Sustainability, organizational learning, and lessons learned from aviation John Pourdehnad University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA, and Peter A.C. Smith The Leadership Alliance, Inc., Brechin, Canada Abstract Purpose – While the importance of organizational learning for sustainability has been stressed by a number of authors in the literature, the practicalities of how organizational leaders might foster such learning are seldom treated. This paper seeks to demonstrate that there is much that could be learned from the aviation industry about organizational learning practice that could be gainfully applied by organizations in attempting to address the demands of triple bottom line sustainability. Design/methodology/approach – The exemplary safety record of the US commercial aviation industry is explored in this paper, and the principal functions of its underlying learning and adaptive system are reviewed. Generalized application of such a learning and adaptive system in an organization operating according to triple bottom line sustainability principles is described. Findings – Through the interaction of various functional components described in the paper, the commercial aviation industry has created a learning and adaptation support system that has significantly and effectively increased air travel safety. The characteristics of such a learning and adaptive system can be employed by any organization to vastly improve its performance as it pursues triple bottom line sustainability. Originality/value – The learning and adaptive system approach presented expands the steps of understanding, creating and delivering triple bottom line sustainability by changing internal processes, organizational learning, and employee mindsets. Keywords Triple bottom line sustainability, Organizational learning, Practical application, Value added, Aviation industry, Sustainable development, Learning organizations Paper type Conceptual paper 1. Introduction In a recent paper, Wasdell (2011) spelled out practical implications for the development and application of organizational learning in regard to the decision-making involved in climate change negotiation at international levels. Wasdell (2011, p. 19) went on to infer that to make progress on sustainability at any level, international, national, or local, “We face the daunting task of developing and applying processes of organizational learning in such a way that the skills can be embedded fractally in all levels of institutional life”. Although in the early part of the decade the importance of organizational learning for sustainability has been stressed by a number of authors (Nattrass and Altomare, 1999; Senge and Carstedt, 2001; Molnar and Mulvihill, 2002; Jamali, 2006; Smith and Sharicz, 2011), Fenwick (2007) is one of the few to address the practicalities of how organizational leaders might foster such learning. In this paper, sustainability is treated as triple bottom line (TBL) sustainability, and defined as “the result of the activities of an organization voluntary or governed by law, The current issue and full text archive of this journal is available at www.emeraldinsight.com/0969-6474.htm Sustainability and lessons learned 77 The Learning Organization Vol. 19 No. 1, 2012 pp. 77-86 q Emerald Group Publishing Limited 0969-6474 DOI 10.1108/09696471211190374