Dr. Marco Tavanti, University of San Francisco
Dr. Marco Tavanti, University of San Francisco

Dr. Marco Tavanti
Professor of Leadership
MNA Program Director

School of Management
University of San Francisco

Developing Sustainability in Organizations: A Values-Based Approach

Palgrave Macmillan Cham, 2023

This book explores the historical, foundational, and applied elements of sustainability theory and practice as relevant to the leadership, management, and innovation of organizations, companies, and enterprises. It provides analytical and critical reviews of the current evolution of sustainability for people, planet, prosperity, innovation, and impact.

Divided into four parts, the work offers an integrated model of development for creating and delivering sustainability values at the personal, organizational, societal, and environmental levels. The different sections examine sustainability leadership (focusing on of ethics, values, and purpose), sustainability management (focusing on organizational effectiveness and stakeholders’ wellbeing), sustainability innovation (focusing on social and environmental entrepreneurship), and sustainability impact (focusing on resilience, interconnectedness, consciousness, systemic thinking, and cosmic empathy for the common good and common future).

Combining theoretical and practical applications that give the reader a deeper, scientific, and critical understanding of the urgent, complex, and necessary values for a sustainable future for all, this comprehensive text is a must-read for researchers and students alike, providing a framework for effective globally responsible leadership.

Dr. Marco Tavanti is a sustainability and leadership international scholar whose experience stretches over 30 years and whose work has taken him to more than 18 countries in Europe, East Africa, Southeast Asia, and Latin America. Dr. Tavanti’s teaching in sustainable development, leadership ethics, intercultural diversity, and NGO management is grounded in Jesuit values and his scholarship is an embodiment of the University’s mission to be of service to humankind.

Dr. Tavanti is a systems thinker whose scholarship aims at providing practical and integrated solutions to issues in international development and poverty reduction. His research methods are participatory in nature and directed at building international capacity in leaders, organizations, and institutions. Through his teaching he inspires globally engaged leaders while building professional capacity through international managerial skills across sectors.

He is President of the Sustainable Capacity International Institute (SCII-ONLUS) and CEO of its subsidiary SDG.services. He is co-founder of the World Engagement Institute (WEI), an international organization providing capacity development services for sustainable human security. He designed and directed various professional training programs on sustainable community development, indigenous human rights, anti-human trafficking and refugee service management. He has been consulting and collaborating with United Nations agencies such as the Development Programme (UNDP), the Global Compact (UNGC), the Refugee Agency (UNHCR) and the Food and Agricultural Organization (FAO). Through his engagement with the UN Global Compact he contributed to the development of the Principles of Responsible Management Education (PRME) and the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).