As a practitioner, he is Certified Management Consultant with 30 years of experience. In his roles as a Sustainability Business Architect and Flourishing Enterprise Business Model Designer, he helps business leaders and entrepreneurs co-create enterprises that are simply better for our increasingly volatile, uncertain, complex and ambiguous world: socially beneficial, environmentally regenerative and financially viable.

As an applied researcher, he undertakes projects and publishes to support, enhance and share his practice in flourishing enterprise design. He is an Adjunct Professor at the Ontario College of Art and Design University’s Faculty of Design.  He has a Masters of Environmental Studies in Business Model Design and Sustainability; his thesis is the topic of an increasing number of well cited peer-reviewed articles, and is leading to professional and academic speaking, hands-on workshop and consulting engagements around the world.

His graduate research originated the concept of the Flourishing Business Canvas, now coming to market as part of the Flourishing Enterprise Innovation Toolkit (@FlourishingBiz).  In 2012, his research also led, with three others from the Strategic Innovation Lab at OCAD University, to co-found a knowledge mobilization initiative: the Strongly Sustainable Business Model Group.  Today this is a 1250+ strong global community of innovation practice – a home for the growing movement flourishing enterprise practitioners, researchers and students (@StronglySustain).  And, now, plans are emerging for this community to co-create a planetary wide network of nodes forming a Flourishing Enterprise Institute (@FlourishingInst).

Applying the Flourishing Business Canvas in practice, there are now over 125 First Explorers using this tool in their work around the world.  With, one of these First Explorers, Ondine Hogeboom, Mr. Upward co-founded the Lean for Flourishing Startups Collaborative: a learning enabler for innovation in the startup ecosystem, (@Lean4Flourish).  With a second First Explorer, Harvey Weisfeld, Mr. Upward co-founded Better My Business: a future fit enterprise design consultancy that unleashes innovation in established enterprises through co-creation, (@BetterMyBiz).

He is a Founder and Principal of Edward James Consulting Ltd., a Certified Benefit Corporation® in Toronto, Canada, as the legal entity for all his practice.