Sustainable Leadership

EpilogueLegacy and Learnings for a Sustainable Future

What you leave behind is not what is engraved in stone monuments, but what is woven into the lives of others.

—Pericles

IT HAS BEEN energizing and eye-opening to share these stories. The opportunity to learn from dozens of leaders globally who are implementing bold actions for people and planet has also been humbling. Motivational speaker, the late William Arthur Ward, put it this way: “The pessimist complains about the wind; the optimist expects it to change; the leader adjusts the sails.” Looking back on this process, my only regret is not having the space to capture every insight and observation from these in-depth conversations. Through their candor, the pioneering individuals I met with gave me an embarrassment of riches. But the overall takeaway from more than two years of research is this: my hunch about the potential impact of sustainable leadership when first brainstorming with then-UNGC leader Lise Kingo at Davos in 2019 (before the world changed forever) was right. Not only has our hypothesis borne out, our hopes and expectations for how we can move the needle forward have been far exceeded by what is actually happening across industries and geographies. There is now no doubt in my mind that we can deliver people and profits with the planet. The energy is not just what they are doing, but how they are multiplying future sustainable leaders through success, trial, error, and communication.

There are clear pathways, ...