Why We Must
Self-Liberate
from the Systems
We Uphold

Nolita Mvunelo 
Carlos Álvarez Pereira 
Raad Sharar
 Club of Rome

For more than a century, thinkers and organizations have warned that an economy built on relentless growth and resource extraction would ultimately harm both people and the planet. Today, those warnings have become reality. Reports like the World Economic Forum’s Global Risks Report highlight how environmental degradation, social inequality, and economic instability are increasingly interlinked. The 21st century is not just defined by isolated challenges but by a complex web of crises, wars, climate disasters, and food insecurity, all reinforcing each other and deepening divisions in our societies. 

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In response to these crises, many governments, corporations, and institutions have adopted sustainability frameworks. However, instead of rethinking the fundamentals of human progress, these efforts often reproduce the same old patterns of growth, control, and domination. Concepts like “green growth” and the corporatization of sustainability still prioritize expansion and ownership over well-being and equity. This approach creates contradictions: businesses seek to protect nature while still being driven by profit. Sustainable development has become yet another trend of industrialization. Meanwhile, the core problem remains, our systems are built on extraction, and without deeper transformation, we are merely making our destruction more efficient.​

Understanding the Power to Break Free​

For real change to happen, we must understand how power shapes our world. Institutions and dominant ideologies condition us to accept certain ways of living and working as natural or inevitable. The beliefs and norms of the institutions that sustainability professionals represent and uphold are often fundamentally incompatible with the desires and expectations of the people they serve. Sustainability professionals need to challenge power. They need to challenge the institutions that entrench beliefs and norms about human progress and how it happens. We must self-liberate: freeing ourselves from the constraints imposed by outdated systems and reclaiming our ability to define progress on our own terms.

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What Does Self-Liberation Mean?​

Self-liberation is not about placing the burden of change on individuals already struggling within the system. It is about questioning and reshaping the rules, structures, and mindsets that limit our potential. For institutions, this means moving beyond rigid hierarchies and control-driven models to embrace mutual learning, humility, and adaptability. For individuals and communities, it means recognizing their own agency and rejecting imposed limitations. Real transformation happens when those in power listen, learn, and evolve alongside those who have long been ignored or excluded. 

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Collective Action for a New Future ​

Liberation does not happen in isolation. We need to be better at recognising the limitations we place on communities. We must intentionally foster collaboration and solidarity across disciplines, generations, socio-economic realities and cultures. By creating spaces where different perspectives can genuinely interact, without one overpowering the other, we can co-design new systems that prioritize well-being, fairness, and ecological balance. This is not about tweaking what exists; it is about building something fundamentally different. Communities around the world are already leading the way, developing new economic models, governance structures, and ways of living that reflect their realities and aspirations. The role of institutions should not be to dictate solutions but to support and learn from these movements. If we want a future that is truly sustainable, we must have the courage to rethink success, share power, and free ourselves from the very systems that brought us to this crisis in the first place.