Twenty‐first century strategies for sustainability

Abstract

Purpose

Technological innovation is needed to shift from fossil fuels to renewable energy, recycling and redesigning industrial processes. More fundamental strategy levels need re‐examining: policy models, assumptions, institutional inertia and cultural values fueling today's drive toward increasing unsustainability. This study seeks to examine this issue

Design/methodology/approach

Reviews the current scientific debate about the unwarranted predominance of economics in public and private decision making; whether economics is a science or a profession and the demands by mathematicians, physicists and other scientists that the Bank of Sweden Prize in Economics be de‐linked from the original Nobel prizes.

Findings

Conventional economic models still drive such unsustainability: the malfunctioning “source codes” replicating traditional industrialism world‐wide. Scientific research on the human brain and ecosystems now refutes most of economics' core tenets. Multi‐disciplinary policies and appropriate metrics beyond money coefficients are needed for steering societies toward sustainability and quality of life.

Originality/value

Strengthens the case for strategies for global sustainability to address current economic models that are driving today's unsustainable forms of globalization.

Citation

Henderson, H. (2006), "Twenty‐first century strategies for sustainability", Foresight, Vol. 8 No. 1, pp. 21-38. https://doi.org/10.1108/14636680610700778