The Purpose-Driven Organisation in Times of Climate Crisis

This book provides an authoritative, evidence-based understanding of the implications of climate change for organisations and offers valuable insights into how to craft and embed a sustainable purpose.

The book draws upon the newly emerging cadre of ‘purpose professionals’ who are charged with shifting their organisation from being shareholder-driven to stakeholder-driven through the development and implementation of organisational purpose. It represents a unique collaboration between world-leading climate scientists and management experts, explaining in clear terms how organisations have been implicated in climate change, and the consequences of failing to act now. Based on science, it sets out the case for organisations to effect a radical shift away from a shareholder imperative to become purpose-driven, and provides actionable, evidence-based insights into how to achieve change successfully. In the first chapters, climate scientists outline the key scientific evidence about how the Earth’s climate has changed in the past 100 years, and use case studies to explain how this will affect policy, the public, and organisations across different geographical regions and sectors. Next, organisational experts explain the regulatory context and policy drivers for the shift to organisational purpose. We then focus on organisational actions and priorities, drawing on latest research findings to explain what purpose is, and how to lead change effectively to overcome the obstacles to becoming purpose-led.

Written with a practitioner readership in mind, this book is an invaluable resource for senior leaders, corporate social responsibility practitioners, policymakers, and business and management students studying modules in purpose-driven leadership and climate change as well as a wider lay readership.