Use your imagination and stop playing too safe

I have spent the past two decades navigating the shifting currents of the corporate world, working with countless organisations and clients to tackle the complexities of doing business in a climate crisis. Executives that learned business school approved playbooks that worked 50 years ago have been thrust into the unknown.

While the private sector can be a powerful tool for good, it’s also true that its ability to make a difference has its limits. I’ve seen companies across all sectors adhering to incremental, often superficial, changes that failed to address systemic issues, exposing a frustrating sustainability gap between corporate rhetoric and reality.

These organisations have good intentions but too often play it safe instead of wielding their economic influence to make lasting environmental and social changes. Instead of turning challenge into opportunity, they remain risk-averse and unimaginative – and we’re running out of time.

Business as usual isn’t working. In recent years, corporate leaders have signed up to ever more ambitious targets, but the climate catastrophe is still very much upon us. In many parts of the world, inequality and social injustice is growing. We’re now past the halfway mark for achieving the Sustainable Development Goals – a UN-sponsored blueprint “for people and the planet,” a set of targets to achieve by 2030 – and only 17 per cent of the goals are on track.   

One of the greatest barriers to meaningful climate action may be a lack of imagination. The status quo feels so entrenched that it is difficult to envision a different future. When we think about solving the most pressing issues of our time, we tend to focus on the obvious actors — governments, corporations, scientists, and activists. We propose new regulations, green technologies and corporate sustainability initiatives to reduce emissions and transition to a low-carbon, more equitable future. But there is another, often overlooked, force that has the potential to be truly transformative: arts and culture.

We often see narratives about climate change that focus on technical challenges – understandably so, considering the scale of the problem – while downplaying the human dimensions of a problem that affects us all. Perhaps when we’ve been looking for leaders, we’ve been looking in the wrong places. Perhaps, instead of looking only at boardrooms and government buildings, we should also be looking at our stages. Perhaps, instead of waiting for CEOs politicians and economists to save the world, we should be paying attention to our artists as well.

That’s the idea that led the Sydney Opera House to the UN Global Compact, a sustainability movement made up mostly of private businesses, large and small, from 167 countries. The Opera House is the first major arts organisation in the world to join this initiative – and in doing so, reinforcing the importance of creativity as a central part of the global conversation, a chance to share knowledge and collaborate between sectors and different areas of expertise.

The opportunity was inspired by the promise of the building itself. Fifty years after it opened its doors, changing the face of the city around it and challenging tired conventions, the Opera House still connects with the community every day through the power of storytelling. This is the message that comes through in Tim Minchin’s short film, Play it Safe, which celebrated the Opera House’s 50th anniversary. As I watched the film, carried along by its catchy melodies and joy, I wondered, as I reflected on the deeper meanings behind the lightness, why these people didn’t have a bigger voice in a global conversation that affects us all.

From Guernica to Mad Max, artists articulate abstract issues into stories that connect with our lives, moving people from passive awareness to active engagement. Arts and culture can be challenging. It can bring us face-to-face with uncomfortable truths and then create space for conversation to help us imagine new possibilities and inspire us to believe that transformative change is not only necessary but can also be joyful and achievable. This is particularly important in a time of climate fatigue and despair when so many people feel powerless in the face of this challenge.

In recent years, there’s been a rise in art projects and cultural movements that highlight the voices of those most affected by climate change. Indigenous artists, for example, are using traditional art forms and modern media to express connections to land and their fight against environmental degradation. These cultural expressions are not just about raising awareness — they’re about reclaiming power, mobilising action and demanding justice in the face of a global crisis.

The climate crisis is a human challenge, one that asks us to change the way we relate to the world around us, the values we prioritise and the stories we tell about our place in the natural environment. Artists can play a pivotal role in shaping this necessary cultural transformation, helping to mobilise collective action and catalyse deeper, more meaningful engagement with the environmental and social issues of our time.

As the world approaches the 2030 deadline for the SDGs, there’s never been a more urgent need for the kind of imaginative thinking and bold action that brought the Opera House to life more than five decades ago. Who better to bring us together and bring into sharp focus the challenges that confront us and the opportunities that await us for a more sustainable future than the risk-takers, visionaries and storytellers – the arts and the artists themselves?

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