On Thursday 16 May, I attended an excellent public seminar on the power of indicators and numbers in the context of sustainable development. Hosted by UNDP and the Dag Hammarsköld Foundation, in Stockholm, it featured two powerful women speakers: Sakiko Fukuda-Parr, former director of the UN's Human Development Index and now a professor at the … Continue reading Indicators, MDGs, SDGs, and GDP
Author: Alan AtKisson
What Music Means (to Me)
This article describes how music came back into my life — again — and the process of recording my new album with some of Sweden's leading musicians. The album is to be released later this year (2013) . A few years ago, I heard someone ask the veteran global trend analyst Lester Brown — who … Continue reading What Music Means (to Me)
Knowledge and Sustainability: The Global State of The Art
Recently I had the honor — and the amazingly complex challenge — of preparing a report for the new United Nations Office for Sustainable Development (UNOSD), based in Incheon, Korea. The title of the report signals its state-of-the-art global breadth: “Knowledge, Capacity Building, and Networks for Sustainable Development: A Review.” This report has been published … Continue reading Knowledge and Sustainability: The Global State of The Art
A Year of Work in Sustainability
As 2012 comes to a close, I plan to reflect back on the year in sustainability and write think-piece about it. There is a lot to reflect on at the global scale: there was Rio+20 and the Doha climate conference, there was the impact of a US election and a lot of new sustainability science … Continue reading A Year of Work in Sustainability
What the Master Class is like …
[Note: The Center for Sustainability Transformation used to be called ISIS Academy. We changed the name in 2014, when "ISIS" became associated with a very different approach to change.] In February, ISIS Academy will be coming to the Global Institute of Sustainability at Arizona State University for our next Master Class in Change for Sustainability, … Continue reading What the Master Class is like …
Report from OECD: What Winning Looks Like
Here's a letter I sent out to my friends in the Balaton Group from New Delhi, India, where I was recently attending an OECD World Forum and moderating a panel on sustainability. I never thought attending a meeting on national statistics could make me so happy. /Alan Dear friends, I am reporting to you now … Continue reading Report from OECD: What Winning Looks Like
Why I Wrote “Purging Wallace Stevens”
Unfortunately, I was deeply affected by the poetry I loved and/or studied as a university student -- Rimbaud, Tagore, Elliot, and so many others. Wallace Stevens was perhaps the most difficult to understand, and I loved his work all the more for that, just as I loved Wittgenstein or Hegel. I really understood very little … Continue reading Why I Wrote “Purging Wallace Stevens”
Flummoxed About My Music (plus, a free song)
Update 12 Apr 2013: I wrote this about six months ago, but now, I am no longer feeling so "flummoxed." The musical path forward is getting much clear. See What Music Means (to Me). I confess: I am flummoxed. (Translation: deeply puzzled about what to do.) Why? Because I don’t know how to reach my … Continue reading Flummoxed About My Music (plus, a free song)
Jeffrey Sachs: “It’s going to take two generations …”
This morning’s Stockholm Seminar on the new UN Sustainable Development Goals -- with Jeffrey Sachs as lead lecturer, accompanied by the Swedish minister for development cooperation, Gunilla Carlsson, and scientists Johan Rockstöm and Måns Nilsson -- was not a tonic of hope. Moderator Johan Kuylenstierna did his best to inject a sense of forward motion … Continue reading Jeffrey Sachs: “It’s going to take two generations …”
Announcing Two New Books from Alan AtKisson
Now available for purchase online, or for ordering through your favorite bookstore: two new books by Alan AtKisson Because We Believe in the Future: Collected Essays on Sustainability, 1989-2009 is a greatest-hits selection of Alan's best articles, speeches, and blog posts over a twenty-year period. Woven together by personal commentary, these essays offer the reader … Continue reading Announcing Two New Books from Alan AtKisson
Alan AtKisson 