Taking Sustainability from Theory to Practice

Abstract

Sustainable leadership and improvement are more than matters of mere endurance, of making things last. We define sustainable leadership, in line with the environmental field, in the following way: Sustainable leadership matters, spreads and lasts. It is a shared responsibility, that does not unduly deplete human or financial resources, and that cares for and avoids exerting negative damage on the surrounding educational and community environment. Sustainable leadership has an activist engagement with the forces that affect it, and builds an educational environment of organizational diversity that promotes cross-fertilization of good ideas and successful practices in communities of shared learning and development.

This definition suggests seven principles of sustainable leadership:

1. Sustainable leadership creates and preserves sustaining learning.
2. Sustainable leadership secures success over time.
3. Sustainable leadership sustains the leadership of others.
4. Sustainable leadership addresses issues of social justice.
5. Sustainable leadership develops rather than depletes human and material resources.
6. Sustainable leadership develops environmental diversity and capacity.
7. Sustainable leadership undertakes activist engagement with the environment