Business & Society

Today on Business & Society, we explore the shift from a linear machine economy to a living systems economy and the questions driving the next era of innovation. First, we hear from the architects of a new capitalism: authors, strategists and economists Bruce Piasecki, Bill Novelli, Bill Shireman and Julie Pierce. Second, we hear from defenders of the environment and the built world: sustainability leaders, life-centered designers and climate adaptation specialists Scott Tew, Gordon Lambert, Bruce Mau and Robin Phillips. Finally, we hear from those working directly with the Earth and today's workforce to make these changes real: agricultural leader Colin Steen and business executive Alan Lerchbacker. They are proving that profitability and ecology are no longer mutually exclusive.

(0:00) BRUCE PIASECKI - A New Capitalism

(1:05) Introduction

(1:54) BILL NOVELLI— The Changing Landscape of Capitalism

(2:35) BILL SHIREMAN - Shifting to a Living Systems Economy

(3:31) SCOTT TEW — Overcoming the Myths and Barriers to Climate Action

(4:42) GORDON LAMBERT — We have to collaborate to achieve more powerful outcomes

(5:59) JULIE PIERCE — Embracing Diverse Allies for Change Management

(6:58) BRUCE MAU — Moving Beyond Human-Centered Design

(9:03) COLIN STEEN — The Wisdom of Incremental Change in Farming

(10:11) ALAN LERCHBACKER — Diversity Adds So Much to Your Company

(10:48) ROBIN PHILLIPS - The Future of Climate Adaptation and Migration

(12:08) BRUCE PIASECKI —  True Capital is Social Capital

Episode Website

www.creativeprocess.info/pod

Instagram:@creativeprocesspodcast

Bill Shireman is a policy innovator, a mediator, a man who has spent his career at the intersection of commerce and conservation. He is the President of Solution Citizen and the Curator of theEarthX Congress of Conferences. His latest work is The EarthX Guide to a Circular Economy, and out of that vision comes Circle America—a collaborative group dedicated to transforming how we live and do business. He believes that the transition to a circular economy is not merely technological. It is civilizational. Bill is a pragmatic idealist who has brought together capitalists, environmentalists, progressives, conservatives and community organizers—to find common ground. We explore his life, his ideas, and the future of our planet.

(0:00) Engaging With Your Opponents

(3:04) Founding Future 500

(8:27) Free Market Recycling Solutions

(20:01) Engaging Stakeholders for Impact

(34:37) Shifting to a Living Systems Economy

(39:17) Taxing Pollution Instead of Prosperity

(48:03) Bridging the MAGA and Woke Divide

Episode Website

Season 4 of Business & Society focuses on CEOs, Sustainability & Environmental Solutions
Business & Society is a limited series co-hosted by Bruce Piasecki.

Alan Lerchbacker has spent decades operating at the intersection of engineering, disciplined executive leadership and high-stakes growth. As the first CEO of a then-small US shipbuilding operation, he helped scale the company from a few dozen employees to over a thousand—work that placed him inside the complex realities of defense manufacturing, institutional partnerships and rapid organizational change. Now advising companies as a consultant, he brings a different perspective, one shaped as much by what did not go smoothly as by what did. In this interview, he reflects on the decisions, pressures and leadership shifts that defined that journey.

(0:00) The value of listening and diversity

(1:23) Adapting when variables are out of your control

(2:58) Leading the Challenger recovery operation

(7:38) Base realignment and the Long Beach Naval Shipyard

(11:59) Launching Featherstone and partnering with native tribes

(17:31) Teaming with giants like Boeing and General Dynamics

(19:46) The emotional reality of mergers and acquisitions

(24:22) Future-proofing through generational vision

(26:00) Autonomous ships and the AI revolution in maritime strategy

(39:12) Building a diverse workforce in the shipbuilding industry

Episode Website

Season 4 of Business & Society focuses on CEOs, Sustainability & Environmental Solutions
Business & Society is a limited series co-hosted by Bruce Piasecki.

“I grew up in a pretty unstable time in the 1960s, in the United States. Right now, what's going on in the world is probably even more threatening because of whatever the normal stuff that happens in politics, you've got climate change kind of riding over the top of that. Young people, especially, I think, are very anxious about what the future looks like.”

Today on Business and Society, Bruce Piasecki and I are joined by Ed Saltzberg, Executive Director of the Security and Sustainability Forum, an organization he founded in 2009 to bring global experts together for free, accessible conversations on climate, energy, and community resilience. SSF has now produced more than 400 webinars used by educators, professionals, and students worldwide to stay informed on the evolving challenges shaping our environmental and social future. Ed’s work extends far beyond SSF. Through his Substack, The Stability Brief, and his collaborations with Native American tribes on long-term energy and resilience planning, he weaves together science, civic responsibility, and lived experience. His perspective is grounded in a lifetime of public service—and even a formative 1966 road trip that shaped how he sees a changing planet. Today, we’ll explore what he’s learned, what concerns him, and what practical steps communities can take to build a more stable, sustainable future.

Episode Website

Season 3 of Business & Society focuses on CEOs, Sustainability & Environmental Solutions
Business & Society is a limited series co-hosted by Bruce Piasecki.

“Poetry is the prince of the literary arts to me. It's at the very top because it's language refined to its apex of memorability. I am interested in poetry as memorability and poetry as something you live by. These are the words you live by. These words stay in your brain and guide your life. That's what I am interested in. My memoir slash autofiction is called Borges and Me, and as you know, it's a story of my time in 1970 when my best friend Billy was drafted for the Vietnam War, and so was I. He went to Vietnam, and I went to Scotland to hide out and do my graduate work. I spent nearly seven years in Scotland, but I certainly spent the next five years definitely in Scotland. I was there before as an undergraduate for a bit, too. During that time, Billy was killed in Vietnam, and I was a nervous wreck. My memoir talks about my depression, my anxieties, and then, through my friend Alastair Reid, I met Borges, the great Argentine writer. We went on a little road trip through the Highlands, and this conversation with Borges really restored me back to myself and what was important in life. I felt that I owed a huge amount to that contact with Borges… I was lucky that suddenly, out of nowhere, came a wonderful director-producer named Mark Turtletaub. He had read my book and loved it, and he approached me. We had a conversation, and he said, ‘Look, I want to make this movie.’ So off we went.”

It’s a real pleasure today to welcome a writer whose voice has been a guiding force in American letters for decades. Jay Pariniis the author of acclaimed biographies of literary giants like John Steinbeck, Robert Frost, William Faulkner, and Gore Vidal—as well as an illuminating portrait of Jesus in The Human Face of God. He’s also a celebrated poet, novelist, essayist, and teacher whose work reflects a lifelong devotion to the arts, the humanities, and the power of language to tell the truth, gently. From his poetry to his prose, Jay's writing brings rare insight and deep compassion to the page. He doesn’t just study his subjects—he inhabits them, helps us hear their voices, and see the world through their eyes. And of course, he’s one of the few people who can say they've gotten into the heads of both Jesus and Gore Vidal...and lived to tell the tale.

Episode Website

Season 3 of Business & Society focuses on CEOs, Sustainability & Environmental Solutions
Business & Society is a limited series co-hosted by Bruce Piasecki.

“In an age of seeming isolationism, where some countries tend to isolate, this is such a great way to bring people together. When you're doing music and the arts, all those barriers just fall away. People are just collaborating and having fun. It’s such a bridge-building endeavor. I don't mean that to sound cheesy either, because I just think it is really amazing. They end up being ambassadors who go back to their own country and say, “Wow, I had a great time at this festival in America or in the Netherlands.” It ends up being one more step in our way, with our organization, of trying to connect people together in an age when so many people seem to want to hide out and not connect. We’re big advocates of connecting, and that’s another great reason why I think we love to do this. too.”

Today’s guests are composer Robert Paterson and violinist Victoria Paterson, the visionary duo behind Mostly Modern Festival & Projects, an organization dedicated to celebrating music by living composers through performance, education, and community outreach.

Robert’s work is known for its rhythmic energy, emotional range, and inventive themes—from environmentalism and mythology to technology and modern relationships. Based in Saratoga Springs and NYC, he’s been recognized with numerous honors, including the Classical Recording Foundation’s Composer of the Year at Carnegie Hall and a Grammy® for Three Way. His music is performed by major orchestras and ensembles across the globe and regularly featured on NPR. He is the co-founder and Artistic Director of the Mostly Modern Festival, which takes place in both Saratoga Springs and the Netherlands.

Victoria has built a multifaceted career across classical, Broadway, and commercial music, performing everywhere from Carnegie Hall to The Today Show. As General Director of Mostly Modern Projects, she leads year-round programming that brings music into hospitals, public parks, and senior centers, while also mentoring emerging artists across the country.

Episode Website

Season 3 of Business & Society focuses on CEOs, Sustainability & Environmental Solutions
Business & Society is a limited series co-hosted by Bruce Piasecki.

How can we meet the Paris Climate Accords through Environmental Credit Solutions?

Bill Flederbach is the President & CEO of ClimeCo and is a respected leader in the global environmental commodities market. Following his favorite motto, “To make a difference each day and always do the next right thing,” Bill has created scalable Greenhouse Gas reduction efforts while creating a work culture at ClimeCo that nurtures creativity and empowers his team to embrace an entrepreneurial spirit.

Today, ClimeCo operates at the forefront of an exciting transformation as global businesses, governments, and environmental advocates recognize that market-based solutions are the most efficient way to address environmental challenges. Through his leadership, ClimeCo is well known for its technical role in developing a diverse portfolio of environmental credits and for providing Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) solutions for clients navigating a path to a more sustainable future. He is passionate about supporting clients’ success while encouraging new practices and technologies that will benefit all.
Insights for Impact

Episode Website

Season 3 of Business & Society focuses on CEOs, Sustainability & Environmental Solutions
Business & Society is a limited series co-hosted by Bruce Piasecki.

Gordon Lambert shares insights from his decades-long journey, addressing his roles, strategies, and contributions to environmental change and corporate evolution.

Lambert has been engaged in business and sustainability in the energy sector for 40 years. In 2015, Lambert was appointed by the Premier and Cabinet to the five-person panel that designed the Alberta Climate Leadership Plan. In 2016, he chaired the Alberta Climate Leadership Technology and Innovation Task Force, with $1.4 billion in carbon levy revenue being committed to innovation as an outcome. He also serves on the Export Development Canada CSR advisory council and as the Suncor Energy and Sustainability Executive in Residence at the Ivey Business School.“The number one most powerful place to intervene in a system is mindsets. Collaboration is a joint effort to achieve common goals. That's needed more than ever in this world we are in, with these large, significant problems that no one entity can solve on their own. But it's a higher bar than cooperation. I term cooperation or define it as the pursuit of individual interests jointly. You can feel the difference between collaboration, where everyone has skin in the game, there are no free riders, and everyone's pulling on the oars together.”

Season 3 of Business & Society focuses on CEOs, Sustainability & Environmental Solutions
Business & Society is a limited series co-hosted by Bruce Piasecki.

How did a century-old power company become a leader in renewable energy? How can industrial giants adapt to cleaner power? What role are women leaders and community initiatives playing in the renewable energy transition?

Julie Pierce stands as a beacon of innovation and foresight in the energy sector. As Vice President of Strategy and Planning for Minnesota Power, a part of the Allete family, she’s helping transform the landscape of renewable energy with a focus on sustainable development and community collaboration.

"Minnesota Power and its customers in Northeast Minnesota made the decision about a decade ago to start moving in this direction. We wanted to ensure that we took the right time, pace, and path that was thoughtful for our customers and communities to transform. Through the past decade of hard work with our communities and customers, and leveraging new technology in wind, solar, and hydro, we transformed from a 95% fossil-fuel-based portfolio to 50-60% clean energy. Essentially, in the last decade, we've worked to reduce our carbon emissions by half and increase our renewable energy production by 50-60%. It has been a very exciting time. We had over 50% of our board members as women for well over a decade. So we started at the top and then with our leadership teams. The promotion of a diverse, collaborative discussion on any topic within our organization has been paramount."

Season 3 of Business & Society focuses on CEOs, Sustainability & Environmental Solutions
Business & Society is a limited series co-hosted by Bruce Piasecki.

Gordon Lambert shares insights from his decades-long journey, addressing his roles, strategies, and contributions to environmental change and corporate evolution.

Lambert has been engaged in business and sustainability in the energy sector for 40 years. In 2015, Lambert was appointed by the Premier and Cabinet to the five-person panel that designed the Alberta Climate Leadership Plan. In 2016, he chaired the Alberta Climate Leadership Technology and Innovation Task Force, with $1.4 billion in carbon levy revenue being committed to innovation as an outcome. He also serves on the Export Development Canada CSR advisory council and as the Suncor Energy and Sustainability Executive in Residence at the Ivey Business School.

From November 2018 to April 2020, he served as the interim CEO of the Alberta Energy Regulator (AER). For 17 years, he led Suncor Energy’s sustainability strategy, innovation, and embedding efforts, retiring in January 2015. He played a key role in the design and creation of Canada’s Oil Sands Innovation Alliance (COSIA), involving a globally unique collaboration model, that has resulted in the sharing of $1.3 billion worth of intellectual property to accelerate environmental performance improvement.

Season 3 of Business & Society focuses on CEOs, Sustainability & Environmental Solutions
Business & Society is a limited series co-hosted by Bruce Piasecki.