Sustainability has been defined as “meeting the needs of the present generation without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their needs” (Brundtland 1987). From a 21st century standpoint, it generally refers to the capacity of sustaining human civilization in co-existence with the Earth’s biosphere.

There is no denying it. Human influence is unequivocally to blame for the warming of the planet and some forms of climate disruption are now locked in for centuries, according to a report of the U.N. Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change.

How long will our human species be able to roam this earth?

Will we meet the same fate as dinosaurs?

In business environments we often use the word dinosaur to refer to an organization which resisted change and as a result became outdated. It comes from the notion that dinosaurs were large beasts with small intelligence who had failed to evolve and adapt to their changing environment.

The notion of the outdated dinosaur that was pushed aside by a smarter and better-equipped species has been laid to rest in recent studies. Their extinction and that of more than 50% of other lifeforms on the planet then, was caused by natural climate change and hugely accelerated by natural disasters. 

Sounds familiar?

There are many different theories of what ultimately caused the dinosaurs’ extinction. Yet, regardless of how the dinosaurs met their untimely demise, they most certainly did not have the technology, information or creativity at their disposal to do something about it.

Humans do.

Important to point out is that non-avian dinosaurs were the dominant life form on our planet for about 175 million years. To put that into perspective, humanoid existence has been traced back roughly 6 million years, while homo sapiens only first appeared about 300 000 years ago.

We could still have a long way to go…

But only if we act now.

And only if we act in accordance with the severity of the climate matters at hand.

We need to do better as a global community to help protect the planet.

We need to do better to protect our world for future generations, for the children of tomorrow.

Our business communities in particular need to look beyond the old notions of becoming an outdated and ultimately obsolete dinosaur-organization. Corporations produce just about everything we buy, use, and throw away and play an outsized role in driving global climate change. The Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) approach to business is an absolute, undeniable necessity. It’s time to consider what actually caused the demise of the once dominant dinosaur species.

Let’s put our collective brainpower and creativity to work!

Let’s not become the next dinosaurs.

Let’s be humans instead.

The time to act is now!

Looking at the world right now, do you believe we will make it to 175 million years?

 

Written by Tom Simmillon