Articles March 22, 2010 By Michelle Strutzenberger AI linked with sustainability drives innovation, creates business value. Appreciative Inquiry (AI) is the transformative element in the seismic shift occurring in the U.S. dairy industry as leaders of more than 30 key dairy organizations blaze the way towards a vision of reducing greenhouse gas emissions from fluid milk 25 per cent by the year 2010. Ten projects worth a quarter of a billion dollars in business opportunity are in the process of being activated which will begin the realization of the vision. “I definitely think (AI) has been a game-changer in our industry,” says director of social and environmental innovation for Dairy Management Inc. Erin Fitzgerald. Pointing to the volunteer army of plus 400 who have supported the dairy industry’s sustainability commitment to date, the CEO leadership heading up the projects and an additional 600 stakeholders who have lent their support and expertise to the vision, Fitzgerald says AI “was the only thing that made it happen.” In 2008, a group of 250 participants met with pioneer of the AI methodology David Cooperrider to consider how AI and sustainability could drive innovation and business value for the industry. Fitzgerald says two of their activities were particularly instrumental in triggering change. One was establishing an aligning vision for the industry. Reads the Full Article Tags in this article Sustainability
