It translates complex system dynamics into an eight-step approach that can be applied in any sector.
The core message is simple: today’s sustainability crises are not random. They are the predictable outcome of how markets are organised. As long as the underlying “rules of the game” stay the same, we will keep getting the same unsustainable results.
By building on the earlier book Changing the Food Game and expanding its logic to the wider economy, Lucas Simons and André Nijhof show that most sustainability problems stem from the same four system loops. Because these loops are similar across sectors, the strategies to address them are also remarkably similar.
The book is organised into five parts:
The defining challenge of the next decades is to become sustainable within planetary boundaries and social limits.
Current sustainability problems are not accidents. They are the expected outcome of four system loops.
These loops are the rules of the game. If they do not change, the outcome will not change.
More projects, pilots and donations will not fix root causes if the rules remain the same.
To get a different outcome, we must change the rules of the game.
This requires more systemic strategies and letting go of narrow, project based thinking.
Sustainable market transformation moves through four phases of maturity. In each phase different actors must take different actions.
Winning strategies depend on knowing who should do what and when, and when certain actions have outlived their usefulness.
Solving sustainability challenges is not only about more money or technology, but about better organisation and leadership in the system.
We need more people who step up to lead sustainable change, both systemically and personally.
Lucas Simons
Founder of NewForesight and SCOPEinsight, with more than 20 years of experience in business and sustainable leadership. Lucas is an award winning advisor to organisations such as the World Economic Forum, Ashoka and the Clinton Global Initiative.
He is the author of Changing the Food Game (2014) and co-author of Changing the Game (2020) and is known for delivering real system change in global value chains.
André Nijhof
Professor of Sustainable Business and Stewardship at Nyenrode Business Universiteit. André focuses on embedding sustainable entrepreneurship into core business processes.
He leads several executive education programmes and teaches in MSc and MBA programmes at Nyenrode. He has supervised numerous PhD studies and authored and co-authored many publications on sustainability and stewardship.
