Sustainable Futures: What higher education has to offer

Sustainable futures do not exist and must be imagined into existence. For this to happen, a holistic perspective within organisations is needed, one which integrates individual and cultural beliefs about the future with the organisational processes in place to create that future. Spaces need to be provided both within and outside organisations for people to think systematically about the future and apply that thinking to the creation of sustainable futures for their organisations, societies and the planet. This paper applies integral theory (Wilber, 2001) to the concept of sustainable futures in the context of higher education and universities, highlighting the need to value both the tangible and intangible, and both data and imagination, if robust sustainable futures are to be created. The critical role of universities in this process of creating sustainable futures is highlighted, both for themselves and for society in general.