The business logic of sustainability

• Bedrijfseconomie
• WO
• Studiejaar 1

The Business Logic of Sustainability
Presented by: Anouk Jorna

Warming up

- Business & Industry are...
1) major culprit of culprit causing decline in biosphere

2) only institution that is large, powerful, and pervasive 

enough to offer the solution

- Do you agree?

We should look at Business & Industry for the solution to the decline in the biospere

1. Agree
2. Disagree
3. Other

Relevance

- 1994: Interface launches 'Mission Zero'

- Corporate Social Responsibility

- "Because it comes from an industrialist,
 who has actually done it" - R. Anderson

Main arguments

- There must be a clear alternative to our take-make-waste industrial system, that so dominates our civilization

- Environmental impact is product of population, affluence and technology. (Paul & Ann Ehrlich)

- I=P x A x T                      I= ( P x A ) / T2                 

I= (PxA) / T2

T1 characteristics	T2 characteristics
Extractive	Renewable
Linear	Cyclical
Fossil fuel-derived energy	Renewable energy
Wasteful	Waste-free
Abusive	Benign
Labor productivity	Resource productivity

Main arguments

- The business case for sustainability:
costs, products, people, marketplace

- I= ( P x A ) / T2               I = (P x A) / (T2 x H)

Arguments in perspective

Dryzek (2013)	Reformist	Radical
Prosaic	Problem-solving	Limits & survival
Imaginative	Sustainability	Green radicalism

In which of the following discourse categories (Dryzek, 2013) would you position the argumentation of Anderson?

Dryzek (2013)	Reformist	Radical
Prosaic	Problem-solving	Limits & survival
Imaginative	Sustainability

1. Problem-solving
2. Limits & survival
3. Sustainability
4. Green radicalism

Capitalism & Sustainability
According to Anderson and Pellizzoni

Discussion:
Capitalism & Sustainability

- Pellizzoni: no strong normative stance about capitalism
Ecological modernization: “Market capitalism can be redirected and transformed ‘in such a way that it less and less obstructs, and increasingly contributes to, the preservation of society’s sustenance base”(Mol and Janicke, 2009, p.24. In Pellizoni, p.799) 

Neoliberal: If everything is invented, everything can be redefined commodified and appropriated
.

Video fragment

Would Pellizzoni agree or disagree with the formula?

1. Agree
2. Disagree
3. Neither agree, nor disagree
4. I don't have a clue

Discussion: I=(P x a)/(T2 x H)

- Pellizzoni:
‘Governing through disorder’.
The formulation of such a technical formula is wrong. Environmental issues are inherently complex.

-Zizek: Neoliberal  order limits us to see alternatives. Even the left is still operating within this system.

The business logic of sustainability

"The better way to bigger profits"

But will it save the planet?