Sustainability.pdf

Planetary Boundaries: Many boundaries have need exceeded and tipping points have been reached, resulting in climate change. Planetary boundaries is a concept involving Earth system processes which contain environmental boundaries. The Idea is to define a “Safe operating space for humanity” for the i...

Planetary Boundaries: Many boundaries have need exceeded and tipping points have been reached, resulting in climate change. Planetary boundaries is a concept involving Earth system processes which contain environmental boundaries. The Idea is to define a “Safe operating space for humanity” for the international community, including governments at all levels, international organizations, civil society, the scientific community as well as the private sector. The planetary-boundary framework is not without criticism, particularly because of the heterogeneity of the diHerent boundaries and their underlying scientific bases, including the diHiculty of defining global ecosystem thresholds for local environmental impacts. Tipping points bring 3 dangers: 1. Rising ocean levels 2. If carbon stores melt, stabilizing the system will be so much harder 3. All boundaries are linked, crossing one tipping point may lead to a series of other points to tip Cut CO2 emissions are crucial and decisive to save the planet for future generations. Course looks at the challenge sustainability is for businesses and how it can be managed. What does sustainability mean in this context? What is currently done by businesses? - Microsoft wants to become carbon negative to make up for the history - Guardian to ban advertising of fossil fuel companies Evidence based management: use the best evidence available for managerial decisions, often the answer will be “it depends”. What is sustainability? - There are several definitions, however only looking at environmental impact might neglect other dimensions such as social (e.g., working conditions, inequality, gender discrimination, cultural elements etc.) Why is a definition needed? - To have a direction for actions, to be able to define KIPs, benchmark companies and make it more comparable Critic of triple bottom line - Some factors are used as an excuse to not focus on the other Dimensions focus on a rather weak dimension and neglect the more impactful environmental dimension Development Focused Definitions: Sustainability development is development that meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs - Concept of needs, in particular, the essential needs of the world’s poor to which overriding priority should be given - The idea of limitations imposed by the state of technology and social organizations on the environment*s ability to meet present and future needs The United Nations has formulated the 17 Sustainable Development Goals aiming to enhance sustainable development of humanity. Many companies, organizations and institutions apply these goals; however, progress is rather slow and often the progression of one SDG happens at the expense of another. Strong vs. Weak Sustainability - Strong: next generation should also have a certain share of natural resources (Intergenerational) same opportunities for future generations - Weak: Next generations should just use what is already produced (Tupperware). same level of opportunities for future generations (e.g., no more resources but therefore innovative technologies) Weak sustainability Strong sustainability Key idea Natural capital and other Substitutability of natural types of capitals capital by other types of (manufactured etc.) are capital is severely limited perfectly substitutable Consequences Technological innovation Certain human actions can and monetary entail irreversible compensation for consequences environmental degradation Sustainability Total value of the aggregate Conserving the stock of capital should be irreplaceable stocks of at least maintained or critical natural capital for ideally increased for future the sake of future generations generations Key concept Optimal allocation of Critical natural capital scarce resources Strong vs weak sustainability thus disagrees about the degree reversibility of actions that are needed to be sustainable Critics of Development focused approach: - (Advantage) Focus on the most vulnerable (the poor that are the most impacted) /without a voice (next generations that cannot participate in the debate yet)  - (Advantage) Wide range of domains e.g., culture, social, environmental domains are included into the SDG - (Advantage) Links to extant thinking / global resonance - (Disadvantage) Minimal frame shift: does not highlight possible problems of an ever higher furthermore mentality - (Disadvantage) Human centric: underappreciating other environmental and animal concerns Impact Focused Definitions: - Mostly focused on environmental impact Planetary boundaries Environmental impact of humanity I–PxAxT I = Impact P = Population A = AHluence T = Technology When looking at this it is obvious that our environmental impact is too high! DiHerent ecological footprint measurement tools have arisen to determine how many natural resources are used of nations, corporations and individuals. Also, other sustainability concepts to assess the environmental impact have emerged - National natural capital accounting - Products LCA: considering the environmental impact of the entire lifecycle of a product - Scope 1-2-3 Emissions: considering the emissions of supplier, sub-supplier etc. Critics of an impacts focused approach: - (Advantage) guided by natural boundaries - (Advantage) quantification and comparison possible - (Advantage) frame shift first ecological limits and not human needs - (Disadvantage) Measurement challenges - (Disadvantage) Not quantifiable e.g., we do not know the impact of micro plastics, hence we cannot quantify it - (Disadvantage) Social domains underrepresented: poverty and social inequalities are not addressed Dimension Focused Definitions: - Often very inclusive, but also tends to neglect some dimensions Triple Bottom Line (third approach to define sustainability) Idea is to collectively consider social, environmental, and economic dimensions when defining sustainability. Problems: - It is not as specific as the SDG; hence it is diHicult to determine what are the relevant constituent elements? - What if win-win-win is infeasible? Can advancement on one can compensate other? E.g., LED streetlamps vs switching to sustainable energy for streetlamps, while the first one has some positive eHects on all three dimensions the latter one has long term much more pronounced eHects but also implying some initial social disruptions and increased costs Sustainability Performance Many companies are increasingly measured based on their - Environmental - Social - Governance - Performance Critics of Dimensions (e.g., Triple Bottom Line, ESG) focused approach - (Advantage) Pluralistic - (Advantage) generalizable and adaptable framework: can be applied widely and adopted broadly - (Advantage) Integrative focus: more holistic considerations, does not only consider environmental impacts - (Disadvantage) Incremental changes: also small steps are considered good, even though the impact might be rather low