July 2008 - We are living in extraordinary times. The foundations of our economic and human development are being challenged by the force of nature. The gap between the ‘haves’ and the ‘have nots’ continues to widen and it is clear that the legitimate aspirations of most of humanity, if pursued through carbon intensive economies and under the current model of development, offer prospects only of further human suffering and environmental destruction.
This publication brings together a selection of case studies from the Cambridge Institute for Sustainability Leadership (CISL) alumni, drawing particularly on alumni of The Prince of Wales’s Business & Sustainability Programme, and designed to help leaders understand the sustainability challenges and address some of the potential responses to them. The cases are grouped using the Five Capitals Model. Developed by Forum for the Future and widely used in CISL’s programmes, the model is one way of describing the stocks and flows of resources (natural, social, human, financial and manufactured) as they relate to a sustainable society and economy.
