What do we mean by “sustainable” in relation to a learning organization or
community? In today’s world, overpopulation, global warming, intensity of natural
disasters, peak oil, nuclear energy, and other issues that raise concern about the future
of humankind on earth, have projected “sustainability” into common conversation.
Public awareness has been heightened so that achieving outcomes is one thing, and
sustainability – capacity to keep up the outcome – is quite another and is even more
important, certainly for continued wellbeing. Reappraisal of the “ends”, so that desired
outcomes can be sustained, forces reappraisal of the means needed to achieve
sustainable outcomes.