Alan AtKisson's ISIS Agreement

Over the last nine years, whenever I have felt particularly doubtful about humanity's ability to get on a more sustainable development path, I have taken out my copy of Alan AtKisson's Believing Casandra: An Optimist Looks at a Pessimist's World. In this wonderfully upbeat and engaging book Alan explains why he thinks we CAN and are creating a paradigm shift. It never fails to cheer me and I have given out many copies to friends, colleagues and random people that I have met who I have felt could use a boost in sustainability optimistim.

Now, at last, he has published the follow up to Casandra, called The ISIS Agreement: How Sustainability Can Improve Organizational Performance and Transform the World (Earthscan, 2008). Once again, he bases the title in a myth but ISIS also is an acronym for Indicators, Systems, Innovation, and Strategy - right up my alley. In the book, Alan describes a 'nine-step' process or roadmap for making the paradigm shift happen. He includes a 'Hope Graph' showing what he calls the 'Transformation Point' where our choices of sustainable technologies begin to accelerate more sustainable development. One chapter is called 'Make Money, Do Good...and Save the World' and describes how we can all be Sustainability Professionals.

I am only part way through the book, but it is clearly another winner!. I will do another post soon on some of the points that most resonate with me. And I am going to buy a box of these to hand out...