadership and sustainability to focus on decarbonisation. To
significantly slash greenhouse gases and prepare for climate change, organisations of all
sizes will need to undergo an enormous shift in their thinking, cultures, practices and
policies.

what they said about the first edition

{ After reading Leading Change toward { This book is a must-read for anyone who wants
Sustainability, those seeking change can’t help but to move their business or organisation to the
have a more clear understanding of what it means higher ground of sustainability. Whether you are
to say: ‘Our goal is to become a truly sustaining looking for guidance or just need a reminder, Bob
organisation.’ With the help of this useful book, Doppelt provides a real-world approach for
they just might reach that laudable destination.| implementing sustainable business practices. |
William McDonough, McDonough + Partners Buddy Hay, VP Sustainable Operations, Interface
Research Corporation
{ This book is packed full of sound experience
{ Bob Doppelt has taken up [the] challenge to
gleaned from dozens of cases and is a must-read
learn about experiences in sustainable
for anyone at all interested in embarking on an
development; and now he makes us part of his
organisational change strategy to embrace
learning process. The result is fascinating and
sustainability in their organisation. One of the
inspiring . . . I sincerely hope this book finds its
most useful books I have read lately. Calling it a
way into the hands of managers of all kinds of
Bible for the practitioner is too strong, but it
conveys the right idea. |
businesses, small and large, to CEOs of the leading

Larry Chalfan, Former CEO Oki Semiconductor;

Current Director, Zero Waste Alliance
multinational enterprises of the world, to directors
of government departments in whatever field of
public concern they work, to people working for
LEADING CHANGE TOWARD

Sustainability
non-governmental organisations, to groups of
{ Bob Doppelt expands the envelope of knowledge farmers, to municipalities, to politicians.|
about the realities of reducing the environmental Paul de Jongh, Policy advisor for sustainable
impacts of private and public organisations, giving development to the Dutch government; former
real-world insights into the substantial economic Deputy Director-General for the Environment,
benefits available to corporations and agencies The Netherlands
through the adoption of sustainable practices, as
well as practical steps to overcome the formidable { Bob Doppelt’s book provides a very practical and

doppelt
institutional barriers involved with implementing
these practices successfully. |
concise summary of significant commitments, A Change-Management Guide for
efforts and processes for leading the change. |
Ernie Niemi, VP , ECO Northwest Economics Jim Quinn, former CEO of The Collins Companies Business, Government and Civil Society
Research and Consulting, Eugene, Oregon and current partner in Medallion Hawaiian
Hardwoods LLC
Bob Doppelt
Aizlewood’s Mill, Nursery Street, ISBN 978-1-906093-34-1 with a Foreword by William McDonough
Sheffield S3 8GG, UK
Tel: +44 (0)114 282 3475
Fax: +44 (0)114 282 3476
updated 2nd edition
Greenleaf
PUBLISHING
[email protected]
www.greenleaf-publishing.com 9 781906 093341
LeadingChange_2nd_ed_2.qxd 17/11/09 12:14 Page 1

Leading Change toward Sustainability

Updated Second Edition
LeadingChange_2nd_ed_2.qxd 17/11/09 12:14 Page 2

Bob Doppelt is Executive Director of The Climate

Leadership Initiative, a sustainability and global
climate change research and technical assistance
programme in the Institute for a Sustainable
Environment, University of Oregon, Eugene, OR. In
addition, he is an Adjunct Professor in the
Department of Planning, Public Policy and
Management at the University of Oregon
([email protected]). His training and expertise is
in systems dynamics and organisational change.
LeadingChange_2nd_ed_2.qxd 17/11/09 12:14 Page 3

LEADING CHANGE TOWARD

Sustainability
A Change-Management Guide for
Business, Government and Civil Society

Bob Doppelt
with a Foreword by William McDonough

updated 2nd edition

LeadingChange_2nd_ed_2.qxd 17/11/09 12:14 Page 4

This book is dedicated to my father who taught me how to pay attention to the truly
important things in life . . .
and to future generations of humans as well as the wild creatures of the Earth that
have no say in what we do today but will bear the burden of our blunders.

© 2010 Greenleaf Publishing Limited

Published by Greenleaf Publishing Limited

Aizlewood’s Mill
Nursery Street
Sheffield S3 8GG
UK

Printed in Great Britain on acid-free paper by Antony Rowe Ltd, Chippenham, Wiltshire

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced,

stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any
means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise,
without the prior permission in writing of the publishers.

British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data:

A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.
Hardback: ISBN 9781906093365
Paperback: ISBN 9781906093341
ePub: ISBN 9780955450549
LeadingChange_2nd_ed_2.qxd 17/11/09 12:14 Page 5

Contents

Foreword . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7
William McDonough
Foreword . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10
Paul de Jongh
Introduction to the Second Edition: leading change towards
decarbonisation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12
Acknowledgements . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29
How to use this book . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31

Part I: Why some organisations succeed and others fail . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33

1. A tale of two companies . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 41

2. What went wrong? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 48

3. A primer on sustainability . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 57

4. Socioeconomic implications of sustainable development . . . . . . . . . 75

5. Sustainability, governance and organisational change . . . . . . . . . . . 88

Part II: The wheel of change toward sustainability . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 105

6. Change the dominant mind-set that created the system
through the imperative of achieving sustainability . . . . . . . . . . . . . 109
LeadingChange_2nd_ed_2.qxd 17/11/09 12:14 Page 6

6 Leading Change toward Sustainability

7. Rearrange the parts of the system by organising deep,

wide and powerful sustainability transition teams . . . . . . . . . . . . . 126

8. Change the goals of the system by crafting an ideal

vision and guiding principles of sustainability . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 147

9. Restructure the rules of engagement of the system

by adopting source-based strategies . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 163

10. Shift the information flows of the system by tirelessly

communicating the need, vision and strategies for
achieving sustainability . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 191

11. Correct the feedback loops of the system by

encouraging and rewarding learning and innovation . . . . . . . . . . . 203

12. Adjust the parameters of the system by aligning systems

and structures with sustainability . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 228

13. Aligning governance with sustainability . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 247

14. Closing thoughts on the change process . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 261

Leading change into the future . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 267

Appendix A: Assessing your organisation’s ‘sustainability blunders’ . 272
Appendix B: Assessing your governance system . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 274
Appendix C: Assessing your sustainability-change initiative . . . . . . . . 277
Bibliography . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 280
List of abbreviations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 284
Index . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 286
LeadingChange_2nd_ed_2.qxd 17/11/09 12:14 Page 7

Foreword
William McDonough

Few forward-thinking business leaders today would deny that the great advances
of the industrial revolution brought with them a host of unintended conse-
quences. While most of us owe our high standard of living to the technological
innovations developed in the course of the last century—affordable energy; rapid
transportation; fast, low-cost automated production; advanced information sys-
tems—we have inherited, along with our good fortune, a bevy of environmental
and social problems.
A cursory list might include: pollution of air, water and soil from billions of tons
of toxic waste; declining biological and cultural diversity from the harvesting of
natural resources; regulations that merely limit the poisoning of people and the
environment; production and use of materials so dangerous they will require
constant, costly vigilance from future generations; prosperity measured by activity
not legacy.
These are vexing problems. Some might see them as numbingly so. Yet, thank-
fully, there are many in the world of business who see today’s challenges as oppor-
tunities, and, rather than moving blindly ahead, the world be damned, they are
striving to make industry more sustainable.
And here’s where things get even more challenging. What, exactly, is sustain-
ability? Once you’ve defined what sustainable business is, how do you effectively
pursue this new strategy? How do you transform your organisation from top to
bottom so that your vision of sustainability drives everyday decision-making and
defines short- and long-term success? In short, how do organisations change and
thrive? And what if we could move beyond sustainability, which suggests the
maintenance of a damaging system, to a truly beneficial and sustaining model for
industry that gives our children a delightful prospect, rather than simply a less
terrifying one?
These questions are at the heart of Bob Doppelt’s Leading Change toward Sustain-
ability. They are crucial questions. While some businesses are successfully steering
through the difficult transition from conventional to sustainable commerce,
many others are not. The course is beset with obstacles, from failures to change
ingrained ways of doing business to misunderstanding the problems at hand. But,
LeadingChange_2nd_ed_2.qxd 17/11/09 12:14 Page 8

8 Leading Change toward Sustainability

as Leading Change toward Sustainability clearly illustrates, real change is not only
possible, it can be strategically nurtured and implemented by following a path
blazed by the ‘early adopters’ of the sustainable business vision.
Vision and leadership are key. As Doppelt’s numerous case studies reveal, ‘exem-
plary organisations are exceptionally clear about their purpose’. Effective leaders
set the tone, defining their organisations with the clarity of their vision, convic-
tion and commitment. And their principled activity. That’s why, when Michael
Braungart and I wrote The Hannover Principles: Design for Sustainability in 1992,1 we
focused on creating a framework for effective, principled decision-making. Indeed,
an entire company’s culture can be transformed when its decision-making frame-
work becomes infused with a strong, lucid sense of purpose. As Doppelt says:
‘Vision provides the goal; principles frame the path.’
Clear vision, however, is not so easily achieved. Since the early 1990s many busi-
nesses trying to operate more sustainably have defined themselves with strategies
aimed at reducing the impacts of industry by minimising waste, pollution and
natural resource depletion. While we applaud these efforts, which can ease ecolog-
ical stress in the short term, minimising environmental degradation is not a
strategy for real change, nor does it offer an inspiring vision of success.
Real change comes when industrial processes are designed to be more econom-
ically, socially and ecologically beneficial rather than merely less polluting. Long-
term prosperity depends not on making a fundamentally destructive system more
efficient but on transforming the system so that all of its products and processes
are safe, healthful and regenerative.
This sustaining vision of industry is both practical and inspiring. Over the past
decade, my colleague Michael Braungart and I have had the opportunity to build
its framework and put it into practice with some of the world’s most successful
corporations, several of which are featured in Leading Change toward Sustainability.
Through McDonough Braungart Design Chemistry and William McDonough +
Partners, we’ve helped companies worldwide apply specific, ecologically intelli-
gent principles to the design of products, systems, factories, offices and commu-
nity plans. Modelled on natural systems, these fundamental design principles
yield products that are composed of materials that biodegrade and become food
for biological cycles, or of synthetic materials that stay in closed-loop technical cycles,
where they continually circulate as valuable nutrients for industry. They yield
buildings designed to accrue solar energy, sequester carbon, filter water, create
habitat, and provide safe, healthy, delightful places to work. Designs such as these
aren’t damage-management strategies. They don’t seek to retrofit a destructive
system. Instead, they aim to eliminate the very concept of waste while providing
goods and services that restore and support nature and human society. They are
built on the conviction that design can celebrate positive aspirations and create a
wholly positive human footprint.
Leading Change toward Sustainability is built on such convictions. Bob Doppelt
understands that a clear, positive direction coupled with effective principles is the
key to realising sustaining organisations. He understands the relationship between
inspired purpose and success.

1 www.mcdonough.com/principles.pdf, accessed 17 November 2009.

LeadingChange_2nd_ed_2.qxd 17/11/09 12:14 Page 9

Foreword 9

Statements such as ‘we will be in full compliance with the law’ and ‘we will
minimise our environmental and social impacts’ are not visions. They tell people
what not to do—what to avoid. These are backward-looking images. They focus on
eliminating something. Negative purposes fail to elicit the creative energies or
passions of employees. This approach depresses human motivation and under-
scores the truth of the old biblical proverb that says, ‘where there is no vision, the
people perish’. Effective visions, in contrast, provide an absorbing, positive image
of the future.
Leading Change toward Sustainability is devoted to allowing the people to thrive.
While reflecting on the relationship between vision, leadership and change, it also
offers a vision of its own, setting down useful guidelines from a careful analysis of
the successes and failures of leading corporations striving for sustainability. Like
the visions he praises, Doppelt provides a positive image of the future that can
empower leaders to inspire creativity and commitment throughout their organisa-
tions. After reading Leading Change toward Sustainability, those seeking change
can’t help but have a more clear understanding of what it means to say: ‘Our goal
is to become a truly sustaining organisation.’ With the help of this useful book,
they just might reach that laudable destination.

William McDonough
Charlottesville, Virginia
July 2003
LeadingChange_2nd_ed_2.qxd 17/11/09 12:14 Page 10

Foreword
Paul de Jongh
Policy advisor for sustainable development to the Dutch government;
former Deputy Director-General for the Environment, The Netherlands

Johannesburg, September 2002: thousands of diplomats, lobbyists, scientists and

hundreds of politicians work on text that will be the common ground for action
toward sustainability, worldwide. The problems on the agenda are almost too huge
and too complicated to oversee; the challenges for the world community are
without precedent.
A village somewhere around the globe: a few people come together because they
are worried about the future of their children. Will they inherit businesses that can
provide them an income over the longer run? Will they inherit a natural surround-
ing that allows them to enjoy life as we think life should be enjoyed? Will they have
enough water of good quality?
Whatever the terms are for the discussion about sustainable development, in
many cases it is not positive. It is relatively easy to paint a future for many parts of
the world and for many children that doesn’t look bright at all, even with all the
efforts in research, education, environmental protection, healthcare, develop-
ment co-operation, water and housing programmes, investments in infrastructure
and so on.
Let us be frank: we are not on the track toward sustainable development. And it
is not an easy task to find this track: not in the developed world, nor in the devel-
oping world. Our path may be just trial and error, in any case.
If you know that the road ahead is one of trial and error, it is even more
important to learn about the experiences of others who are striving for the same
type of future. Bob Doppelt has taken up this challenge to learn about experiences
in sustainable development; and now he makes us part of his learning process. The
result is fascinating and inspiring.
Fascinating, because he provides us with a way out via a thorough analysis of our
blunders and through a detailed description of all aspects of change that are neces-
sary for making the journey into sustainability. Inspiring, because he describes his
LeadingChange_2nd_ed_2.qxd 17/11/09 12:14 Page 11

Foreword 11

findings for all organisations, regardless whether they are private or public. This
prevents us from resorting to the escape clause of ‘sustainability is for others’.
This book is first of all a practical guide for those who realise that change is neces-
sary. And there is a clear message: if you want to work on sustainable development,
put this goal at the core of your business. You cannot work on sustainable develop-
ment just as an additional effort apart from your core concerns. You might comply
with environmental regulations; you might do good for some aspect of social
welfare; you might have a charity programme; but, unless sustainable develop-
ment is at the core of your business or programme, you won’t effect a real change
toward sustainable development.
This is not ideology. It is the practical experience of many private and public
organisations, so well described here by the author.
The bad news of this book is: it is not easy. The lessons learned are not framed in
prescriptions that can be followed and implemented without much thought. In
each organisation the lessons of this book should be reframed according to the
specifics of that organisation. But the questions the book poses will help you find
the specific path for your journey.
The good news is: you don’t have to wait for others; you can start today in your
own organisation. The organisations that went through the process of change
toward sustainable development have become richer organisations: with better
market positions in many cases, with better social coherence, with better fulfil-
ment via the products and services they provide, and with a better relationship
with our environment.
I sincerely hope this book finds its way into the hands of managers of all kinds
of businesses, small and large, to CEOs of the leading multinational enterprises of
the world, to directors of government departments in whatever field of public con-
cern they work, to people working for non-governmental organisations, to groups
of farmers, to municipalities, to politicians.
Further, I hope that the readers of the book who take the challenge and will work
on the process of change in their organisation will be part of the global community
of change agents toward sustainable development and will share their experiences
with others in due course, as did the people whose experience formed the basis for
this book.

Paul de Jongh
June 2003
LeadingChange_2nd_ed_2.qxd 17/11/09 12:14 Page 12

Introduction to
the Second Edition
Leading change towards
decarbonisation

‘High carbon growth kills itself.’ Those were the words of Sir Nicholas Stern, for-
mer chief economist with the World Bank, at the International Scientific Congress
on Climate Change (ISCCC) held in Copenhagen in March of 2009.1 Stern’s com-
ment succinctly summarised the findings of the 2,000-plus scientists from 80
countries that participated in the meeting. Burning fossil fuels to power our
economies has warmed the Earth’s climate and placed the entire planet in peril.
Stern’s statement underscores the urgency of the most important task facing
humanity today. The emission of greenhouse gases must be quickly reduced across
the globe if we are to avoid uncontrollable climate change. At the same time every
public and private organisation—and each community, state and nation—must
prepare for the consequences of a warming planet that no longer can be avoided.
To significantly slash greenhouse gases and prepare for climate change organi-
sations of all sizes and shapes will need to undergo an enormous shift in their
thinking, cultures, practices and policies. Making this shift will require the use of
proven sustainability-based organisational change interventions.
That is why Leading Change toward Sustainability is being re-released at this time.
I hope that this book can help change leaders facilitate the transition in their
organisations.
An author never knows how a book they sweated and toiled to write will be
received until it is released into the public sphere. Since its launch in late 2003, I’ve
been pleased to learn that the book has been used by change leaders around the
world to guide their internal global warming and sustainability organisational
change initiatives. In 2004, a GlobeScan survey of international sustainability
experts ranked the book ‘one of the ten most important books in sustainability’.
This feedback suggests it provides useful information and guidance.

1 See climatecongress.ku.dk, accessed 5 November 2009.

LeadingChange_2nd_ed_2.qxd 17/11/09 12:14 Page 13

Introduction to the Second Edition 13

But the conclusions of the ISCCC increase the urgency of getting effective sys-
tems-based change interventions and tools into the hands of leaders that seek to
mobilise organisations or all types to respond to the challenges of global warming.
The ISCCC was organised to provide world leaders attending the United Nations
Framework Convention on Climate Change meeting to be held in Copenhagen in
December of 2009 (COP 15) with the most up-to-date scientific information on cli-
mate change. The hope was that the most current data would allow officials to
make informed decisions about whether to adopt a replacement for the Kyoto Pro-
tocol, with its aim of reducing greenhouse gas emissions.
The six key messages that participants at COP 15 were to be given by the ISCCC
are at once unnerving and optimistic.
The first relates to observed climate trends. The ISCCC concluded that the most
damaging scenarios of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change 2007
report—or worse—were coming true. New research shows that unless greenhouse
gas emissions are rapidly reduced global temperatures would likely rise by 2° Cel-
sius (3.6° Fahrenheit) by the end of this century.
Although Nicholas Stern and a few other luminaries at the science congress said
that if society acts quickly temperature increases above 2° Celsius could be pre-
vented, no scientist I spoke with at the meeting shared that confidence. In fact,
many said temperatures might rise by 3–5°C (5.4–9°F).
This view was reaffirmed after the conference ended when the Guardian news-
paper in London polled scientists that attended the congress about their views of
the possibility that temperatures would rise no further than 2°C. Nine out of ten
of the respondents said they thought temperatures would exceed that level. Most
thought temperatures were likely to rise by 3–5°C (5.4–9°F) this century (Adam
2009).
As the Earth warms, droughts, floods, heatwaves and other extreme weather
events will occur more frequently. In addition, scientists from the Potsdam Insti-
tute for Climate Impact Research shared research showing that sea levels now seem
all but certain to rise by at least 1 m (3 feet) by the century’s end. And, once the
process takes off in earnest, sea levels will continue to rise for centuries. Most dis-
concerting, the Congress concluded that we face ‘an increasing risk of abrupt or
irreversible climate shifts’.
Just a few months after the ISCCC issued this finding, researchers at the Massa-
chusetts Institute of Technology released what could be considered the most com-
prehensive modelling completed yet on how much warmer the Earth’s climate will
get under a business-as-usual emission path. It reaffirmed—and went further—
than the conclusions of the science congress. The projections, published in the
American Meteorological Society’s Journal of Climate, indicate a mean probability
of surface warming of 5.2°C (9.3°F) by 2100, with a 90% probability range of
3.5–7.4°C (6.3–13.3°F) (Sokolov et al. 2009).
This is scary stuff. Although no one knows where the exact tipping points may
be, scientists believe that irreversible climate change becomes increasingly likely if
temperatures rise more than 2°C (3.6°F) above historic levels; and there is even
about a 30% chance it will occur below that mark.
Even more disconcerting for humanity is the ISCCC’s second key conclusion: ris-
ing temperatures are already causing and will increasingly produce larger social,
LeadingChange_2nd_ed_2.qxd 17/11/09 12:14 Page 14

14 Leading Change toward Sustainability

cultural, political and economic disruptions. Millions of people will be forced to

flee coastal areas flooded by rising sea levels. Millions more will migrate from
drought- and flood-stricken regions of the world. Wildfires and other dislocations
will batter yet further numbers of people as the century unfolds.
Closely linked with the ISCCC’s second conclusion was the finding that climate
change will increasingly have disproportional impacts on the poor and most vul-
nerable among and within societies. It was these three findings that led Nicholas
Stern, who led the British government’s review of the global economic conse-
quences of climate change (Stern 2007), to say that high carbon growth kills itself.
We now know that burning fossil fuels to power our economies is self-destructive.
To avoid the worst of these impacts, the ISCCC concluded that ‘rapid, sustained
and effective’ reductions in carbon emissions must be achieved. The world must
also prepare to withstand and adjust to the impacts of rising temperatures that can
no longer be prevented. The science congress concluded that greenhouse gas emis-
sions must be slashed by 80% or more by mid-century. This means we have 40
years at most to do the job. Until recently, the United States and European nations
have been the largest emitters of greenhouse gases and thus are the primary con-
tributors to today’s climate change. They bear a special responsibility to move
quickly toward decarbonisation.
Importantly, because the risks of triggering tipping points in the Earth’s climate
increase each year, the ISCCC said that emission cuts made in the immediate
future—the next 2–5 years—are more important than those made closer to mid-
century. Unless we cut emissions now we will lose the opportunity to prevent run-
away climate change.
The fifth finding of the ISCCC, in an ironic way, provided an optimistic note. It
was aimed directly at citizens, businesses and policy-makers across the world—
especially those in industrialised nations—not just the world leaders that would
attend the UN COP 15 climate summit: ‘There is no excuse for inaction.’
Most of the tools, technologies, and behavioural and change mechanisms
needed to decarbonise the economy and prepare for climate change already exist.
In addition, decarbonisation and climate preparation will produce benefits such as
job growth, improved public health and more resilient built, human, cultural, eco-
nomic and ecological systems. The science congress concluded that we have the
capacity right now to cut emissions and prepare for climate change and that doing
so will benefit everyone—there is no excuse for delay.
However, major cognitive, behavioural and institutional obstacles stand in the
way of making the shift and capturing the opportunities. This was the sixth, final
and—from my perspective—the most important ‘key finding’ of the scientific con-
gress.
The world is teetering on the precipice of irreversible climate change. At the
most fundamental level, this is not a scientific or environmental problem. Rising
temperatures are the result of maladaptive beliefs, assumptions and thought pat-
terns that have produced deeply entrenched, dysfunctional behavioural patterns
as well as social and economic systems. This means that climate change is not
really an energy or technology problem. It is a massive crisis of thought. If society
fails to make the changes necessary to stop spoiling our own nest by preventing
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Introduction to the Second Edition 15

runaway climate change, I’m convinced that climate change will prove to be the
greatest crisis of thought in human history.
To pull us back from the brink of catastrophe, all levels of society must make
explicit efforts to overcome inertia in their thinking, cultures, governance systems
and leadership and rapidly decarbonise the economy. We must also prepare for the
unstoppable consequences of climate change by increasing the resiliency and
adaptability of ecological and human systems.
It is my hope that the reissue of this book can help public and private organisa-
tions, and society as a whole, make these deep-seated changes.

Large companies
The good news is that large and small businesses are beginning to make the shift.
AstraZeneca, for example, an international pharmaceutical company with over
65,000 employees and research and development offices in Sweden, the UK and
the US, has cut its absolute greenhouse gas emissions by 68% compared to 1990 lev-
els. It also has eliminated 99% of its ozone-depleting gases.2 The company utilised
many of the seven key levers of successful change toward sustainability discussed
in the book to achieve those reductions.
As you will learn in Chapter 3, the most powerful first lever is to alter the think-
ing, assumptions and beliefs (the mind-set) that led to the current way the organ-
isation functions. A compelling need to move toward decarbonisation and sus-
tainability is essential to shift the mind-set of executives and line staff.
The second most potent intervention is to alter the way planning and decision-
making occurs by getting people with different attributes and views involved. The
formation of what I call ‘transition teams’ composed of employees and stakehold-
ers from all levels, units and functions of the organisation is usually essential for
achieving this end.
The third key lever for successful change is to reorient the vision, goals and guid-
ing principles of the organisation toward achieving sustainability. Although senior
executives can declare a new vision and purpose, the process becomes much more
powerful when these core steering mechanisms emerge from the teams that have
been established to explore what decarbonisation and sustainability means for
their units and functions.
The fourth crucial change lever is to restructure the strategies the organisation
uses to achieve its mission and goals. Strategies form the ‘rules of engagement’ that
shape the design and performance of people and technologies. Redirecting the
strategies toward achieving the new vision and goals of decarbonisation and sus-
tainability points the organisation in a new direction.
The fifth vital leverage point for successful change toward sustainability is to
shift the flow of information circulating through the organisation in service of the
new sustainability-based vision, goals and strategies. Relentless communication is

2 See www.astrazeneca.com, accessed 5 November 2009.

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16 Leading Change toward Sustainability

needed to underscore the importance and urgency of the initiative and to make
clear that achieving sustainability is a top organisational priority.
The sixth essential lever is to improve the organisation’s capacity to learn. A
great deal of innovation will be required to decarbonise and steer an organisation
toward sustainability. Innovation requires constant learning, and the best learning
comes from practice. Because many organisations stifle learning, explicit mecha-
nisms must be established to set a new course.
The final key leverage point for successful change toward sustainability is to
embed the new vision, goals and strategies in standard operating procedures and
policies. Unless employees and stakeholders see that decarbonising and achieving
sustainability is a core element of organisational policy, and are held accountable
for meeting those goals, sustainability will always take a back seat to other issues.
Although I have described the seven key levers in a linear fashion, in practice the
process is circular. Each intervention affects and is influenced by other interven-
tions. Thus I call the process the ‘wheel of change toward sustainability’ (see Part
II). Because the process is essentially circular, organisations can start anywhere in
the wheel that makes the most sense. Many organisations, for example, begin by
improving the internal flow of information about sustainability or global warm-
ing. They then capitalise on the enhanced awareness this generates to alter the
beliefs and ways of thinking that control the organisation, form transition teams,
and so on. Others start with a single focus such as reducing energy costs, slowly
broaden the effort to address emission reductions, and then follow much the same
process.
No matter where you start, eventually each of the seven core intervention points
must be sufficiently addressed if progress is to continue. Exemplary leadership and
governance are needed to institute these leverage points and keep the organisation
moving toward decarbonisation. They are also essential in avoiding the tendency
for sustainability initiatives to settle for merely making things a little ‘less bad’.
Underlying the key interventions embedded within the wheel of change are
three fundamental principles of successful change within any type of social sys-
tem. The first is that meaningful change requires sufficient tension between a
desired state of affairs and current conditions. A basic tenet of systems change is
‘no tension, no change’. If a gap large enough to generate a significant sense of ten-
sion—or dissonance—between a desired state and existing circumstances fails to
materialise, people will feel little need to alter their thinking or behaviour.
The tension that motivated AstraZeneca’s initial emission reduction activities
was an awareness of growing stakeholder expectations in this area and a desire to
manage its reputation and risk proactively, according to Keith Moore, the com-
pany’s Senior Environmental Advisor.3 By this he meant that, back in 2001, stake-
holders started to tell the firm that it its management of greenhouse gas emissions
would be under increasing public scrutiny.
The company initially began with a focus on reducing energy use because it was
a factor they felt they could directly control. Their early effort was seen purely as
an environmental initiative. The corporate executive team established the overall
policy along with initial emission reduction targets. Responsibility was then given

3 Personal conversation, 28 July 2009.

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Introduction to the Second Edition 17

to safety, health and environment (SH&E) staff to help different units identify ways
to achieve the targets.
It was not difficult to sell the need for emission reductions to employees. Most of
them have a scientific background and are very educated on the topic. ‘All levels of
the organisation seemed to get the need and focus very quickly,’ said Moore.
AstraZeneca also had the benefit of not being bound by a strict command-and-
control organisational structure. This is due, in part, to the fact that many of the
employees are scientists who need freedom to experiment and devise new cures.
The SH&E staff therefore only had ‘arm’s length’ control. Rather than issuing edicts
from above, they encouraged each unit of the company to examine its carbon foot-
print and devise its own vision of success, reduction targets, and strategies for
achieving them.
Tension between a desired and current state of affairs, while essential, is not on
its own sufficient for deep-seated change. The second fundamental principle of
successful sustainability-based organisational change is that the people involved
in the process must feel a sufficient level of ‘self-efficacy’. This means they must
believe that they have the capacity to successfully implement the actions neces-
sary to close the gap between their desired state and current conditions and elimi-
nate the tension. To build efficacy, Moore told me that SH&E ‘tried to help staff
merge setting visions and targets with practical projects and activities’. They
wanted successes that everyone could see.
Constant learning has been a core element of their strategy. In many ways, ongo-
ing learning is built into the fabric of the company. ‘Employees know that failed
experiments are part and parcel of running a scientific organisation’, said Moore.
Testing and knowledge creation are how employees develop new products. A good
example of how the company responds to failed experiments is their foray into
‘combined heat and power’ (CHP) energy facilities. Some CHP projects have not
proven to be as economically viable as originally thought. However, Moore said,
‘There was no looking back, no punishment or regret. Executives understand that
they were built with a long-term perspective—a long time horizon—in mind and
they were a risk worth taking.’
The focus on real-world successes and continual learning also helped the SH&E
staff document the benefits of emission reductions. This is the third fundamental
principle of successful organisational change. To make a major shift in thinking
and behaviour, people must believe that the benefits of the new approach out-
weigh the downsides by at least a 2 to 1 ratio. In other words, participants must see
two upsides for every downside of the shift. If the pros of a large shift do not sub-
stantially outweigh the cons, why would anyone make the effort?
SH&E staff therefore made a special effort to build the business case for emission
reductions, based largely on the twin concerns of reducing corporate overhead
costs and the rapidly rising price of energy during that period. They documented,
for example, that since the company started the effort in 2001 they have saved
close to $175 million. In 2008 they saved $59 million in energy costs alone com-
pared with the corporate energy intensity from 2005.
‘These savings are actually small potatoes,’ said Moore. ‘The bigger benefits have
been the added value, such as attraction of good people who want to work at the
company because of its reputation.’ The public attention the firm received from its
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18 Leading Change toward Sustainability

emission reduction efforts has significantly increased its brand value. The end
result is that the firm’s competitive position has improved. This, said Moore, is
‘what it’s about at the end of the day’.
Although senior executives and the leaders within SH&E did not necessarily use
these terms, by utilising many of the key interventions described in this book, by
2003, when a new set of targets was developed, the company’s thinking had
evolved. People began to realise that emission reduction was much more than an
environmental issue that created a business risk. It had implications for corporate
social responsibility. This new awareness led to an expansion of the scope of the
programme to consider the company’s broader carbon footprint.
Today, the understanding of what climate issues mean for the business has
expanded even further. ‘The “social” has been dropped from CSR’, according to
Moore, and emission reductions are now seen as a core function of the firm’s over-
all corporate responsibility. In short, it has become embedded in the way the entire
company operates.
AstraZeneca made this transition through ‘a process that we continue to get bet-
ter and better at’, said Moore. Regular internal communications with employees
about the company’s climate activities is a priority. They have also engaged in tar-
geted communications with stakeholders in order to keep them informed of the
company’s activities and to obtain feedback. Moore said, ‘Our desire is to keep cli-
mate and other environmental issues on the agenda at the highest level as a means
of achieving our strategic improvement goals.’ Employees also understand that the
firm’s overall purpose, as stated in its mission statement, is to ‘make the most
meaningful difference to patient health through great medicines’ and that climate
change has direct implications on the ability of the company to achieve that end.
One of the interesting aspects about the leadership demonstrated by senior exec-
utives at AstraZeneca is their evolving view of what it means to produce a good
return on investment. Energy efficiency and other projects that need major capi-
tal investments may be approved even if their payback is longer than other aspects
of the investment. ‘Ultimately,’ said Moore, ‘if we have been successful in reducing
emissions it is not because of a “moral dictate” from SH&E or corporate headquar-
ters. It’s been because we focused on finding win–wins that at the end of the day
enhance our businesses and provide value.’
The company has not limited its focus to reducing carbon emissions. It is also
beginning to consider how to prepare for the consequences of climate change.
Moore said they have begun to assess their risks as well as the business opportuni-
ties posed by warming because, ‘We have a large and complex supply chain with
its attendant risks and opportunities and there are issues such as healthcare goals
and respiratory diseases that have factored into our thinking.’ He went on to say,
‘Our efforts on this front are in their infancy but will be updated at alarming speed.
We know we must not put ourselves in a position of just responding to events. It is
better to help shape how those events unfold.’
The foresight shown by AstraZeneca almost a decade ago has paid off big-time.
The company senses that it would be under increasing scrutiny unless it dealt with
climate issues proactively and responsibly. Sure enough, along came the Carbon
Disclosure Project (CDP), which collects climate change information on behalf of
institutional investors and others in order to encourage private and public organi-
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Introduction to the Second Edition 19

sations to measure, manage and reduce their emissions.4 The company is now an
active participant in the CDP.
By responding to stakeholders and instituting an effective series of change inter-
ventions, AstraZeneca has positioned itself to thrive in a fast-changing carbon-
constrained world.

Mid-size firms
Catalyst Paper is a mid-sized company that has taken emission reductions seri-
ously. With 2008 sales of $1.8 billion and approximately 2,700 employees, mostly
in British Columbia, the firm is one of the largest producers of printing papers in
western North America. Its paper is used in newsprint, telephone directories, cata-
logues and other products. In 2008 the company’s total carbon emissions had been
cut by 73% on an absolute basis compared to 1990 levels.5
The Catalyst Paper programme started back in the early 1990s as an energy-sav-
ing initiative, according to Drew Kilback, the firm’s Director of Risk and Environ-
ment.6 The company is a big energy user and high costs provided the initial ‘ten-
sion’ that mobilised the effort. Middle management started the initiative because
they believed opportunities were available for cost-cutting through reduced energy
consumption. The managers began the initiative by holding numerous face-to-
face meetings with employees to solicit energy-saving ideas. This helped get the
workforce on board.
Function and unit specific teams were then set up, led by middle managers,
which developed lists of ideas for energy savings. The costs and benefits of the pro-
posals were then calculated and the ideas with the greatest potential were imple-
mented. As they engaged in the energy-saving activities the link with greenhouse
gas emissions became obvious. ‘The auxiliary fuels we use are typically fossil fuels,’
said Kilback. ‘We therefore started tracking greenhouse gas emissions back in the
early ’90s.’ Today, the company has a dual focus on energy savings and emission
reductions.
A three-part strategy has been used to achieve its energy and emission reduction
goals. According to company reports, energy efficiency contributed to an 18%
reduction in fuel use in 2007 relative to 2003. A shift from fossil fuels to biomass
(wood waste) energy production reduced fossil fuel use by 23%. In addition to the
team structure, communications have been essential in saving energy and reduc-
ing greenhouse gases, according to Kilback. Daily ‘tailgate’ meetings are held with
each crew at their facility and ways to cut energy use and emissions are often dis-
cussed. The company shares information about successes and other relevant data
through its internal intranet. Quarterly and annual reports are produced that

4 See www.cdproject.net/about-cdp.asp.
5 See www.catalystpaper.com, accessed 5 November 2009.
6 Personal communication, 22 June 2009.
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20 Leading Change toward Sustainability

analyse energy and emission status and trends. Kilback told me, ‘I’m sure employ-
ees see energy use and greenhouse gas controls as a priority for the company.’
Constant learning is also a priority. Energy and emission reduction ideas con-
tinue to be generated by the line workers because ‘they know the equipment bet-
ter than anyone’. Managers and line workers evaluate the proposals and imple-
ment those that make sense. The diffusion of energy reduction efforts throughout
all levels and units of the company eventually led to a transition from the initial
team approach to the formation of ‘power watchers’ groups within each of the
company’s facilities. These groups continually search for ways to reduce energy use
and slash emissions. Corporate-level employees, on the other hand, led to the
development in 2007 of what the company calls Catalyst Cooled™ carbon-neutral
paper. They applied the concept of carbon neutrality to their products and became
the first company to mass-market the product. The claim of carbon neutrality
comes from the fact that 87% of the firm’s energy at its British Columbia mills are
now derived from renewable sources such as biomass. The self-generated renew-
able energy is EcoLogo-certified.7 Catalyst ‘offsets’ the greenhouse gas emissions
produced by the 13% of its energy that remains fossil-fuel-based by investing in
reforestation, wind and other verifiable renewable energy projects. The company
is investigating the use of additional sources of renewable energy to reduce its use
of offsets, according to Kilback.
Much like AstraZeneca, in addition to cost savings, one of the benefits the com-
pany experienced from its effort is the high-quality people that are attracted to the
company ‘due to its commitment to energy savings and climate issues’, said Kil-
back. The company has also become well known for its commitment to climate
protection. For instance, in 2007 the company became the only forest products
firm on the Conference Board of Canada’s Climate Disclosure Leadership Index.
Despite the positive recognition, the company has been disappointed by the
market response. ‘We had hoped to see a big uptake in the market,’ said Kilback.
‘Rolling Stone magazine is now printed on our carbon-neutral product but the eco-
nomic downturn hurt us. We have not seen a big market response yet.’ One hopes
this changes as the economy recovers from the recession.
In addition to its emission reduction efforts, the company has begun to prepare
for the consequences of climate change. Management systems were adopted aimed
at identifying the potential risks to the business. They determined that the firm’s
fibre supply and access to water might be threatened. Although they are yet to see
any real, substantive impacts on the business, according to Kilback, the firm inves-
tigated alternative fibre supply scenarios. The risks to its fibre supply and the com-
pany’s ongoing efforts to reduce water use are constantly monitored. The firm is
also keeping an eye on the business impacts of potential regulatory/policy impacts
of climate change.8

7 EcoLogo is a Canadian government environmental certification programme; see www.

ecologo.org/en, accessed 5 November 2009.
8 Personal communication, 8 September 2009.
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Introduction to the Second Edition 21

Small firms
Practical, cost-effective emission reductions are possible in small companies just as
they are in mid- and large-sized firms. Cases in point are Autohaus and Euro-Asian
Automotive9 as well as the Market of Choice10 grocery chain in Oregon. George
Rode, President and owner of the two auto repair companies, recently attended a
Climate Masters at Work training seminar.11 The Climate Leadership Initiative at
the University of Oregon, which I direct, developed the programme. Climate Mas-
ters at Work helps business leaders learn cost-effective ways to shift their thinking
and practices in order to reduce their emissions. 12
Rode has always had a commitment to environmental stewardship. But after he
took the training he told me, ‘I thought I was doing good until I took your Climate
Masters training through the UO. Then I realised there was so much more I could
do.’13 This awareness established the tension needed to spur him to take additional
action to reduce his company’s emissions. Due to Rode’s leadership, prior to
attending the Climate Masters training the company had become one of just five
local firms to be awarded an Eco-Biz certification by the City of Eugene. This vol-
untary programme helps auto-related companies adopt practices to keep pollu-
tants out of the stormwater system and airshed, conserve resources by re-using and
recycling fluids and solid wastes, and educate employees about good environmen-
tal practices. After the company received the certification, Rode installed solar pan-
els at both businesses. The system provides about one-third of the company’s
annual electrical power. He expects it to pay for itself within 4–5 years.
A few months later Rode installed energy-efficient ductless heat pumps to cool
and heat both his office and home. Less energy use means less carbon emissions.
But Rode has just begun. ‘Climate Masters opened my eyes so much about what to
do to lower my businesses and personal carbon footprint.’ He calculated the total
miles employees drive to and from work and then encouraged them to find ways
to reduce their driving. He purchased a bicycle and high-mileage Honda Civic car
to use as a loaner fleet at each facility. Some of his future plans include, for exam-
ple, giving his employees cash incentives to drive more fuel-efficient personal vehi-
cles. He also plans to install more energy-efficient lighting and motion detector
light switches in the facilities. Another solar PV system is in the works. And the
firm is beginning to ‘rethink things’ such as how to work with their suppliers to
reduce the packaging they receive and how to improve the sorting of what goes
into the garbage and what is recycled.
Rode said he thought most of his employees feel good about the effort. ‘Some
embrace it more than others.’ Most importantly, Rode told me he will ‘continue to
educate people around me to make small changes in their personal habits to lower
their carbon footprint’. He now understands that the most important aspect of

9 See www.autohaus.bz, accessed 5 November 2009.

10 See www.marketofchoice.com, accessed 5 November 2009.
11 Some of this section was taken from a column I wrote for the Register Guard newspaper
on 18 August 2009.
12 For information on the UO Climate Masters at Work programme, see climlead.uoregon.
edu/programs/businessclimatemaster.html, accessed 5 November 2009.
13 Personal communication, 17 June 2009.
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22 Leading Change toward Sustainability

organisational change is to help his employees alter their thinking and behaviours.
All sorts of innovative steps can be taken to reduce emissions when the mind-set
of the people involved is oriented toward climate protection, preparedness and
sustainability.
Market of Choice’s effort to reduce its carbon emissions is not nearly as advanced
as Rode’s or the larger companies previously discussed, but it is gearing up for big
things. Before it took its current form, the company gave little thought to sustain-
ability. But constant pressure from customers generated the internal tension that
led the firm to become a leader in the field among Oregon grocery chains. The
company recently formed a corporate-level sustainability committee, for example,
and ‘green teams’ are being organised at each of its seven stores in Eugene and Port-
land, Oregon. According to Michael Scott, the company’s new sustainability coor-
dinator, the teams will ‘educate and empower employees at each location to
maximise energy efficiency and reduce waste.’14
Scott attended the first Climate Masters at Work training class offered by my UO
programme. Like Rode, he decided to be strategic and tackle the ‘low-hanging fruit’
first before launching bigger projects. Although he did not consciously think
about it this way, he wanted to build self-efficacy by demonstrating to employees
that the company had the capacity to engage in successful projects. He also wanted
to build the benefits of the new approach in the minds of executives and line staff.
One of his first efforts was to put dumpsters in the south Eugene store to help
employees separate food waste from other waste materials. About five tons of green
waste a month is now diverted from the landfill, where it would have decomposed
and produced methane. On a per molecule basis methane is a much more power-
ful greenhouse gas than carbon dioxide. Once similar programmes are up and run-
ning at all of the stores, Scott said he expects the programme to save the company
about $500 a month on handling and tipping fees. That may not seem like much,
he said, but in the low-margin grocery business every penny counts and the sav-
ings help increase the staff’s sense of self-efficacy as well as the benefits of the new
approach.
Another way that Scott and his teams are building the sense of benefits is by
installing solar panels at the south Eugene store and quantifying the emission
reductions they produce. The firm keeps a running count on its website of the
energy and emission reductions the panels generate.15 To reduce energy consump-
tion the firm recently piloted LED (light-emitting diode) lighting in their freezers.
It worked and they are now updating all of their freezer doors with LED lights. The
company has adopted a policy of purchasing as much of its fruit, vegetables and
other products from local sources as possible. A good deal of the packaging they
use is made from recycled materials or is biodegradable. And in 2008 they elimi-
nated plastic bags at their checkout stands.
Scott told me that he senses that employees are ‘excited and jazzed’ about the
company’s sustainability efforts. ‘They want to be part of a company that is doing

14 Personal communication, 16 June 2009.

15 See www.marketofchoice.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=81:
solar-panel-output&catid=71:eco-efforts&Itemid=151, accessed 5 November 2009.
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Introduction to the Second Edition 23

good things for the environment,’ he said. ‘This will reduce turnover which will
save us lots of money, although I don’t have statistics yet to prove this.’
At the end of our conversation Scott acknowledged there is much more to do.
Not all of the employees feel 100% connected to the company’s sustainability
efforts, he said, and their internal communication needs improvement. A com-
plete inventory of the company’s carbon emissions and many other actions aimed
at reducing emissions are on the ‘to do’ list as well.

Mid-sized city governments and their communities

Cities are responsible for 75% of global greenhouse gas emissions. With the world’s
population likely to become even more urbanised, a growing number of munici-
palities have engaged in climate protection. Cities have at least three important
roles to play in the climate change field. They can reduce emissions from their own
internal government operations. They can adopt policies and implement pro-
grammes to minimise emissions from local businesses, non-profits and house-
holds. And they can also adopt policies to help households and businesses prepare
for the now unpreventable consequences of climate change.
One of the mid-sized communities leading the way on climate protection is
Woking, England.16 It came to my attention when Annabelle Malins, Consul for
Science and Innovation with the British Consulate-General, mentioned the town
at an Oregon legislative hearing I spoke at.17 Malins said the town, which is
roughly 45 minutes away from London and has a population of about 90,000, is
one of Britain’s leaders in reducing carbon dioxide emissions. When I was in Eng-
land a short time later I set out to see for myself.
My first hint that Woking was different were the many solar PV panels I saw as I
walked to my meeting with Lara Curran, Senior Policy Officer for Climate Change
for Woking Borough Council (the city government). Despite the typical March wet
cloudy English weather, solar panels have been installed in the town square and
elsewhere, providing energy for local users. The little town of Woking has about
10% of Britain’s total installed solar capacity. Curran started my visit with a little
history. When their programme started in the early ’90s, climate change was not
the primary driver. She told me the initial tension—she used the term ‘problem’—
that motivated the town council to engage was the high costs of energy and the
potential to cut costs by improving the energy efficiency of their old government
buildings.18 About £250,000 sterling was initially invested in small-scale efficiency
improvements such as insulation, lighting and motion detectors. The projects
worked, which built the sense of self-efficacy. Borough staff and the Council began
to believe that they had the capacity to successfully cut energy costs.

16 See www.woking.gov.uk, accessed 5 November 2009.

17 Much of this section was taken from a column I wrote for the Register Guard newspaper
on 10 May 2009.
18 Personal communication, 17 March 2009.
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24 Leading Change toward Sustainability

Rather than going back to the general fund, the savings were continually rein-
vested in larger efficiency improvements, leading to greater cost savings. This
increased the Council’s awareness of the programme’s benefits. It also showed that
carbon emissions could be reduced through the same process. This understanding
motivated the Council to expand their focus from energy reduction to include
emission reductions.
After additional successes the sense of self-efficacy among the Borough Council
and staff was high. They realised they had the know-how to cut energy use as well
as emissions. Also high was an appreciation of the cost savings and other benefits
the initiative produced. This led the Council to decide to set up a joint public–pri-
vate energy and environmental Services Company (eeSCO) called Thamesway Ltd.
This eeSCO built Britain’s first ‘sustainable community energy system’, which pro-
vides the local community with power through a combination of renewables and
high-efficiency co-generation resources without relying on the national power
grid.
Woking’s energy system includes the solar PV panels, which in 2008 have a
capacity of 523 kW with plans to increase this total by 1 MW, a natural-gas-pow-
ered combined heat and power plant which generates energy at 80–90% effi-
ciency, and other sources. It supplies power to the Borough Council’s facilities as
well as to residential and commercial customers. By 2008 a total of 22 sites were
incorporating sustainable energy installations throughout the Borough. A ‘private
wire’ electrical distribution system which operates separately from the public
power grid connects the system’s customers. The city is now about 90% indepen-
dent of the national power grid, so when the grid goes down most of Woking still
has energy. According to some estimates, the system has saved the Borough Coun-
cil, its residents and businesses over £10 million since it started, a tidy sum which
further enhanced their sense of self-efficacy and expanded their understanding of
the benefits of engaging in the activities.
In 2002, the Council adopted its first official climate policy, which Curran said
at the time was ‘seen as one of the most aggressive in Britain’. The plan included
ambitious emission reduction goals. Implementation was broken down into ‘bite-
size steps’. The cost savings, combined with the clear links staff made between the
climate plan and the Council’s three key goals of providing affordable housing,
maintaining quality of life and protecting the environment, were key to its adop-
tion.
Buildings are the largest source of emissions in the community. Much of the cli-
mate plan therefore focuses on improving energy efficiency, expanding the sus-
tainable community energy system, and reducing waste. To improve efficiency, for
example, every household in the Borough received a questionnaire asking about
their building and practices. After the responses were analysed each household
received a document outlining how they could improve their home’s energy effi-
ciency and reduce waste. Transportation is the second largest source of emissions,
and a much tougher problem to solve. Walking and biking have been emphasised.
Woking is now a national ‘Cycle Demonstration Town’. As I strolled around the
community a continuous stream of people zipped by me on bikes, many in suits
and ties. Assisting lower-income residents is another key element of the plan.
‘There are two poorer wards,’ said Curran. ‘We adopted a “fuel poverty” policy that
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Introduction to the Second Edition 25

helps people in these wards pay their energy bills.’ This helped increase energy effi-
ciency while also contributing to the Council’s affordable housing goal.
Innovation and learning are cornerstones of the Borough’s strategy. The Coun-
cil built a demonstration home, the ‘Oak Tree House’, which shows visitors how
different high-efficiency technologies and building practices can reduce energy
and emissions. The Council wants 1,000 homes to adopt the methods. As can be
expected with most forms of innovation, some aspects of the plan did not succeed.
For example, the Woking Park Fuel Cell demonstration project showed that fuel
cells worked, but proved too expensive to maintain. Although the Council remains
convinced that the project was worth it, they are now thinking about shutting it
down. All told, the Council’s efforts have slashed carbon emissions within the bor-
ough as a whole by 21% since 1990, the baseline year. Energy use from city gov-
ernment facilities have been slashed by 51% and carbon emissions cut by 81%.
As we closed our discussion I asked Curran what more could be done. I also asked
her if she thought Woking could cut emissions by 80%, which is what scientists
say will be required to avoid runaway climate change. The Borough’s programme
has been ‘too top-down’, she said, meaning it has been driven by the Borough
Council and staff. They rely on NGO partners to engage the public. This is a typical
English approach and one of the things she would like to change. As for becoming
essentially carbon-free, ‘I’m not sure,’ she said. ‘But I’m optimistic. If we can make
it easy and accessible to people, if they have the information and tools they need,
people can act quickly.’
Although Curran seems optimistic by nature, her confidence is not unwar-
ranted. She has seen first-hand what can be accomplished by using tension to
motivate action, building self-efficacy through innovation and real-world suc-
cesses, continually documenting the benefits of change, and lots of hard work.

Large city governments and their communities

Perhaps mid-sized towns such as Woking can significantly slash emissions. But can
a major metropolitan area also do it? Portland, Oregon has proven it can. With a
population of almost 600,000 residing within its urban boundary, Portland is Ore-
gon’s largest city and the 29th biggest in the United States. The Portland metro-
politan area holds about two million people, making it among the 25 largest metro
areas in the US.19
For many years Portland has been considered one of the ‘greenest’ cities in Amer-
ica. There are different views on why this is. Some people believe it’s because much
of the population was drawn to the area due to its natural beauty and outdoor
amenities that they want to preserve. Skiing and hiking on Mt Hood, an 11,000 ft
snowcapped peak, for example, as well as fishing and camping on the gorgeous
Oregon coast, are within an hour’s drive. Other people believe it has more to do

19 Population Research Center, Portland State University, March 2009.

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26 Leading Change toward Sustainability

with an inherent independent streak held by many Oregonians which leads them
to demand open government and active involvement in civic affairs.
No matter what the reason, a number of events conspired to produce the ‘ten-
sion’ that got Portland engaged in climate protection. Local residents, for instance,
pressured the city to get involved ‘due to their environmental values,’ said Michael
Armstrong, the city’s Bureau of Planning and Sustainability’s Senior Sustainability
Manager.20 The public had come to expect sound comprehensive long-term plan-
ning by government after Oregon’s landmark land-use planning system was
enacted by the legislature in 1973. ‘This led Mike Lindberg [a city councillor in the
early 1990s] to examine the emerging science on climate change and decide that
having the city develop a plan was the responsible thing to do,’ according to Arm-
strong. It was one leader realising it was his responsibility to act.
The city linked up with a few others around the world that were thinking about
similar issues. The networking and information sharing that resulted helped moti-
vate city staff. A broad-based steering committee was then organised which exam-
ined the issue and forwarded a suite of proposals for reducing emissions to the City
Council. In 1993 Portland became the first municipal government in the US to
adopt a global warming strategy. The initial plan focused on emission reductions
from both internal city operations and the community as a whole. It addressed
issues such as land-use planning, transportation, energy efficiency, solid waste
management, urban forestry and renewable energy. In 2001 the Portland City
Council told staff that in light of the new science on global warming they wanted
to see the 1993 plan updated and expanded. The City then joined with Multnomah
County, which encompasses the entire metropolitan area, and launched a process
to devise a revised plan called the Local Action Plan on Global Warming. A broad-
based public–private steering committee was organised to lead the effort. It was
composed of number of technical groups to analyse the issues and propose emis-
sion reductions actions for different issues and sectors. The technical groups for-
warded their proposals to the steering committee, which vetted them and issued a
draft plan for public comment. ‘In typical Oregon fashion, we instituted a com-
prehensive public engagement process,’ said Armstrong.
One of the interesting trends at that time was the parochial response to the draft
Action Plan. ‘We found very strong constituencies for certain parts of the plan.
Recyclers were all over the recycling section, transportation people provided
detailed comments on that section, and parks people responded to the parks sec-
tion. But very few people commented on the overall need to reduce emissions or
offered a truly integrated perspective.’
The Action Plan that resulted included 150 short- and long-term actions aimed
at cutting community-wide emissions to 10% below 1990 levels by 2010. This was
seen as a very ambitious goal. The Kyoto Protocol target, which the US failed to rat-
ify, called for only a 7% emission reduction below 1990 levels by 2012.
Even with the siloed responses received during the public engagement phase,
city and county government staff, and the general public, embraced the plan. It
turned out to be very successful. Local emissions rose in 2000 to 11% over 1990 lev-
els, but then began to drop. Despite substantial population and economic growth,

20 Personal communication, 4 September 2009.

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Introduction to the Second Edition 27

by 2007 emissions had been reduced to 1% below 1990 levels. On a per capita basis,
emissions have been reduced by 17% since 1990. These impressive results occurred
at the same time that average emission levels throughout the United States in-
creased by 17%.
A mixture of strategies has been used to achieve these outcomes. In 2001, for
example, the city replaced incandescent traffic signals with LED lights, cutting 3%
of the city’s total CO2 emissions while saving $265,000 annually. In 2002 the city
secured 30 Toyota hybrid Prius automobiles which could achieve 50 miles per gal-
lon. All diesel vehicles and equipment that use the city’s fuelling stations were
required to use a blend of 20% biodiesel and 80% diesel. Through its Energy Chal-
lenge, the city reduced its energy bills by almost $15 million: 12% of the its munic-
ipal electricity purchases now come from renewable sources and the city govern-
ment is investigating ways to purchase 100% renewable for its facilities and
operations. Since 1996 the city has also planted over 750,000 trees and shrubs and
restored local streams and waterways as means of absorbing CO2.
The success of these and many other actions has helped build the sense of self-
efficacy within city and county staff and key community stakeholders. People have
seen that it is possible to reduce emissions through cost-effective actions. The self-
confidence has built on itself, allowing people to engage in bigger actions. Relent-
less communications has been a key element of the strategy. Armstrong told me
that, ‘After we realised that people were mostly interested in the aspects of the plan
that affected them, we changed our communications strategy and began to talk
about how climate change would affect each group’s area of concern. For example,
we began to talk about the effects on recycling, transportation and parks.’ The city
also realised that the impacts of climate change would not be evenly dispersed.
‘Some parts of the community are more vulnerable than others and some popula-
tions are more concerned about these issues. Equity is a key factor to many people
and we communicated our understanding of the importance of this issue.’ The tar-
geted communications that resulted helped build public support for, and engage-
ment in, the Action Plan.
A similar approach was used to develop buy-in within government. ‘There were
some departments that said, ‘let the Office of Sustainability deal with it’, Arm-
strong told me. But, by communicating how climate change will affect the
resources they are responsible for and how they might benefit by emission reduc-
tions, support solidified. ‘Now each of the departments and bureaus are writing
their own climate action plans. It’s been hard to manage but it’s been very satisfy-
ing.’
The climate action plan has generated a number of benefits for the city and
county. At the operational level the city has seen cost savings in some areas and
higher costs elsewhere. ‘There is a sense that it has not directly helped nor hurt us
financially,’ according to Armstrong. From a programmatic perspective, the emis-
sion reduction efforts have ended up complementing the city’s other economic
and environmental goals such as reducing air pollution, providing cost-effective
energy, reducing energy bills for residents and preventing urban sprawl and traffic
congestion. These integrated benefits have been important. Armstrong also
believes that ‘The overall planning process has contributed to the Portland
“Brand”.’ The city’s environmental and sustainability efforts are now well known
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28 Leading Change toward Sustainability

throughout the US; it has attracted a number of new companies in the wind power
and renewable energy field, and it has also helped to enhance the quality of life of
its residents. As a result of the 16-plus years the city has been engaged in emissions
reductions, the approach has ‘become general operating practice within city gov-
ernment. A lot of it has been institutionalised. Our policies have helped. But its not
completely institutionalised. We know there is more to do,’ said Armstrong.
Commitment to climate protection and preparation has remained strong
among elected officials within the city and county government. In fact, it has
grown. In 2007, the Portland City Council and Multnomah County Board of Com-
missioners adopted resolutions directing staff to design a strategy to reduce locally
generated carbon emissions by 80% by 2050. They also directed staff to develop a
climate preparedness and adaptation strategy.
As this updated version of the book went to press, a draft plan outlining objec-
tives and actions to meet the 2050 target was out for public review. One of the most
interesting outcomes so far has been the reaction of residents. ‘We got ten times
more comments this time than we did on the 2001 plan. And this time the gener-
alists showed up who want to see a solid overall climate plan. This is very encour-
aging. We appear to have moved beyond the parochial approach to a more
integrated view of things,’ concluded Armstrong.
Each of the successful emission reduction examples described above utilised
their own unique tailored approach to change. On close examination, however, it
becomes clear that, even though they may not have articulated it in quite the same
way, each organisation employed most, if not all, of the key leverage points for
change described in this book. In doing so they demonstrated that significant cost-
effective reductions in climate-damaging carbon emissions are possible. If they
continue to expand, and if thousands of other public and private organisations
and communities throughout the US, Europe and elsewhere scale up as well, we’ll
have a good shot at preventing runaway climate change and adopting a path
toward sustainability.
It is my hope that the information and tools provided in the following pages pro-
vide a blueprint that change leaders of all types can use to mobilise their organisa-
tions and institutions to make this much-needed shift.
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Acknowledgements

First and foremost I want to thank all of the business and government leaders who
took the time to discuss their change strategies with me. Many were gracious
enough to hold multiple phone interviews and personal meetings with me and to
allow me to visit their facilities and speak with line staff. Many also provided access
to internal reports and information. They did not have to do so.
Special thanks go to: Ray Anderson, Jim Hartzfeld, Joyce LaValle, John Bradford,
Buddy Hay and Claude Ouimet at Interface; John Emrick and Derek Smith at Norm
Thompson Outfitters; Anne Stocum at Xerox; Paul Murray and Mark Schurman at
Herman Miller; Nick Pudar at General Motors Strategic Initiatives; Arthur DeJong
at Whistler Blackcomb Resort; Jim Quinn, Lee Jimerson and Jaime Sanz de Santa-
maria at The Collins Companies; Nancy Hirschberg at Stonyfield Farm; Sarah
Severn, Darcy Winslow and Heidi McCloskey at Nike; George Lundberg at Epson
Portland; Albert Kuhn at Swisscom; Dean Kubani from the City of Santa Monica
CA; Mayor Pete Clavelle and Assistant to the Mayor Bill Mitchell at Burlington, VT;
former Governor John Kitzhaber, Lynn Beaton, Cam Birnie and Julia Doreman at
the State of Oregon; Dr Jim Sedell, Diana Graves and the project leaders of the US
Forest Service’s large-scale watershed programmes; Peter Domini at Stena Metall;
Tom Kelly and Julia Spence at Neil Kelly Company; Jan Peter Bergkvist at Scandic
Hotels; Dr Michael Bahn and Petra Seddighi at Henkel; Thomas Bergmark at IKEA;
Björn Lyngfelt and Bo Sandqvist at SCA in Sweden; Jeff Zalla at Chiquita; Mary
Tkach at Aveda; Ben Packard at Starbucks; Jil Zilligen at Patagonia; Paul de Jongh,
policy advisory for sustainable development for the Dutch government; Dr
Janneke Hoekstra, Ton Bresser and Laurens Beijen at RIVM, Huub Schrijver, W.Th.P.
Groen, Kess Vijverberg, Rene Marcelis, Martin Vroon and Dick Brand from the
Ministry of Housing, Spatial Planning and the Environment in the Netherlands;
Annelise Ravn at the Development and Data Division of the Danish Ministry of
Environment and Energy; and Torbjorn Lahti of ESAM and the Swedish EcoMuni-
cipality Programme.
We are all, in part, shaped by our past. I want to acknowledge the systems practi-
tioners who influenced my thinking about organisations and change over the
years. My initial education in systems thinking came through my education and
training in counselling psychology and group dynamics. The late Will Schutz and
Ray Lowe, Laura Perls, Rhada Miller and others were particularly influential in
forming my understanding. The work of systems thinking experts Peter Senge,
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30 Leading Change toward Sustainability

Russ Ackoff, Robert Fritz, Daniel Kim and others have also greatly influenced my
perspective. Finally, the work of organisational change theorists Rosebeth Moss
Kanter and John Kotter has been particularly important to me. In fact, there are
many similarities between the change strategy promoted by Kotter and my
approach. However, there are also a number of important differences. In particular,
Kotter does not overtly focus on the need for new forms of governance. The
starting point, emphasis and sequence of steps involved with Kotter’s approach
also differ from mine.
Just as a number of people influenced my thinking about systems and change, I
want to acknowledge those who served as my mentors in sustainability. In the late
1960s and early 1970s Nelson Wieters of Man and His Land Expeditions shaped my
early understanding of the relationship between humans and nature. My time
working with Bob and Claire McConaughy on the R Lazy S Ranch in Moose,
Wyoming, furthered this education. I spent about 30 years working on and for
river issues. There is nothing quite like working on a ranch, living outdoors and
guiding wild rivers to learn how the fortunes of man and the environment are
inextricably intertwined. In the mid-’80s and beyond, aquatic ecologists Dr Jim
Sedell, Dr Gordon Reeves and Dr James Karr solidified my scientific understanding
of the interrelationships between ecological systems and societal activities. More
recently, Paul Hawken, Amory Lovins, Bill McDonough, Karl-Henrik Robèrt and
others provided whole new ways to approach and talk about these issues.
Special thanks go to the following friends and colleagues for their valuable
editorial advice: Larry Chalfan, former CEO of Oki Semiconductor Manufacturing
and now director of the Zero Waste Alliance; Susan Burns of Natural Strategies;
Craig Shinn at Portland State University; Matt Emlen of the City of Portland Office
of Sustainability; Steve Nicholas, director of the Office of Sustainability and the
Environment at the City of Seattle; Ernie Niemi, economist with ECONorthwest
consultants. I also thank Mike Russo from Lundquist College of Business at the
University of Oregon, Bill McDonough and Ken Alston of McDonough Braungart
Design Chemistry, LLC, and Paul de Jongh for their editorial suggestions. Apprecia-
tion also goes to my good friend Mickey Gawlowski for the use of his cabin at Lake
Tahoe where some of the most important writing of the book took place.
I would be remiss for not thanking my mother for all that she’s done—and for
giving me honest feedback on an early version of the introduction that led to a
much-improved text.
Finally, I thank my partner for life, Peggy Bloom, for her unwavering support,
love and encouragement—and her sharp editorial eye.
LeadingChange_2nd_ed_2.qxd 17/11/09 12:14 Page 31

How to use this book

This book can be used in two ways:

l If your organisation is not currently involved with sustainability but is think-
ing about starting an initiative, this book provides a primer on the need,
definitions and benefits of sustainable development as well as a theory and
methodology for operationalising it. To achieve the greatest benefit, begin-
ners should read the book from cover to cover.
l If your organisation is already engaged in sustainability, this book can provide
a preventative check-up or a crisis management guide. Practitioners can start
with Part II to learn the steps the more advanced organisations have taken
to operationalise sustainability or start by completing the assessments found
in the appendices to identify your probable weak links. You can then jump
to the chapter(s) that discusses how to overcome the problems or obstacles
you have identified.
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LeadingChange_2nd_ed_2.qxd 17/11/09 12:14 Page 33

Part I
Why some organisations
succeed and others fail

Centuries from now, when our ancestors look back at the Industrial Age, they will
undoubtedly conclude that it symbolised both the best and the worst of human
history. In less than two hundred years, human beings—particularly those in
Western societies—created economic prosperity never before experienced on
Earth. Paradoxically, these same achievements so profoundly altered the physical
and biochemical make-up of the Earth and produced such unprecedented gaps
between rich and poor that the prosperity of future generations was put at risk.
Climate change, ecological degradation and pervasive poverty in developed and
developing nations are some of the most troublesome outcomes of the industrial
era. Even as these problems persist, the world’s population continues to grow
exponentially, as does society’s technological capacity to extract raw materials,
turn them into products and services, and emit pollution and waste. These pres-
sures increasingly strain nature’s productive and assimilative capacities. Mounting
environmental concerns, in turn, increasingly lead to and are interwoven with
problems of inequity and social unrest.
As often occurs when activities escalate without constraint, opposing forces
eventually rise up to counteract them. The field of sustainable development is one
that has emerged to offset growing environmental degradation, poverty and
inequity. Since mid-1980, hundreds of private, public and community-based sus-
tainability initiatives have blossomed across the globe. The Earth Summit in Rio de
Janeiro in 1992 and the follow-up World Summit on Sustainable Development in
Johannesburg, South Africa, held in 2002, shone the light on these initiatives and
arguably made sustainable development a common element of today’s public
dialogue.
Despite the increasing attention given to the issue, most experts would agree
that progress toward sustainability has been, at best, modest. Some sustainable
development efforts have made significant progress and generated important
economic, social and environmental benefits. Others are just beginning to reach
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34 Leading Change toward Sustainability

their potential and in many areas progress has been non-existent. But, far too
often, people within and outside of organisations involved with sustainability
initiatives complain that change has been slow and disappointing, leading to
wasted resources, frustration and cynicism about the sustainability movement.
In my work over the past 20 years, I have witnessed first-hand the struggles that
public and private organisations face when trying to operationalise sustainable
development. Over and over, I hear the same questions arise: Why have so few
organisations successfully adopted more sustainable policies or practices? When
they do get launched, why do so many efforts plateau after a short time and fail to
ascend to the next level of excellence? What are the fundamentals of organisa-
tional change toward sustainability that lie beneath the scientific and technical
information provided by frameworks such as The Natural Step, Zero Waste and
Eco-efficiency?
Because so few resources are available to answer these questions, I decided to
research how the leaders approached them. This book summarises my findings. It
seeks to demystify the sustainability-change process by providing a theoretical
framework and a methodology that managers can use to successfully transform
their organisations to embrace sustainable development.
During my research I found that discussions about what to do—for example,
which new technologies and policy instruments to apply—dominate the public
dialogue on sustainability. Practitioners place comparatively little emphasis on
how organisations can change their internal thought processes, assumptions and
ingrained behaviour to embrace the new tools and techniques. This void accounts
for many of the problems organisations face when seeking to operationalise sus-
tainable development.
In most organisations, major operational change requires fundamental shifts in
culture. Through my research, I found that sustainability efforts often fail to get off
the ground, stall soon after they begin, or eventually collapse unless the cultural
beliefs, thinking and behaviour that are inconsistent with sustainability are
altered. Few leaders fully grasp the deep-seated paradigm shift inherent in sustain-
ability. Further, most do not know how to stimulate widespread cultural change.
These failings combine to limit the ability of most organisations to adopt mean-
ingful sustainability efforts.
Our current economic system is fundamentally linear in nature. It focuses on
producing products and services and delivering them to the customer in the fastest
and cheapest way possible. Not much else matters. Humans extract resources from
the Earth’s surface, turn them into goods, and then discharge the massive amounts
of often highly toxic waste the system generates back into nature as either air,
water and soil pollution or as solid, industrial and hazardous waste. After two
hundred years of experience with this straight-line ‘take–make–waste’ production
system, it has become firmly embedded as the dominant economic paradigm in
the psyches of most Westerners.
Sustainable development presents an alternative to the traditional economic
paradigm. At its core, it seeks to transform the linear model into one that is circular
in nature. The circular (or closed-loop) approach utilises environmentally benign
energy, raw materials, construction and manufacturing processes, and continually
recirculates materials that are now thought of as worthless waste back into the
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Part I. Why some organisations succeed and others fail 35

industrial system as feedstocks for new business activity or back to nature where
they become nutrients for renewed growth. Thus, it can be considered a ‘borrow–
use–return’ system. While the linear economic system continually depletes the
environment and often harms socioeconomic wellbeing, the circular model main-
tains and restores the environment and enhances economic and social welfare.
However, it is not just our production models that must change if we are to set a
course toward sustainability. The shift to circular production systems also requires
whole new organisational designs. Excessively hierarchical, mechanical manage-
ment schemes have evolved over the years to control the linear production model.
Each organisational unit and function focuses on completing its specialised tasks
as efficiently as possible and then passes its output on to the next phase of the
production system. Because each unit is more often than not focused exclusively
on its own task, only those at the top can see how all of the pieces of the system fit
together. Senior executives consequently hold most of the power and fragmenta-
tion remains the norm.
In contrast, when the intent is to continually recirculate materials and sub-
stances within borrow–use–return systems, each unit of the organisation must
have intimate knowledge of how every other unit and function operates. If indus-
trial by-products and end-of-life materials are to be continually re-used by industry
or reintegrated into nature without harm, the research and development and
purchasing departments must select materials, design and plan their operations in
concert with the manufacturing, waste management, marketing, transport and
other units. Employees at all level of the organisation must therefore be meaning-
fully engaged in system-wide planning and decision-making. Thus, rather than
being managed as separate parts, the shift to sustainability requires that organisa-
tions be understood and administered as integrated whole systems.
Unfortunately, my research found that within both public and private organisa-
tions, the vast majority of executives and line staff fail to grasp the fundamental
paradigm shift in production models and organisational designs required of sus-
tainability. Blinded by long-held mental models, most people believe sustainabil-
ity simply involves better controls, incremental improvements and increased
‘efficiencies’ to their existing, inherently harmful linear production systems.
Because they do not understand that sustainability often entails whole new
business models, few organisations institute meaningful cultural change efforts.
The inability to plan and achieve far-reaching culture renovation accounts for
many of the problems organisations face when seeking to operationalise sustain-
able development.
In most cases, I found that transforming organisational culture requires changes
in two core steering mechanisms. First, the governance system of the organisation
must be altered. I want to make a clear distinction between governance and govern-
ment (see, for example, Popovich 1998; Wilson 1989). The term ‘governance’ refers
to the way any organisation, public or private, small or large, distributes power and
authority through its information, decision-making and resource allocation
mechanisms. An organisation’s governance system plays a major role in shaping
the way its members view the world, interact with each other and the external
environment, and perform their tasks. Whenever people choose to live or work
together, some type of governance system evolves. ‘Government’, in contrast, is an
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36 Leading Change toward Sustainability

institutional arrangement established by the individuals of a society to meet their

collective needs. The laws, policies, agencies and legislative and judicial compo-
nents of government are the mechanisms that people establish to deliver these
goods and services.
My research found that the key to fundamental change lies in making explicit
choices to align the way an organisation governs itself with basic principles of
sustainability. The mechanical, hierarchical organisational designs employed by a
majority of public and private entities today lead to a patriarchal view of gover-
nance. The patriarchal model views the organisation as a collection of discon-
nected, directionless parts that must be controlled from the top while the bottom
carries out the orders. Most private businesses—especially those in the US—also
believe that their sole purpose is to generate profit and that the primary motiva-
tion of employees is to make money. These beliefs focus managers and workers on
the symptoms of organisational health—profitability—not the true drivers, which
are its cohesiveness, sense of purpose, ability to learn, and capacity to respond to
change. As with any symptom-driven process, the mechanistic, patriarchal ap-
proach to governance is unsustainable. It may generate some short-term economic
benefits, but usually leads to crisis and failure over the long run.
In contrast to the unsustainable patriarchal style of governance, my investiga-
tion found that organisations that have made the most progress toward sustain-
ability understand that the shift to a circular economic model requires the full
involvement of all of their internal members, as well as external stakeholders. The
leaders seem to understand that each unit and person must be seamlessly inte-
grated with others and function at high levels of performance for their entire
system to succeed. Further, the achievement of a purpose much more significant
than simply making a profit, such as being the first to develop a sustainable prod-
uct, providing society with valuable goods and services, or creating jobs for the
poor, drives the most successful organisations. Profitability is seen as a natural
outcome of organisational health, not its sole purpose. Accordingly, the cham-
pionship organisations understand that, once a basic threshold for money is met,
employees are more concerned with being part of something greater than them-
selves and maximising their internal potentials than they are with simply getting
more cash.
In the leading sustainability organisations, these understandings engender a
commitment to new forms of governance that more equitably share power and
authority because managers realise that all of the parts of the organisational
system must feel valued and be meaningfully involved for these higher purposes to
be achieved. This model of governance is much more sustainable over time, which
is why a growing stream of research on the financial effects of sustainability
measures show that share value in publicly held corporations that employ them
have proven to be consistently solid performers. My research found that inter-
ventions at seven key leverage points are required to develop these new systems.
The second key I found to cultural change toward sustainability is leadership.
Organisations that develop effective governance systems typically have good
leadership. Skilled leadership is required to transform the production model,
organisational design, governance system and culture of an organisation. It has
often been said that management is about doing things right while leadership is
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Part I. Why some organisations succeed and others fail 37

about doing the right thing. Effective sustainability leaders have the ability to keep
their organisation focused on achieving its higher mission while simultaneously
managing numerous, sometimes contradictory, streams of activity. Shrewd leaders
can inspire and mobilise employees and stakeholders to embrace change as an
exciting opportunity to learn new things. They also understand the key steps
involved with guiding their organisation toward sustainability and do their best to
ensure that the change process is completed before letting up. In the exemplary
organisations, this style of leadership not only pervades top management—it is
found throughout the enterprise.
In almost every case examined, I found that, when an organisation lacks an
effective governance system or sufficient leadership, its culture will remain frozen
around the take–make–waste production model and a mechanical, patriarchal
organisational design. The adoption of a more sustainable path will thus be
stymied no matter what new technologies are installed, quality-control tools used,
or consultants hired. In contrast, should they so choose, awareness of the impor-
tance of good governance and leadership seems to provide the platform needed to
set an organisation on the road toward sustainability.
The key factors described in this book that facilitate change toward sustain-
ability consistently appear in the successful efforts I examined. In fact, this book is
in many ways just a restatement of what the leaders already know and do. Boxes
I.1, I.2 and I.3 list the organisations I reviewed during my research.
I started my investigation by seeking the underlying core principles of success.
When reviewing each organisation, I tried to determine what was unique about
the process it used compared to many others I was familiar with. An iterative

l Norm Thompson Outfitters, a mail-order and retail purveyor of outdoor lifestyle

clothing and accessories
l Interface Corp., a global manufacturer of commercial floor coverings
l Herman Miller Inc., a leading manufacturer of office furniture
l Portland Epson, part of the Japanese Seiko Epson group that manufactures
electronic products
l Neil Kelly Company, Portland, Oregon’s largest home renovation and construction
company
l Patagonia, a leading outdoor adventure equipment and accessory firm
l Stonyfield Farm, a producer of organic yoghurt and other food products
l The hydrogen fuel-cell innovations of General Motors
l The Collins Companies, a leading US forest products firm
l Aveda Corporation, a producer of environmental lifestyle products such as
cosmetics and consumer services
l Chiquita, one of the world’s largest fruit companies
l Xerox, global producer of copiers and document-related services
l Starbucks, international coffee company
l Nike, producer of sports equipment

Box I.1 US-based businesses reviewed

LeadingChange_2nd_ed_2.qxd 17/11/09 12:14 Page 38

38 Leading Change toward Sustainability

l Henkel, a Germany company that manufacturers a broad range of industrial,

commercial and consumer chemical products
l Svenska Cellulosa AB (SCA) of Sweden, a forestry, paper and packing company and
the largest private owner of forests in Europe
l Stena Metall AB (recycling group), the largest metal recycler in the Nordic region
of Europe
l Swisscom, the leading telecommunications company of Switzerland
l Scandic Hotels, the largest hotel chain in Scandinavia with hotels in other
European nations as well
l IKEA, an international furniture company
l Whistler Blackcomb resort of British Columbia, Canada, a major ski and
destination resort

Box I.2 European and Canadian businesses reviewed

l The Dutch government’s National Environmental Policy Plan, arguably the world’s
leading public sustainability effort
l The US Forest Service’s National Community-Based Large-Scale Watershed
Restoration Program
l The State of Oregon’s efforts to adopt sustainability measures through an
Executive Order by the governor and follow-up legislation
l The City of Santa Monica, California, Sustainable Community Program
l The City of Burlington, Vermont, Legacy Project

Box I.3 Governmental sustainability initiatives reviewed

process was used to uncover these factors. I continually developed a theory, tested
it against the information gathered, revised it and repeated the process. Eventually
a framework emerged.
The businesses I reviewed were chosen because they were included in Portfolio 21,
a sustainability-focused mutual fund, are listed by the US The Natural Step (TNS)
organisation as firms that are adopting TNS, or are included in the Dow sustain-
ability indexes. Inclusion in one or more of these indices meant to me that other
specialists have examined the companies and deemed them to be among the
leaders in the sustainability movement.
I selected some of the governmental efforts because they were deemed to be
leaders by the International Council of Local Environmental Initiatives (ICLEI), a
UN programme focused on municipal government sustainability programmes, or
the International Network of Green Planners, a consortium of governments
pursuing sustainability originally organised by the Dutch government. I chose
others for review because I knew from personal experience that they were leading
attempts to adopt sustainable practices.
None of these organisations or programmes can be considered truly sustainable
today. By their own admissions, they have just begun the journey. Many are just
LeadingChange_2nd_ed_2.qxd 17/11/09 12:14 Page 39

Part I. Why some organisations succeed and others fail 39

beginning to fully comprehend what the paradigm shift at the core of sustainabil-
ity means for their organisations. Most still suffer from major inconsistencies.
Some, such as Interface, the international manufacturer of commercial floor
coverings, have made extraordinary changes in many aspects of their production
systems and organisational designs but still use environmentally harmful mate-
rials, such as PVCs, and struggle with internal siloing and communication issues.1
Nike has made impressive progress in the environmental arena but faces trouble-
some discrepancies in its global labour and public information and communica-
tion practices. General Motors is at the forefront of efforts to design and produce
fuel cell-powered vehicles while at the same time lobbying to minimise environ-
mental laws and manufacturing gas-guzzling SUVs. Henkel, an international firm
with home base in Germany, is one of the leaders in the production of environ-
mentally safe consumer and industrial chemical products. Yet Henkel also owns a
27% interest in Clorox, the US-based maker of household and institutional cleaners
that has shown little interest in the environment. Chiquita, the $2 billion global
fruit company, has made a remarkable turnaround in many of its environmental
and labour practices, but critics say that its existing business model nevertheless
harms family farmers and workers in both developing and developed countries.
Still others, such as Starbucks, have made progress on environmental and inter-
national labour issues, but even with these changes face uphill battles to quell
public concern over their globalisation practices. What many Western inter-
national corporations see as a natural attempt to expand their business, others see
as a conquest of their cultures and as corporate colonialism.
Rather than eliminating organisations from my research because they are not
yet fully sustainable, I examined those that are making exemplary efforts to adopt
the new path. The challenges faced by the organisations I examined symbolise the
hurdles that must be overcome to become more sustainable. They have been
criticised and they are responding. Many others will follow.
The organisations reviewed in this book do not constitute an exhaustive list of
those pursuing sustainability. Many other commendable public and private efforts
could have been assessed. Nevertheless, the organisations I evaluated are among
the leaders in the emerging field of sustainability.
My interest in the factors that make it possible for organisations to adopt more
sustainable paths began soon after I entered the environmental policy arena some
20 years ago. I was trained in both counselling psychology and environmental
science. My first professional job was as a family therapist. As a counsellor I was
taught to view families and groups as social systems. Systems-based interventions
are required to resolve group dysfunction.
Since leaving the counselling field and settling into the environmental policy
arena, I have been continually struck by the lack of attention by government,
business and environmental leaders to how organisations change. The major
constraint in any transformation process is the ability of people to accommodate
change. Few interest groups, however, focus on this fundamental issue when
making policy or programme proposals.

1 This was a point raised by employees at Interface Research Corporation when I met with
them on 18 February 2003.
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40 Leading Change toward Sustainability

There is no one-size-fits-all formula for change. However, the examples provided

by the leading organisations suggest that there are a number of key elements of
successful transformation—fundamentals that must be adhered to in some
fashion for sustainability-change efforts to succeed. The essential elements take on
different forms depending on whether the organisation is a private or public
entity, if it is publicly traded or privately owned, or if it is large or small. I have tried
to highlight these differences when possible. These factors must be tailored to fit
the unique nature of each organisation, unit and location.
While many people believe there are major differences between the way govern-
ment and private-sector organisations implement change, I did not find this to be
universally true. The rapid pace of change in environmental, social welfare and
economic issues today makes private and public organisations increasingly
enmeshed. The private sector, the non-profit sector and private citizens must con-
tinually deal with multiple levels of government on sustainability-related issues.
Government must deal with these same stakeholders to perform its functions.
Although government may have more constraints placed on it by external
stakeholders than does the private sector, both struggle in similar ways to mobilise
the forces required to adopt sustainable paths.
The most troubling lesson of my research is that a serious crisis of governance
and leadership endures in many organisations today. Although they may have
excellent skills in most other arenas, when it comes to sustainability, most man-
agers in the public and private sectors do not fully understand the issues and do
not know how to devise the governance systems or change strategies needed to
adopt a more sustainable path. Worse, people do not seem to recognise their defi-
ciencies in these areas or the effects of these shortcomings on the ability of their
organisation to prosper in a rapidly changing world. These findings suggest that
the need for a clear understanding of how to lead and maintain organisational
change toward sustainability has never been greater.
Although many public and private organisations today are struggling to adopt
sustainability measures, a growing number of ‘early adopters’ are demonstrating that
change is possible. Indeed, the leaders are finding that the adoption of sustain-
ability-based thinking, behaviour and practices increasingly generate substantial
cost savings and competitive advantage, better labour and community relations,
and an improved environment. This means that the barriers to change are not
impenetrable. The application of a well-conceived, skilfully applied change strat-
egy can achieve success. This book offers insight into this process.
LeadingChange_2nd_ed_2.qxd 17/11/09 12:14 Page 41

a 1

A tale of two companies

John and Jane Emrick, owners of Norm Thompson Outfitters, an Oregon-based

catalogue and retail outlet company, spent 1993 living in Europe and Africa. They
returned very discouraged about the state of the world and wanted to do
something for the environment.
When John returned to daily activities, the company’s president asked him to
take on a special project: managing the construction of a new corporate head-
quarters. John and Jane were delighted with the idea, seeing it as an opportunity
to make their mark: design an environmentally sound building.
The Emricks found little initial support among Norm Thompson’s senior man-
agers and the development team for their idea of constructing a ‘green’ building.
The concept was new to everyone. The Emricks therefore had to drive the process
by continually asking how each decision, no matter how small or large, might
impact on the environment. The process was slow, but with each success enthu-
siasm for the concept grew. In the end, the entire design and construction team,
including the subcontractors, embraced this new way of thinking.
The building was completed in 1995, within a budget that included some extra
costs for green building technologies. It garnered numerous awards including the
first Earth Smart certification from Portland General Electric for energy and
resource-efficient design, the City of Portland’s BEST (Business for an Environ-
mentally Sustainable Tomorrow) award for energy efficiency, and an American
Institute of Architects’ award for energy efficiency and design. The additional costs
of the building’s environmental features were recouped in four years due to the
more than $25,000 annual energy savings achieved by its design.
With the success of their green building venture, the Emricks were energised
about their ability to affect change. Jane soon began to ask the same question
about the company as she had asked about the building: How does each decision
impact on the environment? This single question proved to be a major turning
point at Norm Thompson Outfitters in its approach to the environment.
A short time later after the building was finished, the Emricks and two managers
attended a Natural Step workshop. The Natural Step, which is discussed in Chapter
3, is a framework specifically designed to help organisations understand sustain-
ability. John knew that other firms had successfully used The Natural Step to guide
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42 Leading Change toward Sustainability

their sustainability efforts and hoped it could help Norm Thompson also. Upon his
return from the training, John spoke with the senior management team and
employees about the need for a sustainability initiative. When the company’s
environmental mission statement was being revised, John’s persistence paid off.
The management team decided to adopt The Natural Step ‘system principles’ as
their vision to guide the firm’s sustainability efforts. These principles were inte-
grated into the long-standing values of the firm and, after a great deal of discus-
sion, a new environmental vision for the company emerged: ‘Norm Thompson
Outfitters will be a leader in developing business practices that sustain, restore and
move in harmony with the natural environment.’ This statement changed the
company’s traditional ‘escape from the ordinary’ philosophy from a singular focus
on the company’s products to a broader emphasis on the way it does business.
The Emricks realised that the firm could achieve its new vision only if employees
fully integrated sustainability into their daily decisions and activities. The com-
pany has three sales divisions: Norm Thompson, which produces high-quality
clothing for travel, leisure and people on the go; Early Winters, which sells rugged
clothing and products for those who play outdoors; and Solutions, which sells
goods that make life easier by providing ‘solutions’ to challenges throughout the
home. All of its products are bought from suppliers. With annual revenues
approaching $200 million, Norm Thompson Outfitters has about 600 year-round
employees nationwide. They also hire an additional 1,000 temporary employees
during their peak holiday sales season to answer customer calls, and package and
distribute goods. John and Jane knew it would be a major task to get such a large,
changing, geographically dispersed workforce to integrate sustainability into its
thinking.
A sustainability-training programme was developed for employees. The sessions
included a hands-on exercise that asked participants to evaluate company
products based on the principles of The Natural Step. By April 1999, 75% of the
firm’s employees had completed the training. The vast majority of people came
away excited.
Once momentum for sustainability started to build within the company, the
senior management team decided to hire a full-time individual to co-ordinate the
effort. In a roundabout way, this decision helped solidify management support for
the sustainability initiative.
John offered the position to an employee, who, after some investigation and
thought, declined. She felt that while John and Jane were fully committed to the
sustainability initiative, the other senior managers did not have the same under-
standing and conviction. The employee therefore concluded that the effort would
fail. When John informed the senior managers of the reasons behind the candi-
date’s decision, they initially denied her accusations. However, after some soul-
searching they agreed she was right. Ultimately, this event led the management
team more fully to embrace sustainability as a core part of the company’s mission.
In July 1999, the company hired Derek Smith as the corporate sustainability
manager. One of the first things Derek did was to organise a ten-person team. It
became known as the ‘E-team’ (the E representing ‘environment’). The E-team
included representatives from all units and functions of the company, from senior
managers in merchandising and human resources to people who answered the
LeadingChange_2nd_ed_2.qxd 17/11/09 12:14 Page 43

1. A tale of two companies 43

phone and processed orders. The team was charged to answer one question: ‘What
will it take to make the cultural changes needed to move the firm toward sustain-
ability?’
The E-team developed lists of potential drivers of the company’s sustainability
initiative and the potential barriers to its success. It then made two major recom-
mendations. First, the company should develop an action plan that included
identifiable, measurable steps to integrate sustainability into the firm’s business
plan. Second, the plan could not add to the workload of employees. The latter
recommendation helped clarify how sustainability would be implemented in the
company: it would become ‘a thinking filter’ for the way employees did their work,
not a separate programme or project.
Based on these recommendations, the E-team began to develop an action plan.
The plan identified four top environmental issues for the company: global warm-
ing, toxic substances and materials, habitat destruction, and waste. Taken from the
US EPA’s list of emerging environmental issues, these four issues paralleled the four
Natural Step ‘system conditions’. The action plan linked these issues to five areas
in which the company could have the greatest impact: products, packaging,
publishing (including catalogue printing), transportation and ‘influence’ (with
suppliers and distributors). The plan enumerated goals, targets and deadlines for
every department in these areas. It also established metrics and an evaluation pro-
cess to measure environmental and economic performance.
The E-team knew it had to make the business case for sustainability. Therefore,
to measure the financial outcomes of the sustainability initiative, the action plan
set a target that declared that the company would save $500,000 in 2001 and $5
million over a five-year period through various steps.
In April 2000, the company held a half-day ‘sustainability celebration’ for Port-
land-area employees and invited guests. While there were other reasons for the
event, the primary purpose was to unveil the firm’s new ‘sustainability action
plan’. A few high-profile speakers keynoted the celebration. Each of the division
vice-presidents unveiled a departmental sustainability action plan.
Perhaps the most important moment, however, was the closing segment. CEO
John Emrick took the podium and asked, ‘So, why are we doing this?’ Louis Arm-
strong’s ‘What a Wonderful World’ then began to play in the background. Photos
of Norm Thompson employees’ children and grandchildren (taken earlier during
‘take your child to work day’) suddenly flashed across a large movie screen.
According to Derek Smith, this final event tied the company’s sustainability initia-
tive to a sense of personal responsibility for the future. Derek said the presentation
‘left not a dry eye in the house’. By the end of the day, everyone in attendance
realised that sustainability was now a central driving force for Norm Thompson
Outfitters.
The success of the sustainability celebration generated great momentum that
resulted in the achievement of many of the goals laid out in the initial Action Plan.
Among the accomplishments, the company has:
l Shifted to a minimum of 10% post-consumer waste paper in its cata-
logues—the first mainstream catalogue company in the US to do so (the
move turned out to be cost-neutral and has been well received by cus-
tomers).
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44 Leading Change toward Sustainability

l Introduced organically grown cotton into selected products in their Early

Winters product line. The success of this venture led to additional steps to
incorporate organic cotton into clothing.
l Reduced the number of mailings it sends through a unique programme
called ‘ship all together’. In one year, 13% of applicable customers chose
this new option. This generated $243,464 in annual savings, saved 30,433
shipping boxes or bags, and reduced the use of filler, tape, labels and inks.
It also saved energy and pollution generated from shipping the items.
l Cut solid waste at its headquarters by 41%.

Norm Thompson uses a variety of means to constantly communicate its vision

of becoming a sustainable enterprise to employees and stakeholders. The chief
financial officer’s photo, on the wall above the copier, bears the caption ‘Go ahead,
make my day. Improve our profitability by using less paper.’ Whenever employees
implement a great idea they can be nominated for an award. Derek Smith helps the
employee document the results of their innovation, focusing on both the envi-
ronmental and financial savings. CEO John Emrick and company president Becky
Jewett personally hand out the awards at monthly associates meetings. Because the
awards programme is highly visible, it generates numerous suggestions from
employees.
A constant stream of workshops, e-mails and special events educate employees
and keep sustainability high on their agendas. The company discusses its sustain-
ability efforts and its results on its website for the public to see.1 It has also begun
to help its suppliers and distributors understand and adopt sustainability
measures. For example, Derek Smith sponsors sustainability workshops for
product buyers. Suppliers are rewarded through increased sales for producing
environmental and socially sound products.
Since achieving its initial goals, Norm Thompson has shifted its focus to the
longer-term need to anchor sustainability in its corporate culture. Sustainability
performance criteria have been written into employee job descriptions. Sustain-
ability is now a part of the new employee hiring process. In 2000, in a very tight
job market, the company filled several key positions with people who specifically
wanted to work for the firm because of what it stands for. Derek Smith is convinced
that the company is also more productive, though he does not have hard numbers
yet to back this up.
In keeping with the company’s philosophy of complete honesty about its pro-
gress, Derek Smith acknowledges, ‘We know the sustainability programme is not
quite institutionalised yet.’ However, Derek is confident about the future. ‘I know
we will be successful.’2 Indeed, Norm Thompson has laid the foundation for a
permanent transformation to a more sustainable enterprise.3

1 www.normthompson.com
2 Personal communication, May 2001.
3 Personal interviews with John Emrick and Derek Smith, May 2001; review of case study
by Owens and Allaway, for the Oregon Natural Step Network 2001; review of company
documents.
Other documents randomly have
different content
The Project Gutenberg eBook of Stories
Pictures Tell. Book 7
This ebook is for the use of anyone anywhere in the United
States and most other parts of the world at no cost and with
almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away
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laws of the country where you are located before using this
eBook.

Title: Stories Pictures Tell. Book 7

Author: Flora L. Carpenter

Release date: September 10, 2020 [eBook #63171]

Most recently updated: October 18, 2024

Language: English

Credits: Produced by David Garcia, Larry B. Harrison, Barry

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*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK STORIES

PICTURES TELL. BOOK 7 ***
STORIES PICTURES TELL
 STORIES
PICTURES TELL
BOOK SEVEN

By
FLORA L. CARPENTER
Instructor in drawing at Waite High
School, Toledo, Ohio
Formerly supervisor of drawing,
Bloomington, Illinois

Illustrated with Half Tones

from
Original Photographs
RAND McNALLY &
COMPANY
CHICAGO NEW YORK
 Copyright, 1918
By Rand McNally & Co.
 THE CONTENTS
September and October
PAGE
“The Fighting Téméraire” Turner 1
“Joan of Arc” Lepage 11

November, December, and January

“The Syndics of the Cloth Hall” Rembrandt 23
“The Last Supper” Da Vinci 33

February and March

“Alexander and Diogenes” Landseer 45
“Rubens’s Sons” Rubens 59

April, May, and June

“Song of the Lark” Breton 69
“Beata Beatrix” Rossetti 77
Review of Pictures and Artists
Studied
The Suggestions to Teachers 93
 THE PREFACE
Art supervisors in the public schools assign picture-study work in
each grade, recommending the study of certain pictures by well-
known masters. As Supervisor of Drawing I found that the children
enjoyed this work but that the teachers felt incompetent to conduct
the lessons as they lacked time to look up the subject and to gather
adequate material. Recourse to a great many books was necessary
and often while much information could usually be found about the
artist, very little was available about his pictures.
Hence I began collecting information about the pictures and
preparing the lessons for the teachers just as I would give them
myself to pupils of their grade.
My plan does not include many pictures during the year, as this is
to be only a part of the art work and is not intended to take the
place of drawing.
The lessons in this grade may be used for the usual drawing
period of from twenty to thirty minutes, and have been successfully
given in that time. However, the most satisfactory way of using the
books is as supplementary readers, thus permitting each child to
study the pictures and read the stories himself.
Flora L. Carpenter
 STORIES
PICTURES TELL
 THE FIGHTING TÉMÉRAIRE
Questions to arouse interest. What is represented in this
picture? Which boat is the Téméraire? What smaller boat is towing
it? Why do you think it needs to be towed? What is the time of day?
What makes you think so? Is the ship moving or stationary? Why
does it float so high in the water? What other boats can you see in
this picture? What can you see in the background? What is the
condition of the water? What kind of a feeling does this picture give
you? Why do you like the picture?

Original Picture: National Gallery, London, England.

Artist: Joseph Mallord William Turner.
Birthplace: London, England.
Dates: Born, 1775; died, 1851.

The story of the picture. One evening when the artist, Mr.
Turner, and a party of friends were sailing down the river Thames in
London, there suddenly loomed before their astonished gaze the
dark hull of the famous ship called the Téméraire. They had heard
and read of the many great victories won by this noble vessel, and
the glory it had brought to England. Its name Téméraire means “the
one who dares.” Now its days of usefulness were over, and it was
being towed to its last place of anchor to be broken up.
 At first they gazed in silence, for it was a sad and solemn sight to
watch this feeble old boat creeping along like a disabled soldier, its
former glories fading like the setting sun. The silence was broken by
the exclamation of one of the young men, “Ah, what a subject for a
picture!”
And yet we must remember that at the time Turner painted this
picture it was considered just as commonplace and uninteresting to
paint a sailing vessel as it would be for our artists to paint a bicycle
or a wagon.
But Turner painted something more than a picture of a boat. He
has made us feel not only the sadness in this parting scene but also
all the glories of the splendid victories won in former days. Again we
recall the Battle of the Nile, when the English commander, Lord
Nelson, won the victory over Napoleon’s fleet and captured the
Téméraire from the French. We remember how Nelson, then a
young man but having already lost an arm and an eye in battle, was
put in command of the English fleet and sent against the French;
how after a severe storm the two fleets, going in opposite directions,
passed each other in the fog, Nelson reaching Italy and Napoleon
landing in Egypt. Then the older naval officers in England, who
thought they should have been appointed to this important
command, said all they could about the folly of sending so young a
man as Nelson, and told how much better they could have done. So
the people were dissatisfied and finally the order for extra supplies
and provisions was countermanded just as Nelson heard where
Napoleon was and wanted to start out. Then Lady Hamilton, the wife
of the English minister to Italy, used her influence in his behalf, and
the provisions were furnished secretly. We do not care to dwell long
on that fierce Battle of the Nile, which began after six o’clock in the
evening and lasted all night. Only the flashes of the guns told the
positions of the different boats until the burning of the French
flagship made a more terrible illumination. It was a great victory for
the English.
 For forty years after this the Téméraire remained in active service.
It took part in the famous victory at the Battle of Trafalgar; it was
the second ship in line, and the first to catch Nelson’s well-known
words, “England expects that every man will do his duty.” Many lives
were lost in this battle, among them that of the great commander.
At length the good old ship was considered unfit for active service.
Then for several years it was used as a training ship for cadets. Now,
no longer fit for that either, it was to be broken up for lumber. At the
time when the Téméraire was captured all war vessels used sails,
but less than twenty-five years later they began to use steam. That,
too, was a reason why the Téméraire was to be destroyed.
To Turner, who was born near the river Thames and grew up
among boats and sailors, the sight of this old boat made a strong
appeal, not only because he was an artist, but because he was also
a patriotic Englishman full of pride in the ship’s great victories.
The setting sun casts a parting glow upon the great, empty vessel
as it stands high out of the water. The sky is ablaze with rosy light,
which is reflected in the quiet surface of the Thames, but our eyes
are drawn at once to the great Téméraire. We glance at the long,
dark shadows and reflections of the two vessels, but soon find our
eyes wandering to the brilliantly lighted masts, to the gorgeous
sunset sky, and back again to the proud old boat. In the dark smoke
of the tug there is a touch of brilliant red.
The small boats scattered here and there help to bring out the
distance from that faraway shore so unconscious of the passing of
the great ship. At least three fourths of the picture is sky.
All of Turner’s first paintings were in tones of blues and grays, so
soft and delicate they were often indistinct. It was not until after he
had traveled through Italy, and spent many days in Venice, where all
is brilliant color, that he began to make his pictures blaze with color.
He had completely mastered the pale shades, so it needed but a
touch of brilliant color here and there to make his whole picture
glow. In “The Fighting Téméraire” more than half the picture is
painted in the soft gray colors of dusk, but the sunset and the touch
of red in the smoke of the tug seem to set the whole picture aflame.
A gentleman once said to Turner, after looking at this picture, “I
never saw a sunset like that.” Turner replied, “No, but don’t you wish
you could?”
In Turner’s day water colors were very popular, and Turner painted
a great many of them. His water colors are much better preserved
than his oil paintings. The “Téméraire” was painted in oils. The sky
has faded considerably in the original picture, and others of his oil
paintings have become indistinct. It is believed that this is because
he so often used poor materials.
Turner himself considered this picture, “The Fighting Téméraire
Tugged to Her Last Berth to be Broken Up,” as he called it, his best
work, and bequeathed it to the National Gallery in London, refusing
to sell it for any price.
You will remember that later, when America proposed a similar
fate for our battleship, Constitution, the people raised a protest and
the plan was given up. It was then that Holmes wrote his famous
“Old Ironsides,” which might have applied equally well to the
Téméraire.
“Oh, better that her shattered hulk
Should sink beneath the wave;
Her thunders shook the mighty deep,
And there should be her grave.
Nail to the mast her holy flag,
Set every threadbare sail,
And give her to the god of storms,
The lightning and the gale!”

Questions to help the pupil understand the picture. How

did the artist happen to see this ship? What does the name
“Téméraire” mean? For what was this vessel famous? Tell about Lord
Nelson and the Battle of the Nile. From whom did he capture the
Téméraire? When was this battle fought? Tell about the Battle of
Trafalgar. What saying of Nelson’s has become famous? Who won
the victory? What became of the Téméraire then? Why was it now to
be broken to pieces? Before the use of steam, how were vessels
propelled? How was the Téméraire propelled? To what did Turner
compare this old ship? Why was it a sad sight to him? What colors
did he use in this picture? How did the artist consider this painting?
To whom did he leave it? Why did Americans object when it was
proposed that the battleship Constitution be broken up?
To the Teacher: A description of the picture may be prepared by
a pupil and given orally to the class. This may be followed by a
written description of the picture and a short biography of the artist,
as a class exercise in connection with the English composition work.
There’s a far bell ringing
At the setting of the sun,
And a phantom voice is singing
Of the great days done.
There’s a far bell ringing,
And a phantom voice is singing,
To the great days done.

Now, the sunset breezes shiver

Téméraire! Téméraire!
And she’s fading down the river,
Téméraire! Téméraire!
Now the sunset breezes shiver,
And she’s fading down the river,
But in England’s song forever
She’s the “Fighting Téméraire.”
—Henry Newbolt

The story of the artist. Joseph Mallord William Turner was born,
lived, and died in London. His father was a jolly little barber who
curled wigs and dressed the hair of English dandies, as did all the
barbers in those days. He was very popular because he was so
good-natured and full of fun. He was also very ambitious for his little
son, who had been left to his care by the death of the mother.
 The story is told that one day, when Joseph was six years old, his
father was called to the home of a wealthy patron, and, having no
one with whom to leave the child, he took the boy with him. At the
patron’s home the little boy climbed up into a big chair and waited
patiently, but it seemed a very long time indeed before his father
could satisfy the exacting customer. Finally the boy became
interested in studying a carved lion on a silver tray lying on the table
near by. He studied this lion so carefully that when they reached
home, and while his father was preparing their supper, he drew a
lion in full action, and brought the drawing to show his father. It was
decided then and there that Joseph should be an artist. The father
also wished that his son might receive an education. But Turner did
not learn much at school, for as soon as the boys and girls found he
could draw wonderful pictures they offered to do his sums for him
and helped him with his lessons while he drew pictures for them in
return.
The jolly little barber was so pleased with his son’s drawings that
he put them up in his shop. His patrons began to inquire about the
little artist, and when the proud father put a price mark on the
drawings, they were soon sold. Later, Turner was apprenticed to an
architect to learn architectural drawing, but he was not successful.
He did not seem to be able to understand the theory of perspective
or even the first steps in geometry. However, he finally must have
mastered these subjects, for some years later he became Professor
of Perspective at the Royal Academy.
Later in life Turner traveled in France, Germany, and Italy, and it
was then he began to use those brilliant colors which we always
associate with his work. Turner rarely sold any of his paintings. He
called them his “children,” and was unwilling to part with them. But
his engravings and illustrations made him very wealthy.
Of Turner’s many pictures of the sea, perhaps the best known is
“The Slave Ship.” Other famous pictures by Turner are “Rain, Steam,
and Speed, the Great Western Railway,” “Steamer off Harbour’s
Mouth Making Signals,” “Approach to Venice,” “Ulysses Deriding
Polyphemus,” “Sun Rising in a Mist,” and “Shade and Darkness—The
Evening of the Deluge.”

Questions about the artist. Where was the artist born? What
did his father do for a living? How did Turner happen to draw his first
picture? Why did he not learn much at school? What did his father
do with his drawings? What subject proved difficult for the boy artist
to learn? Was he ever able to master it? Where did Turner travel?
What colors did he use in his paintings? Why would he not sell his
pictures? How did he become wealthy?
 JOAN OF ARC
Questions to arouse interest. What is represented in this
picture? Where is it supposed to be? What is the girl doing? How
many figures can you see faintly suggested against the trees and the
house? Why do you think they are not real like the girl? What can
you see in the distance? What can you tell about Joan of Arc? Where
does she seem to be looking? How is she dressed? What is there
about her that makes you think she is used to hard work? that she is
serious and thoughtful? that she must be very much in earnest? that
she is forgetful of self? Where does the light in the picture seem to
come from?

Original Picture: Metropolitan Art Museum, New York City.

Artist: Jules Bastien-Lepage (bȧs´ tyaN´-lẽ päzh´).
Birthplace: Damvillers, France.
Dates: Born, 1848; died, 1884.

The story of the picture. Far away among the wild hills of
France, in the village of Domremy, lived Joan of Arc, the “Maid of
Orleans.” Her father was a small farmer, and all her people were
working people. Joan’s life was not an idle one, for we are told that
she was an expert at sewing and spinning, that she tended the
sheep and cattle, and rode the horses to and from the watering
places. But she could neither read nor write, as she had received no
education. When she wished to send a letter she would dictate it to
some one who could write, and then make the mark of a cross at
the top. As she was of an intensely religious nature, she often
wandered off by herself and remained in prayer for hours,
sometimes in the fields or the great forest near by, and sometimes in
the village church.
About this time France was frequently invaded by the English, and
even the small village in which Joan lived had been entered and
plundered.
There had been so many intermarriages between the royal houses
of France and England that it was doubtful who was the rightful heir
to the throne. France was divided into two factions, yet all agreed in
their hatred of the English who had taken possession of the northern
part of the country. Worst of all, the queen mother Isabella
supported the claims of her grandson, an Englishman, against those
of her own son, Charles, the French prince.
This agreed with an old prophecy known to the country people,
that France should be lost by a woman and saved by a woman. The
queen, Isabella, who finally secured the crown for her English
grandson, was regarded as the woman who lost France; and later it
became generally believed that Joan of Arc was the woman who
saved France.
Joan prayed constantly for the deliverance of her country from the
English. At last one day she told her father that she had seen an
unearthly light and heard a voice telling her that she was to go and
help the French prince. Again the vision appeared, and this time she
said she had seen St. Michael, St. Catherine, and St. Margaret, who
told her that she was appointed by heaven to go to the aid of Prince
Charles. Her father tried to laugh her out of her “fancy,” as he called
it, and did all he could to dissuade her, but Joan was resolute and
declared she must go.
 The village people were very superstitious, and when they heard
of Joan’s wonderful visions they were immediately convinced. An
uncle of Joan’s, who was a wheelwright and cartmaker, offered to
take her to a high nobleman who, according to the vision, should
bring her before the prince. This nobleman laughed at her, but later
on became sufficiently convinced to give her a horse, a suit of armor,
and two guards to escort her to Prince Charles.
After traveling eleven days through a wild country, constantly on
the watch for the enemy, she finally reached Chinon, where Charles
was staying. Although he was dressed exactly like the men about
him, Joan picked him out immediately, and told him she had been
sent by heaven to conquer his enemies and see him crowned king at
Rheims. She also told him several things supposed to be secret,
known only to himself, and so she was able to gain his confidence.
She told him too that in the Cathedral of St. Catherine, some
distance away, he would find an old sword, marked on the blade
with five crosses, which the vision had told her she should wear. No
one had ever heard of this old sword, and it seemed very wonderful
that Joan should know about it; but it was found in the cathedral
just as she had said.
Charles then asked the opinion of all the wise men about him, and
all agreed that Joan was inspired by heaven. This put new life into
the French soldiers, but discouraged the English, who thought Joan
was a witch.
And then it was that Joan rode on to the Siege of Orleans in
which, as we know, the French were victorious. She rode on a
beautiful white war horse, her armor glittering so in the sun that she
could be seen for a great distance, and she carried a white flag.
Twice she was wounded during the terrible battle which followed,
but each time she was soon up and at the head of the French again,
the English fleeing before them.
We know how the French fought their way to Rheims, where
Charles VII was crowned; and how Joan then declared her work
completed and begged to be allowed to return to her home; but
King Charles would not consent. We do not like to think of how this
weak king did nothing to help her when she was finally taken
prisoner and sold by the Duke of Burgundy to the English, who
burned her at the stake as a heretic and witch. It was not until ten
years later that Charles VII publicly recognized the service she had
done, and declared her “a martyr to her religion, her country, and
her king.”
In the picture we see the “Maid of Orleans” listening to the voices.
As she sat in the shade of the great apple tree winding yarn, she
had suddenly heard voices, and then a vision of St. Michael, St.
Margaret, and St. Catherine, the saints to whom she had prayed so
often in the little church, appeared before her. She trembled, and
rising, walked forward. Now, leaning against a tree, she gazes at the
vision. She imagines herself clad in armor and presented with a
sword by the saints, who tell her that heaven commands her to free
France from the English.
With its fruit trees, flowers, and vegetables, the French garden
represented in the picture was painted from nature. In the distance
we see a suggestion of the great forest in which Joan used to
wander in solitude and prayer. A simple peasant girl, poorly dressed,
there is little about her to please or attract us until we look at the
eyes. Then we begin to understand why this picture is considered a
masterpiece. Those great, far-seeing, melancholy eyes seem to look
far beyond us, and their ecstatic gaze inspires us with some of that
same confidence in her which so possessed her soldiers.
The vision which so inspired Joan is partly visible to us amid the
tangle of the trees and shrubbery. The figures of the three saints
silhouetted against the rude peasant hut add to the confusing details
of the background, and yet by them our eyes are led back to the one
restful part of the picture—Joan herself. She is not beautiful, only
earnest and good, and we feel a great pity for this girl who is so
soon to suffer a dreadful fate for an ungrateful king and people.
 The sunlight falls full upon her face and outstretched arm. The
curve of this arm harmonizes with the branches of the trees above,
and her upright figure with the straight tree trunks. Her firm chin
tells us something of the determination and courage which carried
her through to the end.
We are told that she had a deep, strong voice which was capable
of great sweetness, and that her honesty and goodness compelled
the respect of even the rudest soldiers.

Questions to help the pupil understand the picture. Who

was Joan of Arc? Why was she called “The Maid of Orleans”? Tell
something of her life. In what country did she live? What were her
duties? What education had she received? What was her nature? For
what did she pray constantly? What vision did she have? What did
her father say? How did the village people feel about it? Who helped
her go to Prince Charles? How did the nobleman receive her at first?
What were some of the difficulties of her journey? What did she do
that made Prince Charles believe in her? How did Joan’s coming
affect the French soldiers? the English soldiers? Tell about the Siege
of Orleans. When did Joan consider her work done? Why would not
King Charles VII let her go home? What became of Joan? What has
the artist represented Joan as doing in this picture? What vision
appeared to her? What does she lean against? What else can you
see in this garden? How does the tangled, somewhat confusing
background bring out the figure of Joan? What kind of a voice had
Joan? Why did all the soldiers respect her?
To the Teacher: Different pupils may be asked to study this
lesson under the following topics:
I. Joan of Arc as Represented in History.
II. Joan of Arc as Represented in This Picture.
III. This Picture as True to History.
IV. This Picture as a Composition.
V. The Artist.
 The story of the artist. Jules Bastien-Lepage was born in
Damvillers, France. His parents were people of means, and as his
father was an artist he received his first art instructions from him. As
a young man Jules held a position in the post office, and his duties
there kept him busy every morning. But all his afternoons were
devoted to study under an artist who lived near by.
Then during the Franco-Prussian war he joined the army in the
defense of Paris. He was never very strong, and the constant
exposure and hardships forced him to return home on sick leave;
that was the end of his experience as a soldier. His health somewhat
recovered, he began painting in earnest. He desired above all things
to be a great historical painter and, if possible, to paint these
pictures at the very places where the historical events occurred.
He had a very fine studio fitted up on the second floor at home,
but most of his painting was done out of doors.
We cannot read much of his life without finding some mention of
his grandfather, for it was the old man’s delight to work or sit beside
his grandson while the young man was painting. The grandfather is
usually described as wearing a brown skull cap and spectacles, and
carrying his snuffbox and large checked handkerchief much in
evidence. He took care of their garden and orchard, and one of the
very first pictures Lepage painted that caused most favorable
comment was a portrait of his grandfather in a corner of the garden.
This picture, together with another of a young peasant girl, exhibited
at the same time, marked the beginning of the artist’s popularity.
Born in the same country as Millet and like him understanding the
religious enthusiasm and the superstitions of the peasants, we are
not surprised that he should love to paint the French peasant and
that Joan of Arc’s life and history should have appealed to him so
strongly. This subject had been a favorite theme for painters for
several hundred years, and most of the artists had represented Joan
as a saint or as a maid of great beauty. Lepage, however,
represented her as a simple peasant girl, dressed as such, and
showing evidence in her face and her coarse hands of the rough
farm work she had been doing.
This painting of Joan of Arc is considered the artist’s masterpiece.
Another noted picture by him is “The Hay Makers.”
Bastien-Lepage became very popular indeed, and the people vied
with each other to obtain his paintings and to get an opportunity to
work in his studio. He worked very hard, and this, with the
excitement of so much publicity, finally wore him out. He died at the
age of thirty-six years.

Questions about the artist. Who painted this picture, and

where was he born? Where is the original painting? Tell about Jules
Bastien-Lepage and his early training. Why did he not remain in the
army? What kind of a painter did he most desire to be? Where did
he usually paint? Who went with him? Describe the old grandfather.
What picture marked the beginning of the artist’s popularity? Why
did the life of Joan of Arc appeal to him so strongly? In what way did
his representation of Joan differ from that of other artists?
 THE SYNDICS OF THE CLOTH
HALL
Questions to arouse interest. What are these men doing? How
are they dressed? What makes you think some one has interrupted
them? At whom are they looking? Why do you suppose the one
syndic has risen? Why do you think the man standing behind the
others wears no hat? What do you think his duties were? Which man
looks the oldest? the youngest? How has the artist avoided a stiff
arrangement of the figures in this painting?

Original Picture: Ryks Museum, Amsterdam, the Netherlands.

Artist: Rembrandt van Rijn (rĕm´ bränt vän rīn´).
Birthplace: Leiden, the Netherlands.
Dates: Born, 1606; died, 1669.

The story of the picture. This picture represents the syndics of

the Cloth Merchants’ Guild, in a room of their Guild House, busy
going over their accounts. In these days of great corporations and
societies of all kinds, it is easy for us to understand what a Cloth
Merchants’ Guild might be.
 History tells us that as far back as the time of the Romans there
were what were called merchants’ corporations or guilds organized
for mutual aid and protection. Among the very first known was a
fishermen’s guild, in which all the members met and decided the
rights of the various members to use the water front, and also, no
doubt, planned to take away the privilege from all who were not
members.
In the Netherlands the guilds were many and very influential.
Besides the general officers usually appointed by the king, there
were a certain number of officers whom the members themselves
chose, called masters, deans, wardens, or syndics. It was the duty of
these syndics to visit the workshops and salesrooms of all members
of the guild, at all hours, to see that the rules were enforced. They
were also expected to examine candidates for apprenticeship and
mastership. Each guild had its own costume or uniform. Even to this
day a remnant of these old customs remains, and in England every
twenty years a few of the cities celebrate, by a very important and
imposing parade, what is known as “guild day.” Many cities still have
the old Guild Houses where these meetings were held, and there is
not a cathedral or church building of any importance in the
Netherlands or Belgium in which some great event connected with
these guilds is not represented by either a painting or a sculptured
monument. And so it is little wonder that Rembrandt should paint
such a picture as this.
It is as if we opened the door suddenly upon the syndics, who
look up to see what has disturbed them. One man has half risen
from his chair. All five are dressed in the uniform of the guild—black
coats, broad white collars, and large black felt hats. Each figure is a
complete portrait in itself and bears, it is said, a speaking likeness to
the syndic painted.
Some time before this, Rembrandt had had an unfortunate
experience. He had painted a wonderful picture called the “Night
Watch.” But in that great painting he had allowed his feelings as an
artist, and his love of a fine composition, to make him forget man’s
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