ABSTRACT
The root cause of much unsustainable practice is attitude, lack of priority, busy-ness, ignorance, habit, short-sightedness, despondence, fear, laziness or combinations of the above. Changing the culture of an organisation is one of the key management challenges. When it is done correctly, the results can be dramatic. The uptake of Total Quality Management (TQM) in Japan has led to the country leading in the motor vehicle and photographic/optical equipment sectors, despite having no natural resources and very high labour costs. One of the key planks of TQM is that quality becomes everyone's responsibility, it needs to be embedded into the organisation. The stages are largely self-explanatory and the challenge for most organisations is to make the leap from the 'Management Systems' level, where environmental issues are 'managed' in a green silo, up to 'Total Sustainability' where sustainability is embedded into the organisation.
