Dunedata

Dunedata

What is sustainability?
There are at least two streams of thought in regard to the idea of sustainability .One focuses on the seemingly pragmatic commercial/business approach which says that sustainability is a good idea because there are at least three fundamental reasons/principles that make it good for business.That is that to keep business going in the long term it pays to keep some sort of predictable stasis...assuring investments,plans and futures.Secondly to look after social and environmental assets make commonsense because if they are degraded they will become direct or indirect costs to the business or infrastructures that allow the business to be profitable.Thirdly if these goals are pursued they will in themselves create value,potential markets and other innovations that will allow ongoing 'growth'.

Simple enough you might say .Is there something missing though?

In an article by Professsor simon Flag stff he points to a need to acknowledge the realities of needing to build holistic relationships and I suppose partnerships across the differing spaces that we inhabit in our consumer/business and social worlds.What do you think?Can a balance be achieved?


"Yet, although such arguments are ultimately persuasive, I cannot help wonder if something is missing from the equation. In particular, I wonder why it is that business leaders might have such a problem in acknowledging that environmental and social responsibility is good in itself – and that the reasons for business making a contribution in these areas go beyond the limited ground of enlightened self-interest.

I suspect that one of the reasons for business leaders holding back from such debates is that they their attempt to contribute ideas and solutions is often rejected, out of hand, as being fundamentally tainted. That this should be so is linked to a second line of criticism directed at those who promote the 'sustainability is good for business' line of argument. Some critics continue to argue that such approaches are, at best, a ‘necessary evil’ and at worst a ‘sell-out’ to commercial interests.

For example, there are non-government organisations that consider business to be intrinsically unethical and an entrenched enemy of all that is good and right. Opinions such as these are often linked to a conceptual framework that establishes tight definitional boundaries between the ‘market’, the ‘state’ and ‘civil society’ – with all virtue typically residing in ‘civil society’. In a number of cases, the divisions embedded in the framework come to be seen as 'real' – rather than as a useful tool for thinking about the world. It's not surprising that some business leaders feel cautious about crossing boundaries – particularly if they face attack for doing so. For those who hold such views the only way to ensure sustainability is to legislate for it and then enforce the law with the rigour and full power of the state.

However, even a moment's thought should reveal that this conceptual framework is a useful but mere fiction. Virtually every individual in society plays concurrent, multiple roles in the market, the state and civil society. For example, I am at one and the same time a citizen, a parent, a volunteer, an employer, an employee, a consumer, an investor and so on.

This is an important fact about our identities and the way in which we should think about sustainability. For it would seem to be important that a holistic approach, recognising these multiple roles, be employed. No holistic approach can afford to rule out the involvement of, say, the world of business on the grounds that it is an ‘alien’ presence. And no sensible approach to sustainability can afford not to be holistic.''...
Dr Simon Longstaff is Executive Director of St James Ethics Centre.

This article was first published in EcoFutures Magazine, May-July 2002 volume 1, issue 2. It was then published in Living Ethics, issue 48, winter 2002.

© St James Ethics Centre