Bringing together a powerful group of leading educational thinkers, including Michael Fullan, Dennis Sparks, Linda Lambert, and Dean Fink, this volume examines how to sustain improvement through shared leadership.

If we can carry in our pockets more computing power than the Apollo program needed to put a man on the moon, why can't we solve problems like climate change, famine, or poverty? The answer lies, in part, in the distinctive challenges of creating innovations that address today's pressing environmental and social problems. In this groundbreaking book, Andrew Hargadon shows why sustainable innovation—the development of financially viable products that support a healthy environment and communities—is so difficult when compared to creating the next internet ventures or mobile apps that disregard these criteria. While other books treat innovation across sectors equally, Hargadon argues that most effective innovation strategies hinge on attention to the context in which they are pursued. Instead of relying on a stale set of "best practices," executives must craft their own strategies based on the particulars of their industries and markets. But, there are some rules of the road that foster a triple bottom line; this book provides a research-based framework that outlines the critical capabilities necessary to drive sustainable innovation: a long-term commitment, nexus work, science and policy expertise, recombinant innovation, and robust design. Sustainable Innovation draws on a wide range of historical and contemporary examples to show business readers and their companies how to stand on the shoulders of successful pioneers.

Global trends such as climate change, digitalisation, enhanced concepts of democracy and the consequences of the 2008 financial crisis are changing the playing field of cities across the world. Urban development objectives are shifting away from being purely concerned with wealth creation and competitiveness, to increasingly combining social and environmental dimensions. In this context, how can cities influence and sustain their competitive position over time? Which new types of urban strategies are emerging, and which organising capacities are proving the most important? This book provides insight into the complex issue of delivering sustainable competitiveness by analysing a number of innovative urban development strategies in context. Questions and topics addressed include: how can new legacies of city events be secured; how can clean technology industries be nurtured through urban regeneration initiatives; and how can the impact of urban safety strategies be enhanced? These and other pivotal questions are explored through close attention to the enabling factors linking ideas with results, such as distributed leadership, collaboration, communication and experimentation. Combining case studies from Europe, Africa, South America and Southeast Asia, the book provides a truly international perspective on the potentials and limitations of a new generation of urban development and competitiveness strategies.

Urban governance and sustainability are rapidly becoming key issues around the world. Currently three billion people - half the population of the planet - live in cities, and by 2050 a full two-thirds of the world's population will be housed in ever larger and increasingly densely populated urban areas. The economic, social and environmental challenges posed by urbanization on such a large scale and at such a rapid pace are staggering for local, regional and national governments working towards sustainability. Solutions to the myriad problems plaguing the quest for sustainability at the city-level are equally as diverse and complex, but are rooted in the assumptions of the 'sustainability agenda', developed at the Rio Earth Summit and embodied in Local Agenda/Action 21. These assumptions state that good governance is a necessary precondition for the achievement of sustainable development, particularly at the local level, and that the mobilization of local communities is an essential part of this process. Yet until now, these assumptions, which have guided the policies and programmes of over 6000 local authorities around the world, have never been seriously tested. Drawing on three years of field research in 40 European towns and cities, Governing for Sustainable Cities is the first book to examine empirically the processes of urban governance in sustainable development. Looking at a host of core issues including institutional and social capacity, institutional design, social equity, politics, partnerships and cooperation and creative policy-making, the authors draw compelling conclusions and offer strong guidance. This book is essential reading for policy-makers, politicians, activists and NGOs, planners, researchers and academics, whether in Europe, North America, Australasia or transitional and developing countries, concerned with advancing sustainability in our rapidly urbanizing world.

Given the multidisciplinary nature of our object of study, sustainability, we have divided this book into twelve chapters. In the first four, we cover the content required to learn how to start a business and create companies based on sustainability. The following chapters provide guidance to help translate sustainability strategies across cultures. These processes are analyzed through the Triple Bottom Line perspective, which effectively describes the primary objectives of sustainability. The last chapters analyze current trends in sustainable development, framing education as a powerful tool to facilitate the transition to more sustainable forms of development. Through these chapters, the understanding of the theoretical concepts is facilitated and examples of sustainable enterprises are made available to the reader that serves as a reference and that allow the development of practical activities.