About David Bent

David is just starting the Atelier for What’s Next, a studio for developing initiatives, institutions and more for a sustainable world (‘What’s needed? What’s ready? What can we do? What next?’). This builds on his experiences as a strategy advisor, catalyst and facilitator on sustainability.

He worked for 13 years at global NGO Forum for the Future, helping leading corporates be more successful by creating a better world.

Since 2016 he has been exploring ‘what can we do in these powerful times?’ (now a podcast) through portfolio of activities, including:

• Edmund Hillary Fellowship (a community of 500+ innovators committed to New Zealand as a basecamp for global impact).
• Trustee (and previously Chair), EIRIS Foundation (‘pioneering the next steps for sustainable finance).
• Honorary Lecturer at the UCL Institute for Sustainable Resources (also with a podcast of practitioners telling stories of innovation for sustainability).

Above version from May 2023.

The version below from 2016:

I’m current exploring ways of advising, initiating and/or leading institutional interventions that accelerate the evolution of our global society toward a sustainable footing.

To find out what I’m currently doing, please see my now page.

What does that mean?

My purpose*. Part of a generation that puts global society on a sustainable footing, based on a ‘living system’ paradigm-in-action.

• People have capabilities they need to choose how they want to thrive.
• Social and planetary systems no longer over-whelmed.

 

My role*. Be part of the ‘innovation function’ we need to accelerate the evolution of how society is organised, meaning:

• The interplay of economics, law, politics and more that set the operating context for activities, both formally economic and beyond, of individuals and organisations.
• The dominant beliefs which are expressed in that interplay.

 

What’s next*. Make strategic contributions to institutional intervention(s) that accelerate that evolution by testing ways to put a ‘living system’ paradigm into practice.

 

By ‘institutional intervention’, I mean an organisation that is a systemic effort to evolve towards living systems-in-practice. It could be single issue or wide-ranging, large or small, existing or new. The key thing is that it is testing and demonstrating a way of being that is deeply rooted in a living system paradigm, and so, if successful, opens up a path to a sustainable footing.

 

And my ‘strategic contribution’ could be advising as a consultant, initiating as an entrepreneur or leading as a senior executive.

 

*=my current understanding, which I’m sure will evolve with experiences. 

 

 

My story. My career direction comes out of working at Forum for the Future, the independent non-profit working globally with business, government and other organisations to solve complex sustainability challenges, from 2003-2016.

 

For the last few years I’ve been leading Forum’s work with business, especially on how companies can be more successful by creating a sustainable future. I’ve also been a member of the Senior Management Team, part of setting strategy, making operational decisions, and running the Sustainable Business team.

 

For the last two years I’ve been a Policy Fellow at the Centre for Science and Policy in the University of Cambridge. I was asking ‘what is the role of business in the transition to a global sustainable economy?’.