Alice Schmidt
on The Sustainability Puzzle
“Today, almost every job is a sustainability job in one way or another. Your job title may not show this, but in every position you’ll take and influence decisions that relate to sustainability. Use this power well.”
How are you using your power?
Alice Schmidt is a global sustainability advisor, business consultant and keynote speaker who has worked in 30 countries, thus gaining the ability to learn quickly and see the bigger picture by combining hard evidence with intuition and creative approaches.
She has the regenerative leadership qualities much needed today: a wide horizon, ability to make links across sectors and industries, mindfulness and, especially, intuition. Her belief is that sustainable transformation must create health, wealth and wellbeing.
Facilitating sustainability trainings and climate simulation workshops is one of the things she loves the most. Some of the topics she tackles during her keynote speeches are Global & Planetary Health, Measuring Happiness, Business as a Force for Good, Multisolving or The System Dynamics of Climate Action. Besides running her own consultancy firm and acting as board or jury member for several sustainability institutions (Circular Economy Forum Austria, Protect Our Winters, Endeva), she has been teaching “Sustainable Business and Management for Tomorrow” at Vienna University for Economics and Business for several years.
Writing is one of her biggest passions. Her book, The Sustainability Puzzle: How Systems Thinking, Circularity, Climate Action and Social Transformation Can Improve Health, Wealth and Wellbeing for All, co-authored with Claudia Winkler is a broad piece that focuses on educated, but non-expert audiences, through the use of sketch notes summarizing each chapter. It is a must-read addressing how systems thinking, circularity, climate action, and social transformation can improve health, wealth, and wellbeing for all.
To rephrase Lord Baden Powell, founder of the Scout Movement, she aims to “leave the world a bit better” than she found it. She used to be a girl scout, which helped her realize how much the scout movement’s values – from environmental protection to taking responsibility for her own actions – have inspired and influenced her from an early age onwards.
How are you solving The Sustainability Puzzle? Maybe the missing piece is right in front of you!
Thank you, Alice, for being a Sustainability Puzzle Solver!
#INSPIRATORS QUESTIONNAIRE
Name: Alice Schmidt
Company / Institution: AS Consulting / Vienna University of Economics and Business / The Sustainability Puzzle
Title: Keynote Speaker, Author, Consultant
Website: www.aliceschmidt.at , www.sustainability-puzzle.org
LinkedIn profile: https://www.linkedin.com/in/aliceschmidt/
Country of origin: Austria
Country you currently live in: Austria
Your personal definition of Sustainability: Leaving the world a bit better than we found it, which is basically the scouts’ motto. I used to be a girl scout and only recently realized how much the scout movement’s values – from environmental protection to taking responsibility for my own actions – have inspired and influenced me from an early age onwards.
Main business challenge you face: Juggling many, very different projects at the same time – involving multiple teams, geographies, sustainability topics, industries, sectors, time zones, organizational cultures, etc. But then again, I’m a bigger picture person, so that’s what I need and how I thrive.
Main driver that keeps you going: Maximizing my positive social and environmental impact and influencing as many people as possible to do so as well.
The trait you are most proud of in yourself: The ability to learn quickly and see the bigger picture by combining hard evidence with intuition and creative approaches.
The trait you most value in others: Selflessness coupled with a wide horizon.
Passions & little things that bring you joy: Reading, seeing, learning and having “light bulb” moments, as well as running, yoga, being in nature and enjoying great food and inspiring conversations with dear friends and family; and I have a great passion for architecture, interior design, the visual and performing arts and long-distance train travel.
The #inspirators who determined you to take the sustainability path:
I already knew that “saving the world” was the path I wanted to take and founded my first environmental protection club in primary school. In other words, I was determined to take the sustainability path early on. Along the way there have been many #inspirators, including famous names like Greta Thunberg, Helga Kromp-Kolb, Amartya Sen or “Menstruation Man” Arunachalam Muruganantham, as well as my father who always encouraged us to buy nothing, or my life partner who repairs everything.
A hint or starting point for companies or professionals that are taking the first steps in the sustainability journey: Today, almost every job is a sustainability job in one way or another. Your job title may not show this, but in every position you’ll take and influence decisions that relate to sustainability. Use this power well.
Most used and abused clichés in sustainability that bother you: That we need to “save the planet” as if it was something abstract without links to our human health, wealth and wellbeing. We need an intact natural environment to thrive and survive - both individuals and corporations crucially depend on the services the ecosystem is providing, from energy provision to climate regulation, crop pollination and inspiration.
An honest piece of advice for young people who lose hope: We can do it, but we need to zoom out and look at the bigger picture before zooming in on sustainability solutions. Only by putting on a system lens can we avoid creating more problems than we solve (which is also the starting point for our book The Sustainability Puzzle).
Books that had a major impact on you:
Critical Care. Architecture and Urbanism for a Broken Planet (Elke Krasny and Angelika Fitz)
Emergency Sex and Other Desperate Measures (Heidi Postlewait et al.)
Factfulness (Hans Rosling)
Sapiens (Yuval Noah Harari)
The Shadow of the Sun (Ryszard Kapuściński)
When Nietzsche Wept (and other books by Irvin Yalom)
Why We Sleep (Matthew Walker)
Must-reads for any Sustainability professional:
The Sustainability Puzzle: How Systems Thinking, Circularity Climate Action and Social Transformation Can Improve Health, Wealth and Wellbeing for All - the book I co-wrote with Claudia Winkler and which readers have called “essential reading for leaders, managers and those seeking to change their businesses, communities and societies to a more sustainable model for a better future for all”, also highlighting “brilliant insights, great case studies, real world examples and an integrated thought process pulling so many excellent elements together. A very valuable work to inspire and enable change for the better!”
How Bad Are Bananas (Mike Berners-Lee)
Material Matters (Thomas Rau und Sabine Oberhuber)
The Climate Book (Greta Thunberg)
Doughnut Economics (Kate Raworth)
Movies / Documentaries you would watch all over again:
Our Business. Our Planet.
Whenever I do trainings and workshops for businesses, I show this short film. And it always works by creating light-bulb moments across the audience and leading to a really good discussion.
Another documentary I keep recommending, though it has little to do with sustainability per se, is the Chernobyl mini-series. I found it incredibly gripping and well-done, and that’s probably not only because the Chernobyl disaster is the first vivid memory I have of a major geopolitical event.
Blogs / Websites / Podcasts etc. you visit frequently:
I regularly read Politico, Die Zeit, The Economist and Der Standard (an Austrian daily) and sometimes listen to their excellent podcasts. Other sources I enjoy are Project Drawdown, Beautiful News, TED, The New York Times Climate & Environment section, or Antoine Walter’s (don’t) Waste Water Podcast who does amazing cartoons about his interview partners, including Claudia and me.
Music that makes you (and your heart) sing: Right now, I listen to Parov Stelar and Voodoo Jürgens, for example. I also love to hear my daughters playing the piano and much, much more.
Places you travelled to that left a mark on you: All places have left some mark, mostly but not only positively. The place that has shaped me the most is Bangkok, where I lived in my early 20s, working for the United Nations. I clearly had some of the best, worst and most eye-opening, enriching, fun and decadent times of my life. I’ve also lived in Sydney, Hanoi and London and spent larger chunks of time in West Africa right after the war. All these places have a major place in my heart.
Global Sustainability Voices you recommend us to follow:
Karin Huber-Heim
Lara Obst
Lubomila Jordanova
Stefanie Hauer
Zoe Cohen
Trends in Sustainability we should keep an eye on:
Regeneration & Restoration to go beyond sustainability;
Greenwashing and Wokewashing - and how technology can be used to fight it; calculating the costs of unsustainability and getting polluters to internalize these.
Best places for business networking (online or offline): Well-choreographed events that seem informal and intimate, ideally hosted in private apartments, outdoors or other cool locations.
Events we should attend: Sustainability-focused events in your neighborhood which don’t come with major carbon emissions and connect you with the local community.
Associations, business clubs, tribes you belong to – and why:
Female Factor: I’m a mentor there, as I believe in the power of women and the need to drastically improve their role in global decision-making;
International Council, Circular Economy Forum Austria: because our future can only be circular;
Protect Our Winters: I’m a member of their science alliance because I believe that mountaineering and sports can be a great way to catalyze sustainable behavior change through positive approaches;
Foreign Policy and United Nations Association: because they bring together excellent topics and speakers in a Chatham-house setting.
Sustainable Development courses / trainings / certifications that really teach us how to have an impact: I teach several university courses that focus on sustainability, systems change and solving the sustainability at Vienna University of Economics and Business (“Sustainable Business: Managing for Tomorrow”).
I’ve also heard great things about the Sustainable Leadership degrees at Cambridge University.
One course that everyone can and should take is the En-ROADS climate ambassador programme offered by MIT/Climate Interactive, which is currently free.
I can also wholeheartedly recommend the sustainable development degrees at SOAS, London University’s School of Oriental and African Studies (where I did an MSc in “Violence, Conflict and Development” many years ago).
Reasons to feel optimistic about our future in 2030: Continued activism not only by youth, but also by scientists and other professions, tightening regulation regarding the internalization of societal costs created by unsustainability, fewer public subsidies for fossil fuels.
Reasons to feel pessimistic about our future in 2030: Continued public subsidies for fossil fuels, global power structures that continue to be distorted, lack of understanding of the value of nature for our health, wealth and wellbeing.
Regenerative Leadership qualities much needed today: A wide horizon, ability to make links across sectors and industries, intuition and mindfulness.
Quotes that inspire you:
“Until now, nature determined how we survive; now we determine how nature survives."
(David Attenborough)
“You cannot throw anything away - on a finite planet, there simply is no away.”
(Kate Raworth)
Your own quote that will inspire us:
