Book club summary #15 - The Necessary Revolution
My attendance at a (pricey) lecture Peter Senge gave on The Necessary Revolution in 2009 was the germinal cause which led to a spate of business reading, and eventually the idea of creating a business book club at work. As such, it was natural to eventually return to that text, in the course of book club readings.
Like other tomes in the “business adventures in sustainability” genre, Senge discusses DuPont’s 70% reduction in GHG emissions from 1990 to 2005, and Xerox’s redesign of a new copier design for 93% refurbishability, and 97% recyclability. He supplements these with suggestions on how coalitions can be built from the bottom up, to drive organizational behaviour and develop system-wide solutions.
The book mentions Darcy Winslow, a past Director of Sustainability at Nike, who led the charge to eliminate SF6 (the most potent greenhouse gas known to man!) from the air pockets of “Nike Air” footwear. In private correspondence, she explained the importance of reframing designers’ perceptions of the need to remove SF6: they initially perceived it as a legislative burden they didn’t want to work on, but she was able to get buy-in for the project by pushing it as a proof point of Nike’s design genius — devising a harmless alternative would prove yet again that they were the world’s best shoe designers.
As always, if you enjoy the summary, please consider supporting the author by purchasing the book. 
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