Essays exploring 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?
These essays are my attempt to explore that question in public.
Some revisit ideas we have long accepted.
Some examine the assumptions shaping organisational decisions.
Some look ahead to the challenges artificial intelligence presents as it begins inheriting today’s sustainability thinking.
All are part of the same inquiry.
Begin Here
If you are new to this work, these three essays provide the best introduction.
Featured Essays
LATEST EPISODE: #3 — Do We All Mean the Same Thing When We Use the Word “Sustainability”?
New
Two people can use exactly the same word and mean completely different things.
Using the familiar example of “football” in Britain and the United States, Ken Alston explores why one of the most common words in business may also be one of the most misunderstood.
EPISODE: #2 What Sustainability Was Meant to Mean
Before we can improve sustainability, we need to know what we mean by it.
EPISODE: #1 Why Has Sustainability Produced So Much Activity… Yet So Little Transformation?
The opening essay of The Inquiry..
Why The Inquiry Exists
For more than forty years, one question has guided my work:
Why has business sustainability produced so much activity—and yet so little transformation?
The Inquiry is where I explore that question in public.
Some essays revisit ideas we have long accepted. Others challenge assumptions that have quietly shaped business thinking for decades. Together they document an evolving body of work that asks better questions before proposing better answers.
The Inquiry is not a marketing campaign or a collection of blog posts.
It is the public continuation of a conversation that began long before these essays—and one I hope will continue well beyond them.
Latest Essays
- What Are You Trying to Sustain?
- Why Has Sustainability Produced So Much Activity… Yet So Little Transformation
- Digital Twin in Manufacturing: Strategy, Risk, and Value | Circularity Edge
- Latest AI News September 2025: Hidden Risks Revealed
- ESG and Corporate Social Responsibility Risks | Circularity
September
📚 Our Common Future—Now . Read the Prologue
📚 Perfectly Wrong . Read the 38 Questions.
Continue the Conversation
If these essays resonate with your own experience, there are several ways to continue the inquiry.
Read the books
Explore the complete arguments developed in Our Common Future—Now, Perfectly Wrong, and Real Circularity. Books.
Work With Ken
If your organisation is experiencing the gap between serious sustainability commitment and limited transformation, let’s begin a conversation.
Subscribe to The Inquiry
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