Sustainable Management: Concepts, Challenges, and Solutions
What is Sustainable Management?
Sustainable Management is linked to 3 core disciplines: Sustainable Development, Business Ethics, and Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR). Topics from all three disciplines are covered and form together Sustainable Management. It is about incorporating global issues into business and your personal life. It is about responsible, ethical decision-making with an eye for social and environmental issues without making concessions to profitability.
What are the 5 Global Stress Factors and Give an Example for Each?
- Energy stress, from oil scarcity.
- Economic stress, from global instability and gaps in the incomes of rich and poor.
- Population stress, from differentials in growth rates between rich and poor, and from megacities in poor societies.
- Ecological stress, from worsening damage to land, water, forests, and fisheries.
- Climate stress, from changes in the Earth’s atmosphere.
What Kind of Paradigm Change Has to Take Place and Why?
Paradigm change is the change of thinking patterns or models. They often progress slowly and not without resistance. The point of this transition is the notion that all we do is based upon the services we get delivered from ecosystems (for free!); renewables like clean air, oxygen, freshwater, fish, timber, etc., and non-renewables like fossil fuels, metals, etc. We do not account for these services in our economic system. When we disturb the ecosystems in such a way that they cannot deliver renewables or non-renewables, then our economy will collapse. So, the world view should put ecology in the first place and then society.
What is the Funnel Theory?
Resources and ecosystem services are declining while the demand for resources and ecosystem services is increasing. The funnel theory says that businesses need to be innovative, stakeholder-oriented, and long-term oriented to find their way into the funnel and establish two parallel lines.
What are the Different Competences for Sustainable Management?
The different competences for sustainable management are corporate social responsibility, sustainable development, and business ethics. Sustainable development deals with countries or global organizations caring for the environment and the effects of globalization. Corporate social responsibility is related to enterprises, which take care of stakeholder management and the code of conduct. Business Ethics means that citizens care for human behavior.
What Does People, Planet, Profit Mean? Can You Give Arguments in Favor of and Arguments Against This Model?
People, planet, and profit are the triple bottom line. The triple bottom line captures an expanded spectrum of values and criteria for measuring organizational (and societal) success: economic, ecological, and social.
- People refer to the social aspect, human capital.
- Planet refers to the environmental aspect, natural capital.
- Profit refers to the economic aspect, capital in general.
An argument in favor of the people, planet, profit idea is the fact that it becomes inevitable owing to exponential growth, limited capacities, and systematic errors. Moreover, this idea receives more and more awareness and, additionally, it is profitable. On the other hand, it is difficult to measure the value of life or morality. Further, it is not possible to follow this idea in certain circumstances like under poverty or recession and is not universal owing to culture or nationalism.
What is Sustainable Development? Give the Bruntland Definition and Clarify It; What Does It Mean? Give Also a Critique Upon This Definition.
Development is sustainable when it”meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs” It contains within it two key concepts:
- The concept of ‘needs,’ in particular, the essential needs of 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”
There are some lacks in this definition like the culture that is an important factor in sustainable development.
What Levels According to Blackburn Can We Distinguish in Getting a Deeper Understanding of Sustainability? Explain Each Level.
Blackburn distinguishes:
- R: Resources like wise use and management of economic and natural resources (planet, profit; tangibles).
- R: Respect like respect for people and other living things (people, less tangible).
Mention at Least 5 Drivers for CSR Reporting of the KPMG International Survey of Corporate Responsibility Reporting of 2008.
- Economic considerations
- Ethical considerations
- Employee motivation
- Innovation and learning
- Reputation or brand
What is ‘Rent-Seeking Behavior’? Give Some Examples.
Rent-seeking behavior is an attempt to derive economic rent by manipulating the social or political environment in which economic activities occur, rather than by adding value. An example could be that the government increases taxes to get more money.
What is Your Ecological Footprint? Give 5 Factors That are Measured in the Ecological Footprint. What is Your Country’s Score and Compare That With Your Score; What are the Differences and Why?
Factors to measure the ecological footprint:
- Food
- Housing
- Goods & services
- Income
- Use of energy & resources
My country score is 5.4 and my ecological footprint is 3.4. My score is quite below the average because I’m a student and I share the flat. I don’t have a car so I take the bus, train, etc. But I think that my score is very high because of the food and the use of energy. I don’t try to save energy and I eat a lot of fast food.
What is the Happy Planet Index (HPI)? Which Factors are Calculated? What is Your Country’s Score and Compare That With Your Score; What are the Differences and Why?
The HPI is an index of human well-being and environmental impact. The following factors are calculated: the HPI, life expectancy, ecological footprint, and well-being, which includes life satisfaction, doing well, and feeling good. My country score is 43.2 and my score is 56.2. This result is above the average but there are still some ways that I can improve my score. For example, a better diet, try to be more relaxed and less stressed, stop smoking, etc.
Give an Example of Exponential Growth and What Would Limit It?
An example of exponential growth could be the GNP. It is limited by the resources of the country.
What’s the Prisoner’s Dilemma and How Could It Be Applied to Our Society?
The Prisoner’s Dilemma is a fundamental problem in game theory that shows that two people cannot cooperate even if it is in the interest of both.
- Movement of production facilities to low-labor countries due to fierce competition.
- Harmful consumerism like intercontinental holiday flights.