2Sustain

William F. Buckley died two weeks ago.

Now, I am surely not a fan of ultra right-wing conservatism a la Mr. Buckley — nor of ultra left-wing liberalism for that matter. However, despite disagreeing with many of his political beliefs, I have immense respect for Buckley’s incredible life and career. He was by all accounts a force of nature who had an immeasurable impact on the conservative movement and single-handedly nurtured and inspired multiple generations of its leaders. So this got me thinking….who are the key leaders in the global sustainability movement?

What will the world look like when they pass away? What will their legacy be? Will they successfully spawn multiple generations of new leaders as Buckley did?

The obvious person to start with is Al Gore. I think it is fair to say that Gore is successfully inspiring the next generation of sustainability leaders. But who else? Who comes to mind as the next great leader after Gore? Who are the next nine to round out the top ten? Are they successfully achieving what I will now call the “Buckley Standard” of bringing along the next generation of leaders? I ask this question because I can think of no more important legacy of the leaders of the global sustainability movement than the inspiring and the nurturing of the next generation of leaders.

While I can think of a number of incredibly smart, impactful people working in the sustainability world — Jeffrey Sachs at Columbia, William McDonough the author/architect, World Wildlife Fund President Carter Roberts,  Conservation International President Peter Seligman — I am uncertain on the answer to the “Buckley Standard” question. 

Another way to view this question is through the lens of the “network effect.” This is a term used to describe a product or service (or in the case of sustainability a set of principles) that makes the jump from a set of early adopters to fully mainstream. I think the next great challenge for the principles and practices of sustainability is to “cross the chasm” (as they say in the tech world) and go fully mainstream. We’re getting there and certainly seeing far more attention paid to sustainability issues these days, but I would argue that we are not quite “there” yet. And the movement’s leaders, both now and into the next few generations, will play a key role in achieving that goal. They, and all of us, could learn a thing or two from William F. Buckley and the legacy he left behind. Few individuals have been as responsible for a movement “catching fire” than he was.