Years ago I was at a regional sustainability workshop and the facilitators made the mistake of giving each table a blank flipchart to list our priorities.* One lady in our group from a conservation group promptly slammed a fat file of newspaper clippings and internet print-outs on the table and commenced a lengthy rant against wind turbines, oblivious and impervious to all attempts to change the subject.

More recently we’ve had the big debate about climate change vs local air quality – I’m one of those who went diesel in the drive to cut carbon emissions, but at the expense of other pollutants. Of course the anti-climate change brigade have jumped on this as an example of ‘green idiocy’.

And I’m sure we’ve all come across minds which are fixed in the concrete of “sustainability = reduced profits” despite all evidence to the contrary.

In all three cases, progress gets stuck on the spike of a false ‘OR’. We can have renewable energy AND protect the countryside, we can tackle climate change AND local air quality, we can be sustainable AND turn a healthy profit. But those ORs must swap to ANDs or we’ll be stuck on the start line.

* if you want to learn how to avoid workshops going wrong like this, check out our Workshop Masterclass.