A Message From WNSF President Lisa Spiro

Dear Friends and Supporters,

On behalf of the Board of WNSF, I thank you all for your contributions and support throughout 2011. Your continued interest and passion for our mission fuels our purpose and keeps us relevant.

Challenging though the year has been, it has spawned some truly innovative thinking about how we might address the seemingly intractable problems facing our planet and all living systems. Our summit in October revealed a desire to move the “sustainability” and the CSR conversation forward and to create the shift needed to translate responsibility to impact.

My recent conversations with many of you reveal a shared determination to focus on positive change in 2012. So as we move toward a New Year, I urge you to head off on holiday with two books in hand: one is “Capitalism at Risk: Rethinking the Role of Business” by Joe Bower, Herman “Dutch” Leonard and Lynn Sharp Paine, published by Harvard Business Review Press; the other is “New Money for a New World”, Co-authored by Bernard Lietaer and Stephen Belgin, published by Qiterra Press.

Both books are exceptionally well written and thoughtful. They chart different ways in which we might take the conversation forward. Both books demonstrate that corporations have within their grasp, and their power, the ability to change the systems on which we all depend. Some have already committed to this path.

“Capitalism at Risk” is a call to action: a plea to corporations to rethink and redefine their roles and impacts in the free market capitalist system and take a leadership role in creating, reshaping and/or enhancing the systems in which business operates. The authors give excellent examples of initiatives that have had impact. Importantly they also show the depth of the challenges in changing corporate culture and platforms that perpetuate the corrosive aspects of the capitalist system.

At our event at Columbia University’s Earth Institute in late November, we heard systems thinker, currency designer and co-author of “New Money for a New World”, Bernard Lietaer, map out a pragmatic pathway to creating financial, environmental and social stability by rethinking how we define money and by re-engineering our money systems. In this time of currency volatility and declining confidence in traditional systems, Lietaer’s work is a much-needed contribution to the discourse which demands innovative and creative solutions.

What the courageous authors of these books demonstrate are the infinite possibilities that emerge when we challenge the acceptance of the status quo and challenge those with the most to lose to rediscover their creative and entrepreneurial spirit. Surely this is a time for new beginnings.

I look forward to leading WNSF through 2012 and to some new beginnings for us too. Meanwhile, all of us at WNSF wish you and your loved ones a peaceful, joyful and restorative holiday and a very happy New Year.

Warmest regards,

Lisa

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Mission: To advance sustainability through the commitment, talent, and leadership of businesswomen.

Vision: A sustainable future–financially, environmentally and socially–driven by businesswomen worldwide.