Essay by Mike Shesterkin, Exec. Director In previous articles, we covered ideas having to do with how we go about learning, acquiring knowledge and the critical role science – and in particular, the scientific method – plays in our collective understanding of the world around us. What we’ve been doing is building a solid foundation …
Essay by Luke Contos, Principal, Sustainability Systems, LLC I have often thought, how to get others to be more sustainable? Well this may be one idea that I hope you will incorporate in your life!! This started many years ago when I would collect my household hazardous waste and go to the annual County-Wide Hazardous …
Essay by: Mike Shesterkin, Exec. Director In this week’s article, we’ll continue our exploration of the business as a system and what we can learn along the way from the International Standards Organization (ISO). In last week’s article, we established a fundamental understanding of quality as having to do with the gap between what’s expected …
Essay by: Mike Shesterkin, Exec. Director In this article, we continue our journey of understanding the business as a system and the ways in which we go about applying such thinking. In the last article, we discussed the knowledge that comes through the International Standards Organization (ISO), and why it is voluntary consensus standards establish …
Essay by: Mike Shesterkin, Exec. Director Last week, we went a bit deeper into the basics of looking at the business through a systems thinking lens. This week, we’ll continue our study, but will take a diversion and examine the resources and knowledge available to us for sharpening our perspective. While we touched on the …
Essay by: Mike Shesterkin, Exec. Director Last week, we covered how it is a business fits the definition of a system and how notions of interconnectedness and emergent properties are important to grasping the business as a system. These ideas are foundational to seeing the business in terms of how it fits within the Earth …
Essay by: Mike Shesterkin, Exec. Director, SMSBF Last week, I covered the idea that sustainable business is grounded in systems thinking and an awareness of the interconnectedness of all things. Within this context, I made the distinction between what many perceive as the purpose of business – maximize shareholder value – versus the systems thinking …
By: Eileen Gao, SMSBF Intern An avalanche of issues has collapsed on the United States—just a sample of The Atlantic’s recent headlines include: “America Should Prepare for a Double Pandemic”, “A Lot of Americans are About to Lose Their Houses”, and “First Comes Police Reform, Then Comes Everything Else”. These issues have flooded my social …
New Year’s Eve is just two weeks away! Time seems to fly now, more than ever before. This may not be such a good thing, but at least there’s an explanation for it. Many of us consider being busy a status symbol, and just as many of us are simply addicted to busyness. While this …
Image: Photo by Alex Brisbey. There are some incredible companies in Detroit that embody Triple Bottom Line (3BL) business practices. The three businesses below use found or donated materials to create one-of-a-kind products; the result is lower demand for new materials, which in-turn reduces the business’s impact on the environment. Perhaps even more important, these …
