Environmental Engineering Reference
In-Depth Information
is for stakeholders to think in a systems-like way. TNS is designed to facilitate and
lead this necessary learning process through its application of core principles and
values, including such methods as backcasting ('What do we need to do now to get
where we want to be?'), while offering the freedom to creatively harness energy and
enthusiasm at an operational or local level. In an interview with Julian Gold, Robèrt
(2004) notes:
Focusing on the basic principles of complex systems is not only a methodology
for individual intellectual performance; it is a way of leadership. Clarity, a shared
understanding of what we are trying to achieve, and a framework to use in moving
forward are tremendous sources of hope and inspiration. In my mind, this is
where the solutions are going to come from - by people becoming engaged in
the process, more so than by people being told what to do and what not to do.
TNS practitioners recognize that the core principles must not be violated, even
though they will not know exactly what a future sustainable organization will look
like. TNS is a strategic approach that maintains a clear motivational and ethical
vision, as can be illustrated in Holmberg and Robèrt's discussion of renewable energy
(2000: 304-5):
Transformation into renewable energy is a measure to meet the four system
conditions. The rationale for renewable energy is that:
Compounds from the Earth's crust, such as fossil carbon, forming carbon
dioxide and radioactive elements must not accumulate in the ecosphere
(system condition 1).
Compounds that are produced in energy conversion, such as nitrogen oxides
or plutonium, should not accumulate in the ecosphere (system condition 2).
The exploitation of energy sources must not destabilize the conditions which
support the life processes of Earth, for example degradation of ecosystems
in the sea due to drilling for and transportation of oil or degradation of
ecosystems on land due to mining for uranium (system condition 3).
We must not waste resources and eventually run out of our potential to
meet human needs further ahead (system condition 4).
Thus the four system conditions form the core rationale of what TNS founder
refers to as ABCD analysis.
The TNS management and development framework has been widely taken up in
many countries and by a number of very well-known businesses, including IKEA,
Interface, Nike, Starbucks and McDonald's, and by many public and voluntary
sector organizations. In the case of the Swedish company IKEA, TNS initiated the
emergence of a successful corporation that continues to develop and enhance its
commitment to sustainability through introducing green travel plans, providing bus
services to customers in some locations, giving gifts of bicycles to employees, and
introducing waste-to-energy technology and geothermal heating techniques in some
stores. In the UK, charging for plastic bags reduced customer bag use by 95 per cent
or 32 million bags (Webb, 2007).
 
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