Purpose of this Initiative: To create theory and practice that contribute to sustainable economic and ecological devlopment. By marrying concepts of systems thinking, organizational learning and scientific conditions for sustainability, to give industrial and community leaders the conceptual knowledge and practical tools that they need to build healthy organizations for the longterm.

Opportunities for Engagement:

• Systems Thinking for a Sustainable Future Annual Conference: Strategies for Sustainable Economic & Ecological Development
• Systems Thinking for a Sustainable Future: Five Day Core Course
• Strategic Company Partnership: Building a Sustainable Learning Organization
• An American Challenge for the 21st Century: A Sustainable Learning Community

A detailed descriptions of each of these opportunities for engagement with the STSF initiative follows

Join us in the exploration of a new educational and research initiative known as Systems Thinking for a Sustainable Future (STSF). This initiative seeks to generate breakthrough thinking in the arena of economic and ecological development, and to provide industrial decision makers with a shared conceptual framework and the practical tools they need to build financially healthy companies for the longterm.

The current economy/ecology debate in this country, between polarized and entrenched factions is unproductive: we believe that it will not build the future that we all wish for succeeding generations. In its place, we seek to develop new processes, principles and practices that generate learning environments where the perspectives of all stakeholders are honored and included, and which nurture the kind of new ideas that lead to presently unimaginable solutions to some of society's most intractable issues.

The STSF initiative seeks to marry concepts of Systems Thinking and Organizational Learning as championed by Peter Senge and colleagues at the Center for Organizational Learning consortium at MIT, with the principles and tools of the pathbreaking "Natural Step" process developed by Dr. Karl Henrik Robert and associates in Sweden. We seek to build a consortium of prospective partners to develop and apply this integration of organizational learning and strategies for sustainability. We will explore key research and practical questions and the potential benefits for our organizations.

Business has a primary role to play in the evolution of a sustainable economy. Our first partners in developing the STSF endeavor are you, our colleagues in industry. We need your energy, perspectives and participation in this initiative in order for it to achieve its aspiration of contributing to a sustainable future. Please join us in what we hope will prove to be a powerful and transformational event in the future history of the learning center consortium, and of our world.

Sample Conference Schedule:

Principles of the Sustainable Organizational Learning.

Principles of Scientific Conditions for Sustainability of Large Systems.

Why invest in Sustainability? Industrial examples of sustainability strategies at work.

Personal reflection and small group interaction: What is my role in this work?

Large Group Dialogue: Sustainable Economic an Ecological Develeopment Strategies.

Purpose: To create a learning experience where industrial decision makers will begin to develop the conceptual framework and practical tools they need to build financially healthy organizations for the longterm.

Participants will: gain a working knowledge of basic concepts of learning and sustainability. They will be able to articulate principles for sustainable business practice and begin to identify specific high leverage actions to be taken in their own organizations. These will allow them to build business strategies that will enable their companies to thrive in an economy that is increasingly defined by global economic pressures and natural laws of organization.

Sample Outline:

Day 1: Framing the conversation: What is Sustainability? What voices are present that inform the current sustainability debate? How can we build a global economy that honors and meets the needs of the following perspectives?

• Industry
• Government Regulators
• Environmental Groups
• Community Members

Day 2: Systems Conditions for Sustainability: scientific grounding and guidelines for making strategic investment decisions.

Day 3: Organizational Learning in the Context of Sustainability:

• Systems Thinking
• Shared Vision
• Mental Models
• Personal Mastery
• Team Learning
• Dialogue

Day 4: Sustainability Strategies: Ecologically and economically sound business practice:

• Strategies to thrive in a sustainable global economy.
• Identification of development opportunities for your business.
• Skills and competencies to plan for sustainability.

Day 5: Integration and application of this work. Dialogue and Community Building on next steps for the evolution of a sustainable economy.

Purpose: This strategic partnership brings the challenge of building a Sustainable Learning Organization home to your company. The conceptual framework and practical tools that lead to strategic planning and investment decisions that can create a financially healthy and ecologically sustainable business for the longterm will be developed.

Principles: Using an integration of principles for sustainable systems with the process of organizational learning , this work will enable companies to develop the framework for decision making that will allow them to thrive in a business economy that is increasingly defined by global economic pressures and natural laws of organization.

Practices: A variety of tools and methods will be employed to integrate learning and sustainability in a practical way. These include surfacing and testing current mental models of operation, inquiry and dialogue to build shared vision, and systems thinking applied to conditions for organizational sustainability. In-depth coaching of individuals and teams will facilitate this process of developing new modes of thinking and acting that can generate sustainable actions throughout the organization.

Capacity Building: People within your company will integrate the learning process into their own way of doing business in such a way that they are able to pass it on to others in the organization. In this way an organic growth of capacity in sustainable organizational learning will take place throughout the company.

Sample Activities of the Partnership:

Core Course on organizational learning and systems conditions for sustainability.

Use of the sustainable organizational learning principles as a guideline for strategic planning.

Learning communities of reflection and action for in developing new thinking.

Depth coaching of individuals and teams to breakthrough ineffective patterns of behavior.

Purpose: An American Challenge for the 21st Century, here forward referred to as "Challenge 21," seeks to bring together all of the stakeholders in the national conversation on ecology and economy to learn together, envision and enact an ecologically sustainable and economically prosperous future for the United States.

Participants will: form a learning and action community of stakeholders from a variety of perspectives and interests. Marrying learning process skills with the principles of systems conditions for sustainability, this community will take on the challenge of building a shared vision of an economically viable and ecologically sustainable future. They will then design and enact a practical project that will apply these principles in action.

Sponsorship by SEED Systems collaboration with the Center for Organizational Learning (COL) at MIT -- An American "Geneva": Due to the politically sticky, and socially polarized nature of the issues surrounding sustainability, there is a need for unique qualities in the sponsor of a multistakeholder conversation on this topic. SEED Systems in collaboration with the MIT -- COL can provide a service here. First, we offer a process for learning together that has the potential to break through traditionally entrenched thinking on difficult issues. Secondly, by virtue of MIT's reputation and academic institutional affiliation, it is viewed by stakeholders from industry, government and environmental groups as relatively neutral in the debate. The hope is that this combination of location and process can provide a uniquely "safe" environment -- a kind of American Geneva -- for participants to use the energy of the conflict to create healthy new structures that will serve our collective future.

Design Principles: Challenge 21 will use several design elements which make for an unprecedented learning experience. First, it will seek to represent "the whole system" by bringing representatives from all viewpoints in the system together to learn. Stakeholders will include energy related industry, environmental activist groups, government regulators, and the community at large. Secondly, participants will learn tools for effective communication that will allow them to build coherent and constructive community. They will see past titles, positions, and political affiliations, and begin to recognize each other's humanity. Thirdly, they will learn scientific principles for sustainability of large systems. With these tools and concepts the community will think together to address some of the most intractable issues facing our society as a whole.

Challenge 21: Learning Together

Phase 1: Processes for effective communication and collective thinking.

Phase 2: Design Principles for a healthy economy and ecology:

Phase 3: Envisioning our Future: Marrying learning processes and scientific principles to articulate a vision for sustainable America.

Phase 4: Design of strategy for concrete shared project to be implemented in your region that will enact the vision. Integration and application of the project.

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