Developing a Sustainable Employee-Owned Chemical Company

Abstract

While the governance model of employee-owned organizations seems to predispose them for more naturally embracing all components required for creating sustainable systems, this chapter highlights the challenges such a ownership model can face on its way toward sustainability in the real case experience of a mid-size multinational company operating in the manufacturing sector. It describes the challenges needed to be addressed, where to intervene in the system using Meadows’s model, how to intervene from visioning to assessment, planning, and progress monitoring, what outcomes have been achieved, and what are the key learning and the main system archetypes encountered through that journey.