When we talk about sustainability, sooner or later all roads lead to the forest. This million-year-old ecosystem is the “hidden champion” of sustainable management: its staying power and evolutionary dynamics are the result of a healthy balance between competition and symbiosis. The forest ecosystem shows how co-operation and communication, symbiosis and the creation of benefits become forces that strengthen individual species and at the same time the entire forest system. Trees, in particular, naturally strive upwards and towards the light. But they don’t grow into the sky…
Optimisation instead of maximisation
As a holistic system, the forest develops through complexity and adaptability. Here, too, there is a struggle for survival and a race for limited resources. In contrast to our economic models, however, the forest does not rely on competition and displacement, but on co-operation and networks. It is about the interplay of elements and the development of the community.
A tree knows: I am not a forest. Only together with other trees can it create a forest climate and grow old. Against this background, everything that sustains life and supports the well-being of all makes sense. In this way, a deficit of a supposedly weak person can suddenly become a strength that ultimately serves everyone. In this respect too, the forest is clearly ahead of the economy and society when it comes to using scarce resources sparingly. Incidentally, no other forms of life are wiped out or fought against in the struggle for existence. If the foxes eat all the hares, at some point they will simply have nothing left to eat.
What does this wisdom mean for your company? Evolution and sustainability can only be achieved through good co-operation. Business cannot be successful in endless growth processes:
- No unlimited growth, better sensible growth
Even if they can, trees do not grow into the sky. They strive for a balanced height-to-diameter ratio within their own ecological limits (at 132 metres, for example, the water supply breaks off and even much lower than this, the protection of the ecosystem is undermined). - No fast growth, better sustainable growth
Trees do not want to grow quickly, they prefer to take their time to grow. If they grow too quickly, they have to exert themselves so much that they run out of breath “in the long run”. But be careful: if trees grow too slowly, they can lose touch and lose out to the competition. - No selfish growth, better joint growth
Your own success is always embedded in the success of the ecosystem. If, on the other hand, you only focus on your own profit, you can overlook important developments and, in the worst case, damage the ecosystem. Do you remember the financial crisis? If banks no longer see themselves as “enablers” of positive economic development and only work to maximise profits, an entire system collapses.
More than a Wood Wide Web
Good interaction between cooperation and competition can only succeed with appropriate communication. The forest has a very special solution for the structures required for this: a holistically networked model, the Wood Wide Web. Neighbouring trees and plants are connected to each other via a network of fungi. The root system of the trees, for example, is thus enlarged up to a hundredfold. The fungi tap nutrients and water with their fine roots and make them available to the tree. In return, the tree offers the fungi the sugar produced through photosynthesis.
More than our man-made World Wide Web, it brings benefits to all participants in addition to the exchange and organises comprehensive cooperation for the common good. For this reason, scientists also refer to it as a network. Trees and fungi benefit most from each other in their network when both are doing well. As in the forest, a co-operative relationship in the network of companies is a prerequisite for the sustainable success of individuals. The outdoor brand Vaude, for example, has consistently optimised the social and ecological aspects of the supply chain in its network for the benefit of all.
Exciting coordination phenomena can also be observed in the forest beyond the mycorrhiza network: For example, deciduous trees “arrange” to flower together in irregular cycles. In the so-called mast years, they then produce much more fruit than in other years. This means that the food supply for wild boar and deer remains unpredictable and they will not multiply as much. In the mast years, the forest animals are also unable to eat all the fruit, so that many seeds germinate the following year and ensure the survival of the next generation of trees. Without attributing natural intelligence to the forest, this system of equal opportunities, competition and evolution works because no one can survive without the others. For Germany’s best-known forester Peter Wohlleben, the forest is even a social community. And sometimes you almost want to believe it a little…
Bonus inspiration for leaders
Sustainable governance needs a reliable, comprehensible and concrete benchmark for action at the corporate level. That’s why we conclude our article with your own personal bonus inspiration to strengthen responsibility and attitude in leadership: Trees are a great way to help you think about yourself. Their “standing” alone has an effect on us: they are deeply rooted and remain unshakeable and upright even in wind and weather. As a result, they give us strength and power. Their grandeur invites us to engage with the complexity of an ecosystem and find new ways of thinking.
Previously published:
The Forest as a Playbook for Sustainable Leadership: Diversity
Sources: Dr Klaus-Stephan Otto, Dr Matthias Nöllke, Peter Wohlleben