Prof. Ana Carolina Aguiar, researcher at FGV EAESP and independent consultant and Prof. Fernanda Carreira, Head of the FGV EAESP Center for Sustainability Studies, draw on their experience with executive training initiatives in the Amazon to ask the question: What does it take for sustainability to truly guide us as purpose?

From Doing to Becoming: Reframing sustainability as purpose by Ana Carolina Aguiar and Fernanda Carreira.

“The greatest thing in this world is not so much where we stand as in what direction we are moving.” – Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

Purpose: Easy to say, hard to do – even harder to become

The world in which we stand presents us with inescapable debates about which direction we are moving. One is the difficulty of making a planetary commitment to phase out fossil fuels – despite all the warnings from scientists we see climate disasters growing before our eyes. Another is the fragility – or illusion – of the DEIB (Diversity, Equity, Inclusion and Belonging) agenda in organizations, of the combat of human rights violations, or of the efforts for poverty reduction.

Even the ESG (Environmental, Social and Governance) agenda, which has grown in popularity, seems as volatile as the financial markets. Yes, we continue to witness the struggle – and often failure – to translate ambitious corporate purpose statements into meaningful transformation. Sustainability remains trapped in instrumental logic: a checklist of KPIs, reports, and risk management strategies. 

At the same time, we hear both young professionals saying they are driven by Purpose, and longer-serving executives reaching a rethinking stage in their lives. It is very common to hear from our Master’s in Sustainability students at FGV EAESP: “After so many years in the market, I feel the need to reframe my Purpose, to reconnect with something deeper and greater. What legacy am I leaving?” This leads us, as researchers and practitioners of sustainability strategy and education, to ask ourselves: what does it mean to have sustainability as a purpose?

Reimagining the purpose of purpose

In theory and in practice, purpose is the reason why people and organizations do things, determining the direction in which they are moving. In a world marked by climate collapse, social fragmentation, and loss of meaning, we propose that it is not enough to know why we do what we do. We need to ask ourselves: What kind of future can we imagine? And who do we need to become to help realize it?

Sustainability as purpose implies an ethical and relational reorientation. It shifts the question from “What should we do?” to “Who should we be?” and “How should we relate?” This perspective invites not only organizational change – away from an egocentric, functionalist and short-term orientation – but transformation of oneself and one’s relationships – an ecocentric, relational and long-term orientation.

Sustainability as purpose implies an ethical and relational reorientation. It shifts the question from “What should we do?” to “Who should we be?” and “How should we relate?” This perspective invites not only organizational change – away from an egocentric, functionalist and short-term orientation – but transformation of oneself and one’s relationships – an ecocentric, relational and long-term orientation.

We have pursued this direction in our educational and research initiatives at the Center for Sustainability Studies of FGV EAESP. Not as a brand or a methodology, but as a lived commitment to fostering spaces where other ways of knowing, relating, and becoming can emerge. Our initiatives at the Center include award-winning integrated programs for future leaders at undergraduate level and also professionals already working in sustainability or seeking a career transition to this area. Here, self-awareness, relationships with stakeholders and innovation are prime skills that we develop.

A second flagship initiative is that of Sustainable Leadership – the rainforest perspective, an immersive experience in the Amazon. Here, leadership is seen from a different perspective with meetings with indigenous communities and cultures, the social and environmental challenges becoming tangible as students observe devastated parts of the forest or hear from local communities about cultural and biodiversity losses including the river itself which is increasingly subject to periods of drought. In this instance, systems thinking and a sense of place and ties with stakeholders are the main skills developed.

All in all, these initiatives help with NGO capacity building for a more qualified performance during the COPs through international negotiations simulations on climate change, as well as developing research on leadership and education for sustainability, dialogic organization development and transdisciplinary education. Indeed, feedback from executive students points to them reflecting on their type of leadership, how their actions as business leaders impact relationships and results, and what kind of future impact they wish to make as a person, professional, citizen and as an individual on the planet. In short, there occurs an awareness that they are part of the system.

Based on more than ten years offering and learning from these experiences, we offer three central dimensions for reframing sustainability as purpose.

What does it take for sustainability to truly guide us as purpose?

Our experience and research suggest that sustainability as purpose goes beyond statements of great intention or strategic planning. It involves nurturing internal and collective conditions that enable a deep alignment between values, identity work and actions. Three dimensions have emerged as essential in this journey:

1. Imagination

Purpose needs direction, and direction requires imagination and innovation. Especially in sustainability, where the future is uncertain and the risks are systemic, the ability to envision alternative ways of organizing life and business is vital. We use speculative storytelling, Indigenous epistemologies, and scenario thinking to help our participants articulate futures worth striving for.

2. Dialogue

Purpose is rarely discovered and pursued alone. It emerges in conversations, differences, contradictions, and co-construction. In our programs, we use dialogue not just as a teaching method for stakeholder relations, but as a space for inclusive and ethical encounters. Dialogue, for us, is not about reaching consent or eliminating differences, but shortening distances and finding ways of going on together, despite our differences. This allows participants to meet different people, listen beyond the surface, challenge their own assumptions, and experience interdependence as a lived reality.

3. Embodied Experience

Purpose must be felt to become real. Transformation does not happen only through rational argument. We create experiential processes – from field immersions and artistic explorations to silence rituals – that invite people to reconnect with their emotions, intuition, and sense of place. This grounds purpose in the body, making personal or organizational narratives more tangible (literally felt), which promote deeper and enduring transformations.

Together, these dimensions shift purpose from an abstract goal to a relational, evolving practice. However, our research shows that such shifts occur differently at individual and collective/organizational levels, which brings us one last, but not less important, reflection.

The pursuit of individual versus organizational purpose

Organizations already aligned with the need of overcoming sustainability challenges often come to the Center for Sustainability Studies of FGV EAESP looking for frameworks, tools, or ESG indicators. This is already an important and positive step. But as we have argued above, these strategies have proven insufficient given the extension of our social and environmental problems. Many leaders, then, gradually reveal another and often more personal quest: the search for coherence between their values and their actions within corporate contexts. A desire to reconnect with a sense of meaning beyond performance.

That is where significant tensions emerge, since the notion of success and performance of organizations are deeply rooted in the paradigm of utility/functionality, control and unrestricted growth. This puts professionals in a place of constant struggle between several tensions: personal purpose versus organizational demands, economic versus social and environmental priorities, short versus long-term goals, objective metrics versus subjective and systemic parameters, planned versus emergent results, local versus global/scalable impacts, engagement of versus dialogue with different stakeholders.

While for some professionals, these challenges may lead to paralysis, for those being transformed through imagination, dialogue, and embodiment, they create a sense of freedom. This is because embracing sustainability as a purpose ultimately means realizing that purpose is not about reaching a perfect finishing line, but about choosing to move in a different and better direction – no matter how contradictory and ambiguous this path may be. This does not mean that organizational and structural changes are not important – they are crucial. And exactly because of that, a sense of paralysis is counterproductive. A purpose ignited by creative imagination, dialogue, and deeply embodied felt experiences can tap into existing potential, already available here and now, regardless of external perfect conditions. 

The path of becoming

Educating for sustainability is not about transferring knowledge or offering quick solutions. It is about creating the conditions for different imaginaries – and different ways of being and relating to the world – to take root. In times of uncertainty and collapse, we have learned – alongside our researchers, clients and students – that the most powerful work we can do is to hold space for transformation Thus, when we hear this other common question from students “Will we have enough time [to solve the climate crisis]?”, we answer with another question, reframed by our notion of sustainability as purpose: 

“What will you choose to do and who will you choose to be with the time you have?”

Useful links:

• Linked up with Carolina and Fernanda on LinkedIn
• Read more about the award-winning Sustainable Leadership: The rainforest perspective course
• Read a related post: Will you dare? The journey of purpose.
• Discover FGV EAESP Brazil, South America’s leading business school
• Browse FGV EAESP’s graduate program offer and apply.

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Member schools of the Council on Business & Society.

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• Olin Business School, USA
• Smith School of Business, Queen’s University, Canada
• Stellenbosch Business School, South Africa
• Trinity Business School, Trinity College Dublin, Ireland
• Warwick Business School, United Kingdom.