LinkedIn Dialog
Group: Toronto Sustainability Speaker Series

Discussion: Business as Usual is Doomed to Fail - So What's Next? If this question worries you - join us at Accelerate next week.

Burgess COMMENTARY

I am quite pessimistic about the future when I look at the 'ideas' that are dominating the conversation about sustainability, corporate responsibility, environment and the rest. The ideas make a good read ... but the results essentially are adding up to nothing.

I spent about half my career in corporate management ... as a cost accountant, management accountant, CFO ... and in these roles got to understand the power of metrics in improving performance.

Today, I argue for some radical reform of the metrics being used to guide decisions that impact society and the global economy. I am sympathetic to many of the 'ideas' that are talked about, but in my view they will not get traction and change very much until they are matched by some way of numbering all the things that matter.

My initiative in this arena is True Value Metrics - Multi Dimension Impact Accounting. I think it has the potential to change everything, and I also argue that it is high time a lot of things are changed.

Peter Burgess - TrueValueMetrics
Multi Dimension Impact Accounting

Toronto Sustainability Speaker Series 3,612 members Member

Kathryn Cooper Follow Kathryn Business as Usual is Doomed to Fail - So What's Next? If this question worries you - join us at Accelerate next week.

Kathryn Cooper President & Chief Learning Officer

Business As Usual - Doomed to Fail - So What's Next? | The Natural Step Canada naturalstep.ca

There is a reason that Business as Usual is 'doomed to fail' in today's world.In our wisdom, we have socially constructed global market systems that have evolved to be socially, dynamically and generatively complex. See more at: http://naturals

About Accelerate

The Natural Step Canada is convening Accelerate because we—and the organizations we work with—realize that an organization can only go so far alone on their sustainability journey before they run up against barriers that require them to work with new partners. We hear the increasing calls for greater engagement and collaboration with diverse groups to solve the complex sustainability challenges of our time.

Accelerate will offer a unique opportunity to deepen learning about collaboration from experts and practitioners, to experience collaboration by creating connections with other change agents, and to seed new collaborative initiatives. Using a mix of plenary, breakout, and group sessions, we will showcase the expertise and real life experience of dozens of speakers from across all sectors and backgrounds.

Accelerate will include keynote talks from world-renowned experts, sessions delivered by talented practitioners, and interactive workshops and dialogues. Please check out the Agenda, which will allow for extensive networking and collaboration opportunities.

It’s all about sharing and learning together. It's a different kind of conference.

Keynote Presenters

Jenn Heil Freestyle Mogul Skier; Multiple Olympic Medalist, World Cup Champion, and World Champion; Canadian Female Athlete of the Year Honoree; Co-Founder, B2ten; Analyst, Sochi Winter Olympic Games, CBC


Nicholas R. Parker Founding Managing Partner, Global Acceleration Partners Inc.; Founding Chairman, Cleantech Group Inc.; Former Chairman, Corporate Knights Media Ltd.

Dr. Peter Senge Senior Lecturer in Leadership & Sustainability, MIT Sloan School of Management; Founding Chair, Society for Organizational Learning (SoL); Author, The Fifth Discipline and The Necessary Revolution

Avrim Lazar Former CEO, Forest Products Association of Canada; Champion of the Canadian Boreal Initiative

Special Guest Presenters

John Brodhead Executive Director, Evergreen CityWorks


Tim Brodhead Interim President & CEO, Pierre Elliott Trudeau Foundation; Adjunct Professor, University of Waterloo

Mark Cabaj President, From Here to There; Associate, Tamarack Institute

Geoff Cape CEO, Evergreen

Tania Carnegie Leader, KPMG Impact Ventures & National Executive Director, Community Leadership, KPMG

Karen Clarke-Whistler Chief Environment Officer, TD Bank Group

Helen Clarkson Director, Forum for the Future US

Tim Draimin Executive Director, Social Innovation Generation (SiG) National

Jayne Engle Curator, Cities for People, The J.W. McConnell Family Foundation

Tom Ewart Manager of Sustainability & Citizenship, The Co-operators Group Ltd.

Ashley Good Founder and CEO, Fail Forward

Dr. Barbara Gray Professor, Pennsylvania State University; Lead Researcher, Sustainability Through Partnerships report, Network for Business Sustainability

Kelly Hawke Baxter Social Innovation Consultant; Board Member, The Natural Step Canada; Chair, Tostan Canada

Linda Hawkins Director, Institute for Community Engaged Scholarship, University of Guelph

Dr. Geoff Kendall Co-Founder and CEO, 3D Investment Foundation

Mike Morrice Founder and Executive Director, Sustainability CoLab; Founder, Sustainable Waterloo Region; Ashoka Fellow

Claude Ouimet Senior V.P. G.M. Canada and Latin America, Interface

Patricia O’Reilly Director, Sustainability Strategy, Suncor Energy

Monica Pohlmann Senior Consultant, Reos Partners

Ben Powless Organizer, Idle No More Movement; Co-Founder, Canadian Youth Climate Coalition

Brendan Seale Sustainability Manager, IKEA Canada

Lorraine Smith Director, SustainAbility

Esther Speck Sustainability Consultant, Speck Consulting; Past Director, Sustainability and Community, Mountain Equipment Co-op (MEC)

Frank Spencer Principal/Partner, Kedge; Author, Turning Wicked Problems Into Wicked Opportunities

Joeri van den Steenhoven Director, MaRS Solutions Lab; Co-Founder and Former CEO of Knowledgeland

Bob Willard Author, The NEW Sustainability Advantage, The Next Sustainability Wave & The Sustainability Champions Guidebook

Steve Williams President, Constructive Public Engagement

Staff and Associate Presenters

Sarah Brooks Senior Associate

Tamara Connell Director of Sustainability Literacy and Communications

Saralyn Hodgkin Director of Collaboration Programs and Evaluation

Chad Park Executive Director

John Purkis Senior Associate

Barb Steele Managing Director