Ken Alston
Forty Years. One Question
For more than forty years, one question has guided my work.
Why has business sustainability produced so much activity—and yet so little transformation?
That question has taken me from multinational business, through
sustainable design, the circular economy, executive leadership, and now into the deeper assumptions that shape organizational decisions before strategy is ever discussed.
It continues to guide every book I write, every keynote I deliver, and every organization I advise.
The Inquiry
Most people know me through sustainability.
Some through the circular economy.
Others through Cradle to Cradle®, leadership, executive advisory or my writing.
To me, these have never been separate disciplines.
They have all been different expressions of the same inquiry.
Over four decades I have worked with businesses, governments and organisations seeking to create positive environmental, social and economic outcomes.
Again and again I encountered talented people, sincere commitment and well-designed initiatives.
Yet the overall trajectory changed far less than many of us expected.
That observation became the question that now defines my work.
Not how to build better sustainability strategies.
But why organisations repeatedly struggle to translate good intentions into enduring transformation.
Many of these ideas are explored further in my weekly essays in Insights.
The Journey
My professional journey has included:
- Twenty years with SC Johnson, one of the world’s most respected family-owned companies.
- Seventeen years working alongside William McDonough and Dr. Michael Braungart, pioneers of the Cradle to Cradle® design framework.
- Advising organisations across business, government and civil society on sustainability, circular economy and organisational transformation.
- Co-authoring Real Circularity with Rachel S. Kan.
- Writing Our Common Future—Now and Perfectly Wrong.
Each chapter contributed another piece of the same puzzle.
What Forty Years Revealed
The longer I worked in sustainability, the less convinced I became that the greatest barriers were technical.
Businesses already had access to better technologies.
Better reporting.
Better design.
Better frameworks.
What interested me increasingly was why organisations with capable people and similar tools often produced remarkably different long-term outcomes.
That question led me beneath strategy itself.
Today my work focuses on helping leaders understand what has been shaping their sustainability decisions before strategy begins.
Current Work
Today my work centres on four areas.
Executive Advisory
Helping leadership teams identify the hidden barriers limiting long-term transformation.
Keynote Speaking
Speaking internationally on sustainable business, organisational change and the future relationship between sustainability and artificial intelligence.
Writing
Developing ideas through books, essays and The Inquiry, my ongoing exploration of the questions shaping the next generation of sustainable business.
The Circularity Catalyst Podcast
Conversations with many of the world’s leading thinkers and practitioners exploring the future of business and stewardship.
The Circularity Catalyst
Books
My current body of work explores one inquiry from three different perspectives.
Real Circularity
Turning circular economy theory into business reality.
Our Common Future—Now
Why sustainability reached its ceiling—and what comes next.
Perfectly Wrong
When artificial intelligence inherits assumptions no one has examined.
Looking Ahead
KThe next chapter of this work will be launched at the Real Circularity Summit Live in London in September 2026.
It marks not the conclusion of forty years of inquiry, but the beginning of a new conversation about the future of business, stewardship and the conditions required for life to flourish.
Continue the Conversation
If these questions resonate with your own experience, I’d be delighted to continue the conversation.
Whether through a keynote, an executive advisory engagement or simply an initial discussion, every meaningful transformation begins with a better question.