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Thriving: The Breakthrough Movement to Regenerate Nature, Society, and the Economy
An innovation agenda for tackling our biggest global societal challenges, including the climate emergency
Written by a top thinker in sustainability and responsible business, Thriving promotes change through innovation and transformation in nature, society, and the economy. It showcases new approaches in economics, business, and leadership to address a wide range of topics, including ecosystem destruction, species extinction, plastic waste, air pollution, gender equality, social justice, physical health, mental well-being, access to technology, job automation, pandemics, and climate change, among others.
Thriving strives to:
• Inform about why change is necessary and how it happens in society, as well as counter prevailing despair and pessimism about the state of the world with hope and optimism
• Inspire with what change is possible and where it is already happening, showing how we can go from problems of breakdown to breakthrough solutions
• Impel by creating a desire to turn information and inspiration into action, adding momentum to the growing regeneration movement
Thriving is not an exercise in blind optimism in technology or other miracle-cure solutions; rather, it is an accessible approach to systems thinking and an offer of pragmatic hope based on purpose-driven creativity and innovation. Whether you’re a professional in the sustainability field or someone who simply wants to be better informed about ways to take positive action, this thorough guide is for you.
Written by a top thinker in sustainability and responsible business, Thriving promotes change through innovation and transformation in nature, society, and the economy. It showcases new approaches in economics, business, and leadership to address a wide range of topics, including ecosystem destruction, species extinction, plastic waste, air pollution, gender equality, social justice, physical health, mental well-being, access to technology, job automation, pandemics, and climate change, among others.
Thriving strives to:
• Inform about why change is necessary and how it happens in society, as well as counter prevailing despair and pessimism about the state of the world with hope and optimism
• Inspire with what change is possible and where it is already happening, showing how we can go from problems of breakdown to breakthrough solutions
• Impel by creating a desire to turn information and inspiration into action, adding momentum to the growing regeneration movement
Thriving is not an exercise in blind optimism in technology or other miracle-cure solutions; rather, it is an accessible approach to systems thinking and an offer of pragmatic hope based on purpose-driven creativity and innovation. Whether you’re a professional in the sustainability field or someone who simply wants to be better informed about ways to take positive action, this thorough guide is for you.
362 pages, Kindle Edition
Published March 8, 2022
40 people are currently reading
2038 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 24 of 24 reviews
March 18, 2022
Dr Wayne Visser discharges his professional responsibilities as a Professor of Integrated Value and Holder of the Chair in Sustainable Transformation at Antwerp Management School. He also happens to be the founder of CSR International, Director of Kaleidoscope Futures and Fellow at the University of Cambridge Institute for Sustainability Leadership. He is also a prodigious author (40 odd books) and an inveterate traveler (having visited in upwards of 80 countries) in addition to being a person who cares deeply about a holistic form of living that fosters an inclusive approach.
In “Thriving”, Dr. Visser galvanizes an enviable repertoire of knowledge in dissecting the intersectionality between humans with nature. Using an ‘umbrella’ or ombudsman terminology, ‘regeneration’, Visser identifies in an innovative manner “six keys to thriving”. The numeral six seems to strike a special resonance with Visser as it appears in various passages and chapters of the book. Every Chapter ends with either a soulful or a mellow dirge, which again bears ample testimony to the multifaceted attributes of its author.
So what exactly are the six keys to thriving? In Visser’s world, complexity, circularity, creativity, coherence, convergence, and continuity form the core components of thriving. Each one of these facets strives and seeks to transform societal notions about work, and life. As the author himself alludes to the fact, the concept of ‘thriving’ envelopes and encompasses the Stockdale Paradox. For the uninitiated, this paradox is named after Admiral James Stockdale who survived seven unspeakably brutal years as a prisoner of war in Vietnam. Only when human beings confront the most brutal facts of their current reality, while never letting their hopes down, will mankind prevail in the end.
Expanding on the Cradle-to-Cradle concept pioneered by Swiss architect Walter Stahel and his co-author Genevieve Ready (currently Cradle-to-Cradle is a registered trademark of McDonough Braungart Design Chemistry (MBDC) consultants), Dr. Visser emphatically welcomes the cultivation of a “circular economy” – a ‘biomimetic’ process that replaces the current make-take-dispose approach to materials with a make-borrow-return-reuse method. This approach has for emulation nature’s long-evolved, low-waste, energy-conserving processes. Similar to a tree that is born from soil created by other dead trees, grows using local resources, produces fruit or seeds, and dies, but not before creating food and soil for other organisms (a cycle), human beings can make products that are part of an ongoing circular system. Visser also made a stirring and hard hitting documentary called “Closing The Loop” (2018) in which the benefit of a circular economy is elaborately and fascinatingly demonstrated. Today only about 10% of the global economy is circular in nature.
“Thriving” is peppered with inspiring real life examples of the regenerative process that is currently driving sustainability across the globe. Chemical industries such as the behemoth BASF trying to transform themselves by investing in renewables, Bio energy and Carbon Capture and Sequestering and experimenting with Green Hydrogen to combat global warming; asset management giants such as Blackrock pulling away investments from industries that are not committed to battling climate change; companies such as apparel manufacturer Patagonia making it a way of business to sell products that are eco-friendly; Tesla’s sustained push towards environmental sustainability and Orsted’s phenomenal transformation from a fossil fuel company in Denmark to one of the biggest renewables company are some of the more riveting illustrations that make for some fascinating reading.
Visser also paints a very sobering picture by bringing his reader’s attention to the environmental catastrophes that have occurred in the age of the Anthropocene. The Great Barrier Reef is undergoing a dangerous ‘bleaching’ process that threatens to wipe out the coral population. There has been a 67% extinction of various wildlife species since 1970. This makes the restoration of ecosystems an uncompromising necessity. At the COP 26 summit recently concluded at Glasgow, more than 90% of the countries with forests have pledged to stop deforestation and to restore nature to its original form. Plant based food companies like Beyond Meat and Impossible Foods are purveying a healthier lifestyle and preservation of both bio-diversity and animal welfare. Cultured and fermented meat grown in laboratories take away wastage of water, land and lives since cultured meat is manufactured or prepared out of cells taken from live animals instead of killing them.
Diversity and inclusion is a major aspect to which Visser devotes – and rightfully so – ample space in his book. Bemoaning the prevailing gender disparity, Visser explains to his incredulous reader that assuming the current trends were to continue unabated, it would take an absurd 250 years to right all wrongs encompassed by gender disparity! However organisations such as Unilever are showing the way by designating compulsory positions at the Board level for women and elevating feminine talent to its deserved designations. But still, as Visser shows, lots more needs to be done on this front.
“Thriving” is a relevant, necessary and seminal book that could not have come a day sooner than on the date it has been made available for sale. The world is in dire need of a socio-economic transformation and the time to usher in such a paradigm shift is NOW!
In “Thriving”, Dr. Visser galvanizes an enviable repertoire of knowledge in dissecting the intersectionality between humans with nature. Using an ‘umbrella’ or ombudsman terminology, ‘regeneration’, Visser identifies in an innovative manner “six keys to thriving”. The numeral six seems to strike a special resonance with Visser as it appears in various passages and chapters of the book. Every Chapter ends with either a soulful or a mellow dirge, which again bears ample testimony to the multifaceted attributes of its author.
So what exactly are the six keys to thriving? In Visser’s world, complexity, circularity, creativity, coherence, convergence, and continuity form the core components of thriving. Each one of these facets strives and seeks to transform societal notions about work, and life. As the author himself alludes to the fact, the concept of ‘thriving’ envelopes and encompasses the Stockdale Paradox. For the uninitiated, this paradox is named after Admiral James Stockdale who survived seven unspeakably brutal years as a prisoner of war in Vietnam. Only when human beings confront the most brutal facts of their current reality, while never letting their hopes down, will mankind prevail in the end.
Expanding on the Cradle-to-Cradle concept pioneered by Swiss architect Walter Stahel and his co-author Genevieve Ready (currently Cradle-to-Cradle is a registered trademark of McDonough Braungart Design Chemistry (MBDC) consultants), Dr. Visser emphatically welcomes the cultivation of a “circular economy” – a ‘biomimetic’ process that replaces the current make-take-dispose approach to materials with a make-borrow-return-reuse method. This approach has for emulation nature’s long-evolved, low-waste, energy-conserving processes. Similar to a tree that is born from soil created by other dead trees, grows using local resources, produces fruit or seeds, and dies, but not before creating food and soil for other organisms (a cycle), human beings can make products that are part of an ongoing circular system. Visser also made a stirring and hard hitting documentary called “Closing The Loop” (2018) in which the benefit of a circular economy is elaborately and fascinatingly demonstrated. Today only about 10% of the global economy is circular in nature.
“Thriving” is peppered with inspiring real life examples of the regenerative process that is currently driving sustainability across the globe. Chemical industries such as the behemoth BASF trying to transform themselves by investing in renewables, Bio energy and Carbon Capture and Sequestering and experimenting with Green Hydrogen to combat global warming; asset management giants such as Blackrock pulling away investments from industries that are not committed to battling climate change; companies such as apparel manufacturer Patagonia making it a way of business to sell products that are eco-friendly; Tesla’s sustained push towards environmental sustainability and Orsted’s phenomenal transformation from a fossil fuel company in Denmark to one of the biggest renewables company are some of the more riveting illustrations that make for some fascinating reading.
Visser also paints a very sobering picture by bringing his reader’s attention to the environmental catastrophes that have occurred in the age of the Anthropocene. The Great Barrier Reef is undergoing a dangerous ‘bleaching’ process that threatens to wipe out the coral population. There has been a 67% extinction of various wildlife species since 1970. This makes the restoration of ecosystems an uncompromising necessity. At the COP 26 summit recently concluded at Glasgow, more than 90% of the countries with forests have pledged to stop deforestation and to restore nature to its original form. Plant based food companies like Beyond Meat and Impossible Foods are purveying a healthier lifestyle and preservation of both bio-diversity and animal welfare. Cultured and fermented meat grown in laboratories take away wastage of water, land and lives since cultured meat is manufactured or prepared out of cells taken from live animals instead of killing them.
Diversity and inclusion is a major aspect to which Visser devotes – and rightfully so – ample space in his book. Bemoaning the prevailing gender disparity, Visser explains to his incredulous reader that assuming the current trends were to continue unabated, it would take an absurd 250 years to right all wrongs encompassed by gender disparity! However organisations such as Unilever are showing the way by designating compulsory positions at the Board level for women and elevating feminine talent to its deserved designations. But still, as Visser shows, lots more needs to be done on this front.
“Thriving” is a relevant, necessary and seminal book that could not have come a day sooner than on the date it has been made available for sale. The world is in dire need of a socio-economic transformation and the time to usher in such a paradigm shift is NOW!
March 21, 2022
If you are a leader or someone responsible for other lives in this world you need to read and absorb the knowledge of this book.
Professor Wayne Visser has a unique way of writing to the hearts and minds. Firstly, because he presents the facts, the reality, the pros and cons of not engaging with the necessary forces of transformation. Secondly, because he is also a poet. And like a breath of fresh air between one chapter and the other he brings us hope in form of beautifully written words.
Unlike the other also good titles in the subject, he took a step further and present us with 6 forces of transformation. After reading them you will get to the conclusion that you need all of them and we do not have more time to loose. Let's read the book and start to act now!
Professor Wayne Visser has a unique way of writing to the hearts and minds. Firstly, because he presents the facts, the reality, the pros and cons of not engaging with the necessary forces of transformation. Secondly, because he is also a poet. And like a breath of fresh air between one chapter and the other he brings us hope in form of beautifully written words.
Unlike the other also good titles in the subject, he took a step further and present us with 6 forces of transformation. After reading them you will get to the conclusion that you need all of them and we do not have more time to loose. Let's read the book and start to act now!
Read
October 3, 2022The topic of this book interests me. The tone and structure are almost flip, casual, and formulaic, so I admit that I abandoned it at 26%, so I'm not rating it. I know there are more engrossing books about these issues/ideas because I've read them.
March 14, 2022
I have been chipping away at this book for over a month now. Super interesting concepts and subject matter and thoroughly researched but so much information to absorb so I found it best to take my time.
The author defines 'thriving' in several ways but here is one: "allowing nature, society, and the economy to all flourish together, rather than trading one off against the other... making sure that life on earth, in all its glorious diversity, not only survives but also fulfills its vast potential."
What I liked most about this book was the sense of hope it conveys. Thinking about the climate crisis can be overwhelming and invoke feelings of helplessness and despair, but the author is able to break down the overarching problem into several different areas for improvement and innovation. Best of all, he highlights the many companies and industries and individuals that are already working towards a more sustainable future for our world.
At times, I had difficulty following the train of thought due to the scientific jargon and acronyms used but simply looking back to find the definitions easily remedied that. Overall, I found this book to be enlightening, hopeful, and inspiring- a call to action.
While this book seems meant more for leaders in business, if you have a fatalistic view on the climate crisis and sustainability, I recommend reading this one.
The author defines 'thriving' in several ways but here is one: "allowing nature, society, and the economy to all flourish together, rather than trading one off against the other... making sure that life on earth, in all its glorious diversity, not only survives but also fulfills its vast potential."
What I liked most about this book was the sense of hope it conveys. Thinking about the climate crisis can be overwhelming and invoke feelings of helplessness and despair, but the author is able to break down the overarching problem into several different areas for improvement and innovation. Best of all, he highlights the many companies and industries and individuals that are already working towards a more sustainable future for our world.
At times, I had difficulty following the train of thought due to the scientific jargon and acronyms used but simply looking back to find the definitions easily remedied that. Overall, I found this book to be enlightening, hopeful, and inspiring- a call to action.
While this book seems meant more for leaders in business, if you have a fatalistic view on the climate crisis and sustainability, I recommend reading this one.
March 4, 2022
I appreciate the stats offered in this book, but that’s pretty much all the book is - there are very few actionable items for small people like you & I. I assume this book would be most appreciated and useful for big companies, CEO’s, people who can make big change within big companies.
Also, let’s not call Kamala a hero and slam Don.
I assume (and can see) this book will not age well considering it talks current politics & COVID-19.
Also, let’s not call Kamala a hero and slam Don.
I assume (and can see) this book will not age well considering it talks current politics & COVID-19.
December 19, 2022
I thought this book had some great ideas and points in regards to ways we can be more aware of the ways we are doing business and how we can reduce our carbon footprint. The amount of resources, research and thought the author put towards this book is commendable. Corporations should really take notes and action. I'm not sure if I'll see any remarkable changes in my lifetime, but only hope that our future generations are more conscientious in their approach.
This is a honest review in exchange for winning a Goodreads giveaway.
This is a honest review in exchange for winning a Goodreads giveaway.
June 16, 2024
It struck me reading these two back to back that Visser and Rockström have written the same book, just with completely different lenses. Rockström (I had the pleasure of hearing him speak to this latest body of research recently) is presenting the latest climate modelling showing not just how far we’ve overshot our earthly boundaries but what we urgently, as a species, need to double down on. And as with many climate scientists, when the evidence is so clear, you can feel him screaming into the incomprehension wondering why it all has to take so long…. Visser is a huge advocate of a brand of optimism that at first seems other worldly, but which quickly takes hold as you read of what people *are* actually doing all over the world. As he memorably says in a poem “Be an optimist; Not because the future is bright; But because bright people are working; To make the future better”
It’s also the first time I’ve read a book like this where the author digs deep at a spiritual / emotional level and reaches you with poetry. I had the privilege of having Visser as a tutor on a climate & business short course recently and this blend of clear headed, scientific analysis and dogged optimism about our ability to address the challenges Rockström lays down is infectious. So together, this is a pretty perfect way of framing our environment and social challenges. After all, Rockström and his team share something remarkable: the place to start is poverty and equality, not the literal environmental stuff we tend to run towards in richer societies… and Visser gives us the mental models and the frameworks to take this several notches into action.
It’s also the first time I’ve read a book like this where the author digs deep at a spiritual / emotional level and reaches you with poetry. I had the privilege of having Visser as a tutor on a climate & business short course recently and this blend of clear headed, scientific analysis and dogged optimism about our ability to address the challenges Rockström lays down is infectious. So together, this is a pretty perfect way of framing our environment and social challenges. After all, Rockström and his team share something remarkable: the place to start is poverty and equality, not the literal environmental stuff we tend to run towards in richer societies… and Visser gives us the mental models and the frameworks to take this several notches into action.
March 12, 2022
I am happy to say that this book is a jewel for those interested in the latest trends in sustainability innovation and management. Not only because it shows an evolution of the integrated value creation model presented more than 10 years before in Argentina, but also the leadership model that he has been developing since his Phd. In his prologue you will see that he mentions "Hope", something that Jose Luis Borges, the famous argentinian writer also told us in one of his poems, quoted at the Ecumenic Social Forum ceremony awards last year in Argentina and very necessary for the times that we live in today where we all need to thrive.
The book shows how even in a chaotic situation like this, everything can be coped with. Optimism is critical for our societies to create and sustain conditions for increased life in all species. It is not a denial of the scale of the problems the world is facing right now, nor a medical solution or cure or a self-help book, but rather an attempt to marry applicable systems thinking to a pragmatic offer of hope, purposed driven by creativity and innovation. A book under the rules of transformational movements. This last point is the essence of "Thriving". Wayne Visser, besides being an educator is also a poet and a "possibilist", a state of mind and a state of being that the great "change makers" have.
Do not loose the opportunity to have this jewel in your hands, specially for those interested in systems thinking applyed to sustainability and innovation.
The book shows how even in a chaotic situation like this, everything can be coped with. Optimism is critical for our societies to create and sustain conditions for increased life in all species. It is not a denial of the scale of the problems the world is facing right now, nor a medical solution or cure or a self-help book, but rather an attempt to marry applicable systems thinking to a pragmatic offer of hope, purposed driven by creativity and innovation. A book under the rules of transformational movements. This last point is the essence of "Thriving". Wayne Visser, besides being an educator is also a poet and a "possibilist", a state of mind and a state of being that the great "change makers" have.
Do not loose the opportunity to have this jewel in your hands, specially for those interested in systems thinking applyed to sustainability and innovation.
September 8, 2022
I won this book as part of a Goodreads Giveaway.
Although I started out very interested in what this book had to say it quickly drowns you with facts and scientific/business terms and abbreviations. It is a very useful book for somebody that is in a position to make high level changes in a government entity or a business.
It presents amazing ideas on how we need to vastly change the way we approach the economy. It also provides a multitude of explanations for difficult problems we face when trying to tackle things like climate change.
But it was not an easy, or even particularly enjoyable, read.
Although I started out very interested in what this book had to say it quickly drowns you with facts and scientific/business terms and abbreviations. It is a very useful book for somebody that is in a position to make high level changes in a government entity or a business.
It presents amazing ideas on how we need to vastly change the way we approach the economy. It also provides a multitude of explanations for difficult problems we face when trying to tackle things like climate change.
But it was not an easy, or even particularly enjoyable, read.
March 16, 2022
It's great to have a hopeful (but realistic) book about the environment and humanity. There's some great thinking shared here, and I learned some things. It includes 6 keys for thriving, and other short lists of ideas that build a structure for sections. Recommended.
Thanks very much for the free review copy!!
Thanks very much for the free review copy!!
April 1, 2022
I won this book from a GoodReads Giveaway. Just the book I needed to read as it is very optimistic about our future--provided we all do our part to make our culture more sustainable. Then we can work on thriving. Wayne Visser brings together a lot of strands of hopeful changes in manufacturing, economics, and attitude so we can imagine the end result of Thriving is possible.
May 9, 2022
A Basis for Hope
An extensive survey of the movements, the people, and the organizations leading the way into the future. Visser has captured the vision and the action driving the human story forward in our time. It is ultimately the force of life itself that won’t take No for an answer but will persist and find a way around and through.
An extensive survey of the movements, the people, and the organizations leading the way into the future. Visser has captured the vision and the action driving the human story forward in our time. It is ultimately the force of life itself that won’t take No for an answer but will persist and find a way around and through.
May 19, 2022
I received this book from the Goodreads reader giveaway. I want to have hope. My 18 year old is going to school for Environmental Science and Sustainability because he is afraid if something isn't done soon, there will not be hope. I admit after reading this book that I continue to not have faith in humanity, but I do have faith that nature will find a way, albeit without humans....
February 23, 2022
A practical, informative guide to wrangling the environmental and economic crises we currently face. This book is a straightforward reminder that our resources- environmental, economic, mental wellbeing...are interconnected and critical to our survival.
Read
August 13, 2022A very usefull handbook which explains how we can apply models and methods to improve our business towards a circular one. It’s less about why and more about the how and what which makes it realistic and applicable.
March 19, 2022
I could not finish this book after reading a statement made by the author which I wholeheartedly and respectfully would not support.
March 24, 2022
Good
I got this book as a goodreads giveaway. It was well thought out and written. Good ideas on an interesting subject.
I got this book as a goodreads giveaway. It was well thought out and written. Good ideas on an interesting subject.
April 27, 2022
possible
Enlightening in certain aspects. Though the poetry was of uniformly lackluster quality. And some of the praise of leaders here has not aged well in 2022.
Enlightening in certain aspects. Though the poetry was of uniformly lackluster quality. And some of the praise of leaders here has not aged well in 2022.
August 27, 2022
While I like the general thoughts from this book, I feel it relies too much on just us finding technology to solve climate change instead of taking immediate action
December 17, 2022
Maybe wouldn't recommend on audio...it made the poems tied to each section a little joke-y. I wanted to embrace this book but wasn't able to throughout!
May 24, 2023
Not a favorite of non-fiction. I felt it was a lot of nothing.
October 4, 2023
I found this to be a really motivational and inspirational book. It really opened my mind to how interconnected all of these issues are in our world.
July 10, 2023
A must read, considering the climate crisis we're facing! Informative and yet with an optimistic outlook, it also include practical steps to take in helping our environment.
April 8, 2024
I received a copy of this book from the GoodReads givwaway Program. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review.
Displaying 1 - 24 of 24 reviews