SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT A challenge for business

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SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENTA challenge for business

• Prepared for EBBF by Arthur Lyon Dahl, Geneva,
  Switzerland

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We all want prosperity

• Prosperity means thriving, flourishing,
  successful progress
• But what kind of progress?
• There are multiple dimensions of prosperity
  narrowly economic, broadly material, social,
  environmental, spiritual

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Sustainable development

• Sustainable development is development that meets
  present needs without compromising the ability of
  future generations to meet their needs
• It requires justice for both present and future
  generations
• It means prosperity continuing indefinitely for
  everyone

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What is development?

• The real goal of development is to advance human
  consciousness
• It should create a dynamic, just and prosperous
  social order
• It should enable the community to meet everyones
  basic human needs for food security, housing,
  health, clean water and affordable fuel

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Sustainable development

• Sustainable development is both a challenge and a
  business opportunity
• It requires taking a long-term perspective
• It requires a global rather than more restricted
  viewpoint
• Measures like the ecological footprint show that
  most of us consume far more than our share of the
  planets resources, which is unsustainable

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How can business respond?

• Adapting the economy to the requirements of
  sustainability requires eco-restructuring
• This means phasing out unsustainable resource
  uses, processes and products
• It is a way of looking at business futures,
  industries at risk, investment opportunities, and
  the timing of developments

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Re-thinking economics

• Economics often gives the wrong signals
• It is internally consistent but makes the wrong
  assumptions
• It works in the short term but leaves us
  vulnerable in the long term
• It mixes real wealth generation and money
  produced by accounting mechanisms
• It externalizes significant costs

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Sustainable development

• Must acknowledge the spiritual as well as
  material nature of man
• Should seek a balance of material and spiritual
  progress
• Requires moderation in material civilization
• Includes economic, social and environmental
  dimensions

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Sustainable economy

• The role of an economic system is to meet
  peoples needs
• It should create employment and eliminate poverty
• It should create wealth for everyone
• This requires an economic system that is strongly
  altruistic and cooperative

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Sustainable society

• Requires social justice and elimination of
  extremes of poverty and wealth
• Central role of the family and community in
  social and spiritual well-being
• Equality of men and women
• Lifelong education for everyone to have a place
  in the community
• Should fulfil the human potential of each
  individual

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Sustainable environment

• Environmental sustainability is not an option but
  a fundamental obligation that requires
• Respect for the planets environmental limits and
  life-support systems
• Conservation of the ecological balance, natural
  order and biodiversity
• Global management of resources and their
  equitable distribution

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Individual responsibility

• Sense of solidarity with all humanity
• Obligation to work, in a spirit of service to
  humanity
• Moderate lifestyle
• Be content with little
• Generosity and voluntary giving

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Business responsibility

• Corporate social and environmental responsibility
• Increasing efficiency in energy and materials use
• Life-cycle responsibility for products
• Spirit of service to the community, employees,
  stakeholders as well as shareholders

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Integrated perspective

• Sustainability requires systems thinking
• businesses inside the economy
• inside country/region/world
• dependent on natural systems
• with a dynamic human society in rapid
  transformation

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The business context

• How can business generate wealth in sustainable
  ways?
• What are the constraints in the present business
  climate?
• What room is there to manoeuvre?
• What can we do today to push the evolution of
  business in more sustainable directions?