Tomorrow's People – I Am Sustainability/We Are Sustainability

There are more than a couple of contentious social issues around achieving a sustainable global future, but here I'll mention two seemigly big ones as portrayed in the media.

The first is globalization. Many have justifiably wrangled with the idea of globalization because initially it has been about multinational corporations seeking a global monopoly for market control. More recently, however, a new vision of globalization is emerging. This is one of collaborative networks connecting the local to the global and, yes, including corporations, but also many other stakeholders.  

The second is socialism. This has been something particularly apparent in the media over the last year in the United States. Many people fear socialism and its "ugly cousin" liberalism. Yet there are many models around the world where versions of these two have a functional role in societies, in particular, with regard to generating a sustainable society. Wholly unregulated markets and ideas of infinite growth do not and cannot work in a transition toward sustainable development.

What do tomorrow’s people look like?

In my view, they balance resilience, leadership and connectedness between themselves, their communities and the natural environment, building human, social and natural capital every day. Like CSR, they have ISR. That is, they recognize and engage their individual social responsibility (ISR) and help move the places where they work further toward corporate social responsibility (CSR) and the places where they live further toward a sustainable future.  They have a new connection to their needs,  to the needs of their communities and to the those of the world in a way I call “I Am Sustainability/We Are Sustainability”.

How do we get there?

Through connecting current action and thought leaders in a global effort. These are the positive deviants, social entrepreneurs, knowledge managers, leaders for world benefit, boundary managers etc, etc. that are emerging, and connect them into a global network of learning systems research for sustainable development. That is what Ecosphere Net is all about.

EJ Wensing

US Virgin Islands

ejwensing@ecosphere.net