A series of Q&A questions. (case study) The knowledge of Business and Sustainable Development is required
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Module2MGMT2004Lecture1.ppt*
At the end of this lecture you will:
- Have gained an understanding of the meaning of sustainability and the basic principles of sustainable development
- Be able to differentiate between weak and strong aspects of sustainability, and also
- Critically think about how business management should approach sustainable development
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Lecture 1
Environmental Issues in Business 201
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Lecture 1
Environmental Issues in Business 201
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Lecture 1
Environmental Issues in Business 201
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The 15 Global Challenges provide a framework to assess the global and local prospects for humanity. The Challenges are interdependent:
an improvement in one makes it easier to address others; deterioration in one makes it harder to address others. Arguing whether one is
more important than another is like arguing that the human nervous system is more important than the respiratory system.
Can you see why there is a growing desire to shift away from the economic paradigm of development?
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- Silent Spring – warned of toxicity of chemicals
Carson, R 1962, Silent Spring, Penguin Books, New York.
- Tragedy of the Commons – warned of demise of open access resources
Hardin, G 1968, 'The tragedy of the commons', Science, vol. 162, pp. 1243-8.
- Population Bomb – warned of overpopulation
Ehrlich, P 1970, The Population Bomb, Ballantine Books, New York.
- Limits to Growth – warned about the cost of unlimited economic growth
Meadows, D, Meadows, D, Randers, J & Behrens, W 1972, The Limits to Growth: A Report to the Club of Rome's Project on the Predicament of Mankind, Pan, London.
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Hardin (1968) suggested that excessive population growth and exploitation of natural resources leads to the:
‘tragedy of the commons’
When nobody owns a particular resource, it gets exploited to the extent that the resource becomes unusable for everybody
e.g. The Tragedy of the Commons
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So, is sustainable development a new concept? (Required Reading # 1)
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June 1962:
Rachel Carson’s Silent Spring is published. Acclaimed as the catalyst of the sustainability movement
Greater focus on increasing environmental awareness and the need to shift away from just the economic mindset
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Sustainable Development (WCED, 1987 p. 43)
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Greater Focus on Participation and Local Solutions to existing and emerging problems
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The 1992 Earth Summit: Rio, Brazil
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TQmz6Rbpnu0&feature=share&list=PLD940256D2E56A15F
Miss Suzuki - The girl who silenced the world for 5 minutes …
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Social and economic problems of developing countries as viewed by developed countries
– 8 MDGs
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Environmental Issues in Business 201
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2015 +: Sustainable Development Goals [SDGs] - the 4th Era?
- Paradigm shift towards Sustainable Development for all not just selected few
- 189 countries adopted the UN Millennium Declaration and committed to the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) in 2000
- MDGs reflect on a shared vision for reducing poverty around the world
- The central goal is to reduce by half the proportion of people living on less than US$1.25 a day by 2015 relative to 1990
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1. UNIVERSALITY: We’re in this together and the goals are applicable to all countries rich & poor
2. SUSTAINABILITY: The goals are holistic and target social, economic, and environmental issues
3. LEAVE NO-ONE BEHIND: We cannot claim to have met a goal unless it is met for everyone
4. PARTICIPATION: All countries and multiple stakeholders involved in putting together SDGs
SDGs and the Drivers
A new type of thinking is essential if mankind is to survive and move toward higher levels …
- Albert Einstein (1946)
Paradigm - a framework for observation and understanding the patterns that influences what we think and how we want to solve problems e.g. theory, norm, common sense.
So paradigm shift is a change from one of way of thinking/examining to another
http://janefriedman.com/2012/05/11/distinguishing-between-straight-up-advice-and-paradigm-shift/
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“to sustain”:
Support
Keep in being
Keep in certain state
Keep at proper level or standard
So, “sustainability” has something to do with:
continuance
maintenance, and
the ability to continue an activity or maintain a certain condition indefinitely
Source: Eckersley (1998)
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Shift towards Sustainable development
“to develop”:
Improve
Get better
Progressive transformation of economy and society
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Inter-species equity : Making sure that other species and their habitat can co-exist
Intra-species equity: Making sure that all of us have the same rights and opportunities now and in the future (includes inter-generational)
Precautionary principle: Making sure that the lack of scientific certainty doesn't compromise common sense to minimize risks
If an activity is said to be sustainable: it should be able to continue forever. SD = development that meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs (WCED 1987, p.43)
Sustainability or Sustainable Development?
Sustainability = Aim| Sustainable Development = Objective
Ethics
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Approaching sustainability as an ‘essentially contested concept’ … three constituent, management-relevant dimensions - scope, substitutability, and goal orientation - demonstrates how different conceptions within these dimensions result in hugely different, often incompatible, yet legitimate interpretations of sustainability
Sustainability: A Contested Concept
(Required Reading # 2: Lankoski (2016, p.847)
- Sustainability was first conceived as an environmental issue only
- Sustainability meant nature conservation
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- Today, sustainability stands for the balancing of many issues and dimensions
- Sustainability now encapsulates political, social and cultural as well as environmental and economic concerns
What are the implications of this changed understanding???
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… Sustainable Everything?
• Sustainable advertising
• Sustainable architecture
• Sustainable art
• Sustainable business
• Sustainable city
• Sustainable communities Plan
• Sustainable community
• Sustainable design
• Sustainable fashion
• Sustainable fisheries management
• Sustainable forest management
• Sustainable industries
• Sustainable landscape architecture
• Sustainable living
• Sustainable packaging
• Sustainable procurement
• Sustainable reporting
• Sustainable tourism
• Sustainable transport
• Sustainable urban drainage systems
• Sustainable urban infrastructure
• Sustainable yield
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The sustainability notion has become a buzzword
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Multiple Meanings + the 2 Camps: Weak vs. Strong
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Maintenance of high standard of living through the maintenance of various forms of capital
Substitutability of natural capital e.g. economic rationality
Anthropocentric
Emphasis on human needs and values e.g. triple bottom line
Mechanistic worldview
Everything can be measured and explained
If you cannot measure it, it does not exist
Nature is ascribed utilitarian values only
Nature only matters when useful to humans (resources)
Optimist and Strong faith in:
technology and science will save the day
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Anthropocentric (planet is for people to exploit)
Optimistic (science & technology can fix problems)
Economic rationality (substitutability of capitals)
Can we really manufacture natural resources in reality?
This view suggests that man-made capitals cannot serve as a substitute for (critical) natural capital
Pessimistic assumptions
Focuses on precaution and carrying capacity
Ecocentric worldview
Nature matters in its own right
Challenges entrenched structures and beliefs
Rejects economic rationality and technocracy
Calls for radical social, political, and economic reform
Trans-scientific / multi-disciplinary
New approach to science based on integration and holism as opposed to sole reliance on single disciplines
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Diesendorf & Hamilton (1997, p.79)
- Ecocentric (planet has its ecological limits)
- Pessimistic (no prospect of finding solutions)
- Holistic rationality (natural capital can’t be substituted)
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Can we substitute natural capital in reality?
- 1.27 ha structure originally built as a dome or an artificial enclosed ecological system in Arizona (USA)
- The dome aimed to mimic nature and contained: rainforest, ocean with a coral reef, a mangrove wetlands, grassland, agricultural system & human habitat
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- Due to falling oxygen and rising CO2 levels, 8 scientists needed to be evacuated only after a few months... If we have hard time figuring out the dome for 8 people, how would we manage to keep 7 billion (and counting) people alive and at what cost?
- The cost of the built capital i.e. Dome that (marginally) regulated life-support systems for 8 People over two years was about $150 million, or $9,000,000 per person per year.
- These ecosystem services i.e. Natural capital are provided to you and me more-or-less cost-free by natural processes, if we were to be charged for such services, the total invoice (sans GST ) will run into many quintillion dollars for one generation alone!
Lesson Learned from Biosphere 2
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Sustainability Spectrum Revisited
(Required Reading # 3: Hopwood et al. (2005, p.41)
Strong Camp: Pessimists
Weak Camp: Optimists
The Paradox
Achieving that ideal balance: to increase profits, strengthen society, and in the process not damage the environment remains paradoxical
Society
Environment
Economy
Planet
Profit
People
Sustainable development requires:
Inter-species, Intra-species and Inter-generational equity considerations; and the adoption of the precautionary principle in the context of weak or strong sustainability paradigm
Businesses as an integral component to achieve SDGs (the 4th era)
However, many unanswered questions remain:
How should business address the trade-offs?
E.g. jobs vs. few trees; lobby for subsidy for fossil fuel vs. action on climate change
How could businesses deal with the vagueness and paradox?
Business driven socially and environmentally just development? - where is the successful model?
Difficult institutional/behavioural changes? Are societies and consumers ready?
How might businesses be able to shift paradigms?
Little guidance on how businesses can holistically address sustainable development + no laws and no agreement on what this should look like.
We will explore these issues in more detail in weeks to come…
Concluding Remarks
Lecture 1
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