The Handbook of Climate Change Leadership in Organisations Developing Leadership for the Age of Sustainability

Foreword

Georg Kell

1.     An Introduction to Climate Change Leadership in Organisations  

Doug MacKie  

PART I: Foundations  

2.     From ESG Management to Positive Impact Creation: The Dual Mindset Transformation  

Katrin Muff  

3.     Overcoming Cognitive Biases That Contribute to Corporate Climate Change Inertia  

Anna Eckardt and Daina Mazutis 

4.     An Evolutionary Perspective on Corporate Sustainability Transitions: A ProSocial Approach  

Michael P. Schlaile, Alexander Herwix, Kristina Bogner and Paul W.B. Atkins  

5.     Guidance to Green Action: Environmental Leadership Through the Lens of Evolutionary Psychology  

Gonzalo Palomo-Vélez and Mark Van Vugt  

6.     Sustainability Leadership Starts With Our Mindset  

Isabel Rimanoczy and Beate Klingenberg  

7.     Ecological Leadership in a Planetary Emergency  

Christopher D. Ives and Jenny Wilkinson  

8.     Environmental Leadership Is Contemporary Leadership: State of the Literature and Recommendations  

Rian Satterwhite  

PART II: Transitions  

9.     Green Leadership  

Talib Karamally and Jennifer L. Robertson  

10.  Responsible Leadership in the Governance of Managed Retreat: A Place-Based Approach to Climate Change Adaptation  

Sasha Maher, Brad Jackson, Jonathan Boston and Steve Kempster  

11.  The Intersection Between Environmental Ethics and Leadership  

David J. Brown and Robert M. McManus  

PART III: Progressions  

12.  We Are Prolonging Unsustainability. Shouldn’t We Save Humanity Instead?  

Nancy E. Landrum  

13.  A Systems Perspective on Organisational Leadership for Climate Change: Implications of Viewing Organisations as Complex Adaptive Socio-Technical Systems  

William Donaldson and Benjamin W. Redekop  

14.  System Leadership and Climate Change Mitigation  

Christopher Beehner  

15.  Adaptation Leadership: A Key Capability for Organisational Innovation  

Johanna Nalau  

PART IV: Actions  

16.  Sustainable Goal Setting for Climate Action: What Leaders Value Defines How They Take Action  

Donald Eubank  

17.  Corporate Carbon Targets: The Role of Goal Setting in Driving Organisational Change for Climate Action  

Frederik Dahlmann  

18.  Coaching in the Anthropocene  

Joel A. DiGirolamo  

19.  Developing Climate Change Leadership in Organisations  

Doug MacKie  

20.  Case Study: The Role of Leadership and Enabling Change – Specific to the Cluster and Energy Transition  

Kevin Reeves and Rik Irons-Mclean  

Biography

Doug MacKie has over 30 years’ experience as an organisational and business psychologist, working in the UK, Europe and Australasia. He has researched and accelerated the development of leadership, team and organisational capability in boards, CEOs and C-Suite executives within many of the top 100 companies in the UK and Australia.

"The concept of the good ancestor asks how we want our grandchildren’s children to regard us — what was the legacy we left to them? Leaders, in every sphere of life, have the responsibility to be good ancestors and that in today’s world means leading in the context of climate change. In this book, they will find more than exhortation to do the right thing — they will find practical examples of how to lead on climate change. This book is essential reading for any leader wanting to make his or her great-grandchildren proud of them!"

Professor David Clutterbuck, Special Ambassador, European Mentoring and Coaching Council; visiting professor, Henley Business School; Distinguished Research Fellow, The Conference Board

"The climate crisis calls for leadership from all of us, meaning we have to get to the edge of our comfort zone and then take one more step. This handbook has something for every leader to support their courage in navigating the unknown, whether by understanding their own cognitive biases or learning how to become a leader of systemic change beyond their own organisation, setting science-based targets or seeing the world as a complex adaptive system."

Nigel Topping, UN Climate Change High Level Climate Champion,  COP26

“There is no more urgent question – in the face of a deranged neoliberal technocracy that sometimes seems to have rendered all alternative arrangements unthinkable – than how to find forms of governance and leadership for a world society that can cope with an unprecedented threat to humanity. The chapters in the present volume give grounds for hope that an answer can be found.”

Professor Richard Little, Visiting Professor, WSB University Warsaw, and Professor of Sustainability Leadership  at Initiative for Leadership & Sustainability, University of Cumbria, UK

“The interface of climate change and corporate leadership is crucial. This handbook brings together the best thinkers of our time. The volume is a must read for academics and corporate leaders in the field of sustainability.”

Professor Robert E. Quinn, Cofounder of the Center for Positive Organizations, University of Michigan Ross School of Business

“Leadership matters, but ever more so when the leader and led are faced with an enormous crisis. Climate change is such a crisis, and one that requires great leadership to avoid catastrophe. This volume calls on experts across multiple disciplines to help leaders navigate the climate crisis.”

Ronald E. Riggio, Ph.D., Henry R. Kravis Professor of Leadership and Organizational Psychology, Claremont McKenna College

"We have all the technology, finance and regulatory tools we need to solve for climate change. The only thing stopping us is an effective grasp of psychology and communications. Leadership, delivered differently, is the only way we will make meaningful progress. This book is a critical guide to making this become a reality."

John O'Brien, Managing Director, Sustainability & Climate, Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu