We often hear that business schools are training future leaders to be the opposite of what we need for a more sustainable society. I strongly believe this is not the case. Young managers represent an incredible untapped resource to bring about real change, they often just don’t know how to.
The city of London has a really fantastic programme, run by the London Sustainable Development Commission (LSDC), called London Leaders. The programme choses 15 ordinary Londoners with extraordinary vision to promote sustainable living in the city of London. I was honoured and excited to be chosen as one of these 15 leaders for 2011.
The LSDC has research that shows that the challenges we face are not solved by governments or corporations alone but through strong leadership at every level, by people working together and by being empowered to take action. “That’s why we have created our ‘London Leaders’ programme. We know we have to do things differently if we are going to reach our goals. Leadership at the top is showing just what is possible when people are effectively empowered. London Leaders complements this by not leaving everything to government and business, by finding people from all walks of life who want to take responsibility to make change happen together.”
As my London Leaders project I will be giving a series of innovative workshops and tools to business students and young managers in businesses across the city about sustainability and how they can bring it into their job, regardless of what job they have, in order to make an impact on their business, society and empower them as an individual.
I am working through the details of my project now and will be posting more details soon on my website.
If you are a school or business in London and interested in working together please do send me an email at gweybrecht@thesustainablemba.com. To learn more about the London Leaders programme visit http://www.londonsdc.org/londonleaders
