Systemic reflections on environmental sustainability

This paper reflects upon the attempts by society to achieve environmental s ustainability on the globe. It starts by considering the ways that the rela tionships between corporations and society are developing in view of the in creasing economic power of the former relative to the latter and gives a br ief overview of the nature of the perceived environmental crisis we face. U se is made of the metaphor of the 'tragedy of the commons' to illustrate th is. Using systems thinking, the problem of the apparent conflict between in dividual self-interest and the needs of the community for long-term sustain ability is explored and thoughts from this perspective about structural req uirements for sustainability are developed. Concepts from systems thinking such as the need for autonomy to manage complexity, the parallel requiremen t for cohesion within recursive systems, the derived concept of citizenship to explore relationships with the community and finally levels of performa nce are all found to be of value in understanding this most pressing of hum an problems. (C) 1998 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.