[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 …
Sustainability
The science and philosophy of maintaining human and natural systems
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
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
Letter to a Struggling Business Change Agent
This letter was written to a student who approached me for advice on how to engage a company that was just not showing any interest in sustainability ... Dear ______ Thanks for your patience, it's been a terribly busy time ... kids starting school, me starting work ... but I am happy to have this … Continue reading Letter to a Struggling Business Change Agent
Pyramid 2012: The Story of Building a Shared Dream
This is the personal “back story” on the origins of the Pyramid 2012 campaign, which published its final report on 18 June 2012. For the official story of this two-month-long “global workshop,” in which well over a thousand people participated, spread across twenty countries, please visit the campaign website to read the press release, 14-page … Continue reading Pyramid 2012: The Story of Building a Shared Dream
Is “Sustainable Development” Dying?
This short article's title does not refer to the upcoming Rio+20 summit, which even Ban Ki-moon is publicly worried about (see my piece about managing expectations for the summit, link below). But of course, it could. Nor does it refer to the general, spreading sense of malaise felt by many sustainability activists and professionals — … Continue reading Is “Sustainable Development” Dying?
Two Excerpts from Alan AtKisson’s “Collected Poems, 1982-2009”
Here are two poems from the volume, written in the mid-1990's. The first is an excerpt from the "Fugue" series, experiments in capturing trains of thought in the moments between wakefulness and sleep. The second, "The Work of the Animal Nations," was first published in the literary journal Point No Point. © Alan AtKisson, all … Continue reading Two Excerpts from Alan AtKisson’s “Collected Poems, 1982-2009”
Stockholm+40: Dreaming about revolution
I thought I would write blog entries throughout the Stockholm+40 conference. Instead, I listened – not so much to the formal presentations and speeches, though there were a few good ones. I listened to my friends and colleagues. "What are you working on?" I wanted to know. "How is it going?" For me, the sustainability … Continue reading Stockholm+40: Dreaming about revolution
Alan AtKisson 