Overview

Every organisation makes decisions that impact people, communities, ecosystems, and future generations. Whether intentional or accidental, these decisions carry consequences. An ethical commitment sets the moral boundaries within which an organisation operates. It defines what the organisation will protect, respect, and refuse to sacrifice, even if it is inconvenient, costly, or counterproductive to immediate interests.

Unlike governance, which establishes authority and accountability, or guiding principles, which aid judgment, ethical commitments outline core values and responsibilities that should not be compromised. In a volatile, uncertain world, rules alone are insufficient. New scenarios often arise without existing policies.

Ethical commitments offer a stable moral foundation for making informed judgments. For organisations aiming to adapt, survive, and succeed, ethics go beyond legal compliance. They recognise that organisations exist within dynamic social-ecological systems and their long-term success depends on healthy people, resilient communities, trustworthy relationships, and thriving ecosystems. Therefore, ethical commitments include responsibilities to both present and future generations.

Ethical Commitments

The following commitments provide a foundation for governance, decision-making and organisational behaviour.

Respect

Respect human dignity and agency.

Respect the dignity, agency and legitimate interests of people affected by organisational decisions and actions.

Respect the community of life.

Recognise the inherent value of living beings and the interdependence of people, communities, and ecosystems.

Responsibility

Avoid foreseeable and preventable harm.

Take reasonable action to avoid harm that can be anticipated and prevented, including harm to people, communities, ecosystems, and future capacity.

Act honestly and make relevant truth visible.

Make relevant information, consequences, uncertainties, and trade-offs visible. Do not conceal harm behind distance, complexity, organisational boundaries, or symbolic compliance.

Exercise power fairly and accountably.

Use authority responsibly, include those materially affected by decisions and give particular attention to people, communities and living systems with limited power or voice.

Accept responsibility and repair harm.

Where harm occurs, acknowledge it, accept responsibility, act to repair damage, and restore diminished capacity wherever possible.

Stewardship

Protect and regenerate ecological integrity.

Protect, restore, and renew the diversity, relationships and natural processes that enable living systems to adapt and flourish.

Live within ecological limits.

Do not pursue organisational benefit by exceeding nature’s capacity to renew, absorb, and recover, or by transferring ecological and social costs elsewhere.

Consider consequences for future generations.

Consider how present decisions affect the choices, capabilities, and living conditions available to future human and ecological communities.

Protect the common good.

Do not sacrifice the wellbeing of the wider living system for narrow, immediate, or private advantage.

Relationship to the Adaptive Capacity Framework

• Purpose defines why the organisation exists.
• Ethical commitments establish the moral boundaries within which it operates.
• Governance assigns authority, accountability, and stewardship.
• Guiding principles help people exercise informed judgement within those ethical boundaries.
• Processes and practices translate those judgements into consistent action.
• Hansei and organisational learning enable principles, practices, and governance to evolve through experience while remaining anchored by enduring ethical commitments.

Ethics therefore provide the stable foundation that allows adaptation without sacrificing integrity. They ensure that an organisation’s capacity to learn and change strengthens, rather than diminishes, the people, communities, and living systems upon which its future depends.