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Sustainable Business

in

Sustainable Development

Sustainable Development

How do you solve an oxymoron?

How does poverty cause environmental damage?

 Agriculture: need to survive causes overuse of land (grazing, intensive agriculture, fertilizer, fuel wood, logging) leading to deforestation, topsoil erosion, water contamination Worsened by:  population pressures;  lack of control over local resources and poor governance;  Inability to invest in environment

 Industry: inefficient, dirty industry locates where wages and influence over environment are low, causing pollution of air, land, and water  Cost-based competition  Labour intensive  Low capacity to invest in environment

How does affluence cause environmental damage?

 High productivity levels cause greater throughput of materials and

energy per person

 Higher income levels enable greater consumption of energy and materials

 Greater throughput of energy and materials means more land used for agriculture (more pesticides, fertilizers, erosion), more wood and mineral resources used, more energy extracted and used, etc.  Urbanization has disconnected producers and consumers relieving them of the influence of environmental degradation on their lives.

Two Paths to Sustainable Development

Poverty Affluence

Environmental degradation

Environmental degradation

Resource imports , pollution exports

Welfare Improvement : Basic needs (food,shelter, edu.) Productive employment Control over resources Population control Energy

Environmental Remediation : Production Consumption Fulfilling employment/leisure Responsibility and participation Energy

Livelihood Lifestyle

Cooperation on Global Governance

From Ad Hoc Responses to the

Environmental Crisis…

Social Demands

• Disasters, Cumulative Poisoning, Habitat Destruction etc.
• Scientists, Environmentalists, and Community Protesters Political Responses
• Government Regulations, Penalties, and Administration
• International Conferences and Agreements

The short definition was qualified by its originators in

the following manner: “It (sustainable development)

contains within it two key concepts:

 the concepts of needs, in particular the essential needs off the world's poor, to which overriding priority should be given; and

 the idea of limitations imposed by the state of technology and social organization on the environment's ability to meet present and future needs.” (WECD, 1987, 43)

History of Sustainable Development

• Stockholm 1972: UN Conference on the Human Environment
• Report of the World Commission on the Environment and Development: “Our Common Future” 1987.
• Rio 1992: UN Conference on Environment and Development: Agenda 21
• Johannesburg 2002: 2nd World Summit on Sustainable Development

National Strategies

• revive growth, but change the quality of growth;
• meet essential needs for jobs, food, energy, water, and sanitation;
• ensure a sustainable level of population;
• conserve and enhance the resource base;
• reorient technology and manage risk;
• merge environment and economics in decision making;

Global Strategies

• enhance the flow of capital to developing countries;
• link trade, environment, and development by improving the terms of trade;
• increase the diffusion of environmentally sound technologies and their funding to developing countries.

Controversy and Acceptance

• Weak vs. Strong sustainability
• Human-centered (anthropocentric) vs. Nature-

centered (ecocentric) perspective

• Laissez-faire vs. Distributive Justice
• Social vs. Scientific Definition
• Private vs. public vs. common property views

HK’s Sustainable Development

Sustainable development in Hong Kong balances

social, economic and environmental needs, both

for present and future generations, simultaneously

achieving a vibrant economy, social progress and

better environmental quality, locally, nationally

and internationally, through the efforts of the

community and the Government.

Sustainable Development as Integration

Industrial Ecology

Technology

Politics

Society

Environment (^) Environment Industrial Ecology

Industrial Ecology

Economy

 Business

 Environmental Management

Accepted Principles

• public trust doctrine
• precautionary principle
• inter-generational equity
• intra-generational equity
• subsidiarity principle
• polluter pays principle (PPP)
• user pays principle (UPP)