The following is a more polished version of the opening keynote speech I delivered (speaking from notes) in Gdansk, Poland, on 16 June 2025, at an international conference on sustainable development hosted by WEB Merito Universities (see Endnotes for more info and link). I am deeply appreciative of the opportunity to present this speech, which … Continue reading Keynote Speech: “Future Thinking for Sustainable Development”
Change and Transformation
Words&Music 4: Reflections on an Old Manifesto
Dear Friends, Exactly 20 years ago (29 December 1999) I put pen to paper at a friend’s house in East London and began to write a personal manifesto for the new millennium. The resulting document, ”Sustainability is Dead — Long Live Sustainability”, had a short, modestly viral life. It was emailed around the Internet, released … Continue reading Words&Music 4: Reflections on an Old Manifesto
Words&Music 2: What a difference a half-year makes
Dear Reader, This is the second installment of my personal newsletter, Words&Music. To receive this in your inbox, sign up here: http://eepurl.com/duzZz9 Dear Reader, Global poverty. Climate change. Political uncertainty. Swedish development aid. Financial markets. The United Nations and the World Bank. The challenge of learning to lead a complex department, in a complex public … Continue reading Words&Music 2: What a difference a half-year makes
Viridian revisited: An interview with Bruce Sterling
Bruce Sterling made his name in science-fiction, part of the wave of "cyberpunk" writers working in the late 1980s and early ‘90s — other names include William Gibson and Neal Stephenson — whose work seemed more predictive than speculative. I enjoyed his novels (they won a number of awards), but I especially enjoyed being part … Continue reading Viridian revisited: An interview with Bruce Sterling
The Sustainability Change Agent’s Job Description
This year, 2018, marks a decade since I first published The Sustainability Transformation* — the 2nd book in my planned 3-volume "Optimist Trilogy." I'm now working on volume 3. But the "job description" from vol. 2 that appears on the first page of the first chapter is still highly relevant. Enjoy ... and spread. JOB … Continue reading The Sustainability Change Agent’s Job Description
How Oslo launched a new design revolution
Once in a while, a conference actually changes the world. In this case, I refer to a series of conferences in Oslo, sponsored by Norway’s National Center for Design and Architecture (known as DOGA). In 2015, a couple of sustainability visionaries there, Jannicke Hølen and Knut Bang, had the brilliant idea to focus on the … Continue reading How Oslo launched a new design revolution
Launching “Swedified” – a new blog
For years, I have wanted to write about what it is like to come to this small, unusual country — Sweden — and then become part of it. There is a Swedish word used to describe foreign people (or things) that have been absorbed by the unique culture of Sweden, but have been given a … Continue reading Launching “Swedified” – a new blog
About Those Parachuting Cats
On September 1, my latest book — written together with my dear friend and business partner Axel Klimek — hits the shelves, both physically and digitally. Parachuting Cats into Borneo distills our many years of working together into very readable little book on how to make change happen, and also how to avoid the common … Continue reading About Those Parachuting Cats
An Open Letter to Future Generations
Dear Future Generations, I’m sure this is obvious to you — you can see things better than we can, in hindsight. But I want to report to you that we are living through a time of dramatic change. Historic change. The kind of moment where everything seems to be balanced on a knife edge, and … Continue reading An Open Letter to Future Generations
The World’s Theory of Change
In training courses, workshops, and in books — including a forthcoming new book with my friend and business partner Axel Klimek — I teach people working on sustainability how to clarify and improve their “theory of change”: their mental model of how they are driving change toward sustainability, in their specific context. At the level … Continue reading The World’s Theory of Change
Alan AtKisson 