Corporate Sustainable Information & Decision Making
Summary of All Lectures
Radboud University Nijmegen
Yoël Guijt
, Lecture 1 — Introduction to Sustainability
PART I
History of sustainable development:
> Anchored in societies for centuries. In 1713 idea of sustainable logging was coined by Hans
Carl von Carowitz to prevent overuse of wood.
> Sustainable development as an instrument for achieving human prosperity and reservation of
productive capacities // Understanding of sustainability has been centered on Anthropocentrism
Sustainability in society:
> Un-sustainable resource use —> Easter Island. Largely deforested island, no longer inhabitable,
soil erosion, declining agricultural productivity, no longer able to live there.
Sustainable development — Basic Characterization:
> Broad perspective, also includes social aspects (in addition to sustainability on use of resource)
> Famous: Brundtland-De nition (UN World Commission on Environment+Development, 1987):
“Sustainable Development is development that meets the needs of the present without
compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs”
Two Pillars of Sustainability:
> Intragenerational Justice:
> Focuses on meeting the needs of the present
> Less prevalent in many discussions //
Central in WCED report giving voice to
unprivileged groups in the world currently
> Intergenerational Justice:
> Focuses on giving the future generations a voice
> Centers on continuous resource utilization to
prevent limitations for future generations
Humankind on the road to improved sustainability:
> WCED ‘87 report as a starting point for a series of high-re le conferences by the UN. Discussing
most pressing sustainability issues: Climate Change, Biodiversity, Food Security, Human Develop.
> Awareness of Sustainability increased in society. However, di cult to bring everyone on road
Di culties in achieving sustainability:
> Climate Change already since late 19th century… Only few discussions to combat climate
change in last 120 years. Only in 2015, global community have agreed on the goal of limiting
global warming well below 2 degrees celsius.
> Critics complained of value targets, unclear distribution of responsibilities, some countries
evaded the commitments… ——> Mankind lost valuable years in combating climate change
Indicators for achieving intragenerational justice:
> Population living in poverty as an indicator for intragenerational justice e orts
> Poverty decreased signi cantly since industrial revolution // However, welfare of a nation
should not be measured by wealth alone … HDI as a composite gure.
>>> Includes aspects of life expectancy, education, living standards in income
> Increases in majority of countries, decreases in war-a ected regions
Earth Overshoot Day (EOD):
> Measuring status quo of intergenerational justice is less challenging
> ‘EOD’ as an exemplary instrument for calculating resource consumption
> Marks the day of overconsumption of regenerative resources // Insight on the extent of the
present generation lives at the expense of the future (INTER)
> Also intragenerational justice:
“Most parts of North America and Europe grossly over consumed their renewable resources while
countries in Sub-Saharan Africa refrained from overconsumption”
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, The ‘Wicked Problem of Sustainability’:
> Potential tradeo between intra- and intergenerational justice. Human development in the past
positively correlated with consumption of natural resources.
> Improvement in welfare/lifestyle often leads increased pressure on Earth’s regenerative capacity
> Consumption patterns of low income individuals have signi cantly smaller environmental
impacts than those of high income individuals
China’s development vivid example of potential tradeo s:
> Poverty rate reduced from 90% to 10% due to economic growth. However, tripling of CO2
emissions per capita. Increased demand for food, water, energy, other resources.
> Increased pressure on environment + limit opportunities for future generations (INTER)
Sustainability in society:
> Covid 19 as Wicked Problem of Sustainability
>>> Emissions decreased, also GHG emissions, BUT: economic tradeo , many crises
Actors in Society with multiple interests:
> Complex to achieve a balance between INTRA and INTER
> Con icting interests between actors in society… These must work together:
> Politicians in de ning regulations // Consumers to re ect their consumption // Civil
society organizations must use their in uence to support sustainability // Companies
reduce environmental and social footprint
CONCLUSIONS:
> Sustainable development evolved into a holistic concept covering INTRA- and INTER justice
> Intragenerational: between current generations // Intergenerational: focus on future generations
> Current patterns in society show gaps in status quo of intra- and intergenerational justice
> Sustainable Development only if various actors engage with the idea
> ‘Wicked Problem’ —> often con icting issues, between intra- and intergenerational justice
PART II
The Three P’s: People, Planet, Pro t (The triple bottom line)
> Managing sustainability is a task with many potential elds of action (John Elkington)
> Idea of 3 pillars: Economic, Ecological, and Social Responsibility to make sustainable
development more comprehensible and manageable at company level
> Economic pillar: Business generate pro ts to be sustainable in an economic sense
> Ecological pillar: Focusing on issues such as achieving resource e ciency
> Social pillar: Covers topics such as social justice and equal opportunities
The United Nations sustainable development goals as a guideline to sustainability: UN SDG
> UN SDGs developed in 2015 as more ne-grained and actionable pathway for sustainability
> Set of 17 aspirational goals to in uence and provide guidance for everyone in achieving sust.
> Each target is broken down into various sub-targets, 169 in total
Example: Goal 13 — Urgent action to Combat Climate-Change
> Strengthen resilience and adaptive capacity to climate-change related hazard and natural
disasters in all countries // Integrate climate change into national policies, strategies and planning
> Improve education, awareness raising and human institutional capacity on climate change,
mitigation, adaptation and warning.
>>> GOAL: To mobilize jointly 100billion annually by 2020 from all sources to address the needs
of developing countries in the context of meaningful mitigation actions on implementation.
Bene ts & Di culties of the SDG Framework:
> Can be used as holistic set of aims + Allows to guide activities and to review approaches
> SDGs are more detailed in contrast to the vague ideas of intra- and intergenerational justice or
the 3 P’s.
>> Companies tend to refer to the SDGs to express their commitment to sustainable development
> Often about goals that t best with their business model and activities
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