Sustainability Presentation Quiz

Introduction to Sustainability: from Profit to Purpose

• The presentation covers the shift from a purely profit-driven business model to one incorporating sustainability.
• The UN's International Resource Panel highlights the pressure on natural resources due to rapid urban and industrial growth.
• Current business practices ("business as usual") are unsustainable due to limited resources (e.g., precious metals, water, air, forests).
• Strong population growth and increasing consumer demand exacerbate resource depletion, and the planet's capacity to absorb waste is diminished.
• Global resource extractions from 2010 to 2050 are projected to increase dramatically for all resources categories with excess demand projected in the future.

Sustainability Timeline

• The concept of sustainable development emerged in the 1980s with the World Conservation Strategy.
• The Brundtland Report (1987) formally defined sustainable development.
• Key milestones include the 1992 Earth Summit, the UN Millennium Summit (2000), the Rio+20 Summit (2012), and the Kyoto Protocol (2005).
• These events established international agreements and initiatives to tackle global sustainability.

Types of Capitalism

• The presentation differentiates between state capitalism (government steers the economy), shareholder capitalism (focus on short-term profits), and stakeholder capitalism (balances stakeholder interests with profits).
• Milton Friedman advocated for shareholder capitalism, while proponents of stakeholder capitalism focus on long-term value creation.
• The presentation emphasizes factors like economic growth, societal well-being, and environmental impacts.

Purpose Power Index

• The Purpose Power Index is used to analyze and compare companies' stated purposes.
• The index considers economic, environmental, and social factors to assess a company's purpose.
• The presentation suggests students analyze two companies' key aspects of Purpose Power Index: the economic aspect, the environmental aspect, and the social aspect.

Earth Overshoot Day

• Earth Overshoot Day is the date when humanity's consumption of resources for a year exceeds what the Earth can regenerate in a year.
• The date has shifted earlier each year highlighting environmental concerns and the need to address sustainability.

Triple Bottom Line (TBL)

• The Triple Bottom Line (TBL) is a concept that considers profitability and social and environmental factors instead of just profit.
• It includes people, planet, and profit.
• People considerations are inclusive of stakeholders other than shareholders. Economical considerations include livability wages, ethical sourcing, and workplace safety. Environmental considerations are relationships between business and nature including the ecological processes.
• Businesses should consider social and environmental implications of their actions along with profit to evaluate their performance; TBL includes profit and includes societal and environmental factors.