[A Sip of Books] Is ESG Different in the English-Speaking World?

Some sentences encapsulate the entire content of the book itself, while others instantly reach the reader's heart and create a point of connection with the book. We introduce such meaningful sentences excerpted from the book. - Editor's note

It helps to understand the somewhat complex ESG system through various charts and easy examples. It contains content on why Anglo-American ESG investors recommend systems thinking and call it the beginning of ESG. First published in 2008, it gained attention to the extent that a UK government agency designated it as a must-read book.

For example, hunger, poverty, environmental destruction, economic instability, unemployment, chronic diseases, drug addiction, and war hardly disappear no matter how much we apply analytical skills and excellent technology to eradicate them. No one deliberately created them, nor does anyone wish for them to persist, but these problems never disappear. This is because these problems are essentially system problems. In other words, although they are not desirable forms, these problems arise as characteristics of the system structure. Only when we regain intuition, stop shifting responsibility, see the system as the cause of the problem, and have the wisdom and courage to rebuild the system can we finally suppress these problems.

- From the Preface

Schools are systems. Cities, factories, companies, and national economies are all systems. Animals are systems, and trees are systems. Forests are larger systems that include subsystems such as trees and animals. The Earth is a system, and the solar system is a system. The galaxy is the same. Systems can be included within other systems. Is there anything that is not a system? Yes. A complex without special interconnections or functions is not a system. Sand scattered randomly on the road is not a system. Whether you remove some sand or add more, there is just sand on the road. But if you arbitrarily remove or add elements of a soccer player or the digestive system, the system immediately changes.

- From the Basic Law of Systems, ‘The whole is greater than the sum of its parts’

The ability of a system to make its structure more complex is called self-organization. Mechanical self-organization on a small scale appears in snowflakes, frost on poorly insulated house windows, and crystals suddenly formed in supersaturated solutions. More profound self-organization is found when seeds sprout, babies learn to speak, or neighbors unite to oppose toxic waste.

Self-organization is especially common in living systems, so it is an attribute we take for granted. If we did not take self-organization for granted, we would be dazzled by how systems in our world unfold. And if we realize the attribute of self-organization, we will be better at encouraging the self-organizing ability of the systems we are part of rather than destroying it.

- From Why Systems Work Well, ‘Self-Organization’

Systems Rules for Reading ESG and the World | Donella H. Meadows | Translated by Kim Heeju | Sejong Books | 340 pages | 19,000 KRW

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.