10
The Attitude Axiom
of Sustainability
MY SUSTAINABLE ENCOUNTER WITH DR. YOGENDRA SAXENA
By Albert Schiller
From Pollu�on Control to Corporate Philosophy
What to expect
Tradi�onally, we’ve approached sustainability as a skill. We’ve invested in build-
ing frameworks, teaching metrics, and issuing cer��ca�ons, all in the belief that with
enough technical knowledge, we can navigate our way out of our global predicament.
But what if we’ve been looking at it all wrong? What if sustainability is not primarily
a skill to be learned, but an a�tude to be cul�vated? What if it’s an intrinsic way of
seeing risk, opportunity, and responsibility, without which all the technical skills in
the world are merely tools for more sophis�cated greenwashing?
Yogendra Saxena’s life’s work, spanning thirty-�ve years across the en�re eco-
system of sustainability, is not just a history of the environmental movement in
India but a robust data set. His career, spanning policymaking and academia to
heavy industry and C-suite leadership, has shaped a profound and challenging
thesis: all e�ec�ve, las�ng, and sustainable ac�on stems not from what a leader
knows, but from how a leader thinks. His journey provides a compelling and
logical deduc�on that a�tude is the necessary precondi�on for any skill to have
meaning. It is the opera�ng system upon which all successful programs are run.