Building sustainability leadership from the bottom up: Ma 間 and the power of many

This chapter explores how leaders act to meet local needs and achieve organizational goals that contribute to sustainability. Examining local leaders’ personal commitments, skillful practices, and shared purposes to create change, the authors use the Japanese aesthetic and concept of Ma 間 as a heuristic to identify this phenomenon as Ma 間 leadership. In the same way that white space – what appears as emptiness in design – is conceived of as an energy that gives life, Ma 間 identifies leadership that is powerful and real, giving life to the form of interactions, but not necessarily visible unless perceived. The space – seen usually to be white space which appears unoccupied, is full of possibilities and promises. The chapter argues that leaderful groups, more than individual leaders, hold this same capacity for possibility and in engaging in sustainable innovations in practices, processes, functions, and policy adaptations that are critical to significant societal change. This group dynamism enables a different and more encompassing perspective of sustainability leadership that frames local sustainability efforts as well as partnerships for sustainable development and enables powerful forces directed at sustainable and just futures for humanity and the planet.