What Sustainability Legacy Will We Leave Future Leaders?

Many believe our planet is at a tipping point – discussions on how to create a sustainable future are happening from boardrooms to conference rooms to dining rooms.

This Melbourne Forum Sustainability Leadership Interest Group will bring together members who are interested in sharing perspectives and exploring key issues with fellow members about sustainability and ESG (environmental, social, and governance).

The theme for the March discussion is: What legacy will we leave future leaders? Is it an optimistic or a pessimistic future?

Sustainability is often viewed as meeting the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs. Many of the issues we currently face, may well be imposed on emerging millennial-aged leaders in coming decades.

“In the face of an absolutely unprecedented emergency, society has no choice but to take dramatic action to avert a collapse of civilization. Either we will change our ways and build an entirely new kind of global society, or they will be changed for us.” Gro Harlem Brundtland and colleagues in “Environment and Development Challenges: The Imperative to Act.”

A sustainable future requires a shift, a new dialogue and creative thinking about possible actions.

These questions are bound to be raised in this interest group for discussion:

> Are the early 2020s a warning from an environmentally-destabilised future? 

> How can leaders drive ambitious sustainability agendas and avoid ‘greenwashing’?

> What will future leaders inherit?

> What challenges will these risks raise for today’s leadership?

> What do future leaders need to do to be better prepared?

> Is the solution as simple as investing a further 2% of annual global GDP in targeted initiatives?

Come with an open mind and definitely be prepared for a stimulating and challenging discussion as part of Melbourne Forum’s Sustainability Leadership interest group.

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Member-led, member-only Interest Groups complement our excellent program of conversation leader, speaker focused events. Enhancing how we learn and exchange ideas, Interest Groups give you access to interact in small cohorts and in intimate settings over a specific theme.

Underlying the concept is the hope that participants will come with open minds, ask important questions, challenge their own assumptions, understand the interplay of certain and uncertain beliefs, hear new ideas, listen to other viewpoints, and even change their mind.

The intimacy of the Sustainability Leadership Interest Group is enhanced by limiting participation as the enjoyment of being involved is when everyone who attends gets to comment and exchange ideas. The hosts are members whose role it is to gently guide the group’s conversation.

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Save the dates and note the themes of the upcoming conversations:

April 27th: Circular economy – is it too difficult to make a real difference?

May 24th: Decarbonising the built environment – what actions can the industry take now?

June 20th: IPCC Sixth Assessment Report – lessons from the Australasia factsheet?

July 18th: Boardroom responses – opportunities and risks in a zero carbon, sustainable world?

August 15th: Pacific Islands – how do we protect people from climate risks?

September 12th: 20-minute neighbourhoods – what is to be gained?

October 24th: COP 27 – can the UN climate conference in Sharm el-Sheikh bring about change?

November 7th: Economic growth and the right metrics – what is success?

By the way, these Book Group discussions will also explore the environment and sustainability.

May 10 – Science Denial: Why It Happens and What to Do About It by Gale Sinatra and Barbara Hofer

June 14  – Thriving: The Breakthrough Movement to Regenerate Nature, Society, and the Economy by Wayne Visser

August 9 – Landscapes of Our Hearts: Reconciling People and Environment by Matthew Colloff