Looking back on the experiences that brought me to where I am today, I can truly say I am living a spectacular life. My grandfather taught me the importance of hard work, and my parents always told me I could achieve anything that I set my mind to. With many setbacks in my younger years, I learned the importance of starting over. These three elements; work hard, believe in yourself, and don’t be afraid to stumble, have been incredibly valuable throughout m 49 years on this earth.

I moved to Switzerland in 2008 not knowing a single word of French. I traveled all around Europe trying to change the way work got done in a company in the grip of shareholder primacy. I began to realize that my road warrior work life was not sustainable, for me or for my company. A decision had to be made. After quitting our comfortable corporate lives, my wife and I created the first B Corporation certified craft brewery in Europe. Why? Because we wanted to learn how to build a sustainable business.

Today, our brewery 7Peaks Brasserie is a wonderful example of a company that puts people, planet, and profit of equal importance. It isn’t perfect, but getting better every day. During the journey of creating a sustainable business, we learned lots. For example, hierarchy based on power and status will not endure. Allowing people to impose their way of doing things in order to move forward collectively is mandatory. It is also very difficult… for everyone!

While our sustainable brewery in the Swiss Alps is moving along nicely, I find myself in a position where my work is no longer sustainable. Over the past ten years I have been working hard. The physical demands of a craft brewery are significant, and I went too far. I just received a prosthetic hip, and the second one is imminent. Conclusion; I can not sustain the physical demands of a craft brewery. I need to pass the baton on to a new crew of brewers and focus my energy on the future.

This leads me to the next phase in my work life. There is a large gap in current research on sustainability. Currently, sustainability efforts are focused primarily on planet-based improvements. While this is great, an important piece is not getting its time in the spotlight… people. While some companies are social enterprises with business plans that respond to a social need, the majority of companies work in developed economies and feel they don’t need to worry about people. This is wrong!

People are at the center of everything we do. Companies make products FOR people. Most of the time, these products are made BY people. And all of the waste generated throughout this process is passed on TO people. We can’t talk about sustainability without talking about large scale systemic change.  And we can’t talk about large systemic change without talking about the behaviours that make the system work.

It is time to start talking about our behavioral changes necessary for a sustainable future. By transforming our beliefs and attitudes into sustainable actions, we can all make the world a better place.