Corporate sustainability:
on-line discussion

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Philip Sutton
Director, Policy and Strategy
Green Innovations Inc.
Tel & fax: +61 3 9486 4799
Philip.Sutton@green-innovations.asn.au

13th October 1998 - Version 1.b/w:i

Paper marked up in HTML format
by Philip Sutton.

The on-line discussion

'Sustainable' or 'sustainability-promoting'?

Actions of the sustainability-promoting corporation

Discussion topics

Contributions to the discussion

The on-line discussion

Prof. Dexter Dunphy of the Centre for Corporate Change at the Australian Graduate School of Management has initiated a Corporate Sustainability Project.

The aim of the project is to build a model for the sustainable organisation of the future. In particular, the project will identify leading edge practice in Australia and overseas with regard to:

building human capability and skills for sustainable high level of organisational performance, and
redesigning organisations to contribute to sustainable economic development and the protection and renewal of the biosphere.

To assist the Project a targeted network of people with a balance of special expertise across key areas in both human and ecological sustainability has been created. This network will contribute to a multi-authored book on corporate sustainability which will be published by Allen & Unwin. The book will provide a forum for discussion of some of the major issues and opportunities facing the sustainable corporation.

To assist the authors and other contributors to the book to create a shared vision of the corporate sustainability, Philip Sutton of Green Innovations will be conducting an email-based discussion of the subject. This web page will be the key reference for the discussion. Hyperlinks from the web page will direct people to additional resources. The web page will be updated as the discussion proceeds.

Topics to be discussed are listed below. Philip Sutton will initiate each topic in sequence order. Once a topic is opened up conversation on that topic can continue in an open ended way until the whole on-line discussion is terminated. At this stage it is anticipated that the discussion will run for a month or two.

If you want to participate in this discussion please send an email request to Philip Sutton and he will subscribe you (at no cost) to the discussion email list server.

'Sustainable' or 'sustainability-promoting'?

When discussing corporate sustainability it is easy to start talking about the 'sustainable corporation'. This label can be rather misleading and so it is suggested that we talk about the sustainability-promoting corporation instead.

'Sustainability' is a attribute of whole systems and is not an attribute of a part of the system. Ecological sustainability, for example, can only be judged by look ing at the whole ecosystem. In fact local ecological sustainability is only possible if there is global ecological sustainability. Society's sustainability cannot be judged by looking just at the attributes of an individual corporation. The same argument applies to social and economic sustainability.

So in the context of ecological, social or economic sustainability it does not make sense to talk about the sustainable corporation.

When people use the term 'the sustainable corporation' they usually mean that either the corporation is:

promoting ecological, social or economic sustainability for society, or

the corporation is trying to survive into the indefinite future.

It could be argued that the term the 'sustainable corporation' would be meaningful if it referred only to the corporation's own survival capacity. Any firm that has been around for 50 or 100 or more years could be excused for wanting to call itself a sustainable corporation.

But this form of sustainability is not something that can be assured for all time through actions taken at one moment in time. Corporations have to continually work at maintaining their sustainability (their ability to sustain themselves). So even in this context the active concept of the sustainability-promoting corporation is the more useful one.

Actions of the sustainability-promoting corporation

The aim of the sustainability-promoting corporation is to help society to be sustainable (rather than just reducing the corporations own negative impacts).

It seems likely that the sustainability-promoting corporation will need to do the following:

Actions

Identify how far society is from a sustainable condition:

identify a preferred state
identify the current state
identify the gap
identify the desirable speed and scale of action to close the gap

Identify what society needs to do to achieve sustainability:

identify strategies for closing society's sustainability gap

Identify what the corporation might be able to do to promote society's sustainability. [info]

Identify the corporation's current capacity to profitably help society to be sustainable

Develop strategies to boost the corporation's future capacity to profitably help society to be sustainable

Identify the corporations current negative impacts:

assess them on a life-cycle basis
develop a sense of the scale or strategic significance of the negative impacts compared to society's total or compared to other corporations

Decide what priority should be given now to reducing the corporation's negative impacts compared with its efforts to help society to achieve sustainability. Review this decision periodically. Unless the corporation's own negative impacts are very large or strategically significant, the highest priority should probably be given to helping society to achieve sustainability.

Decide what actions the firm should take to help society achieve sustainability and/or to reduce the corporation's negative impacts - bearing in mind the corporation's other priorities.

Review the corporation's policies and actions and assess their adequacy

Revise the corporation's policies and action programs

Discussion topics

Contributions to the discussion should be identified in the subject line of your email by quoting the code for the topic.

More than one code can be used if the email refers to more than one topic. Where possible it would be helpful to limit the discussion in one email to one topic. If you want to discuss a topic that is not listed below please contact Philip Sutton to register the topic.

Code

Issues

Questions

Definition People often have their own assumed meaning for the term sustainability and they get confused or even annoyed when others use it to mean something different. Also if sustainability is to mean something specific then there must be some things it doesn't mean. What do people mean when they use the term sustainability? Should they mean the same thing? How should we use the term to reduce confusion? What meanings should we not give to sustainability if its conceptual power is to be retained?

Pursuing sustainability? Lot's of organisations think they are pursuing sustainability when in fact they are not. What's the difference between simply 'acting on the environment' (or social or economic welfare) and 'promoting sustainability'? Are the actions for a sustainability-promoting corporation (identified above) appropriate and adequate?

To or towards? People have got into the habit of talking about taking action to 'towards' sustainability. Is sustainability something that we try to approach but never expect to achieve (like perfection) or is it a practical goal that should be achieved? Does it matter if we don't achieve sustainability?

Speed and scale Many programs to promote action on sustainability tell corporations the direction they should be going in but they do not say how far and how fast progress should be made in the preferred direction. Should we try to specify the speed and scale of change needed if society is to be sustainable?

Mainstreaming radical agenda When people try to mainstream progressive approaches to the environment, society and the economy they usually assume that they have to water down the radicalism of their program in order to win acceptance. But we know that the achievement of ecological sustainability requires very radical change. How can we win mainstream acceptance for a radical agenda? How can we avoid frightening the horses without putting them to sleep?

Propagation People often say that major corporate change cannot be achieved without strong support from top management. But there are few top managers in Australia that would support a radical sustainability agenda in their corporation. And other top managers are unlikely to pick up a radical sustainability agenda until it has been maintreamed. How can we propagate a radical sustainability agenda throughout Australian corporations when few top managers will currently support such a an educational program?

Motivation The primary reason for promoting sustainability is the good of society and other species. And yet traditionally we assume that it is profit making or the expansion of corporate power that motivates corporations. What would motivate corporations (for profit and not-for-profit) to become sustainability-promoting?

Special methods Promoting sustainability seems to be inherently difficult. Complex system problems have to be solved. for profit organisations need to be motivated to pursue the public good. Powerful vested interests have to be redirected by apparently weaker players. Major trade-offs against multiple objectives have to be avoided while practical outcomes are achieved. Are there any special methods or mind sets that would make sustainability-promotion feasible or even easy?

Examples How might the sustainability-promoting corporation operate? Many good ideas can be developed based on theory and professional judgement. But for many people this form of insight is not compelling. Also actual experience can tell us a lot about the practicalities that theory might miss. So, what examples do we have of sustainability-promoting corporations - anywhere in the world? How do they promote sustainability? How do they make a profit or ensure their viability while pursuing the public good?

Contributions to the discussion

People's contributions to the discussion will be put up on the web as the discussion unfolds. Hyperlinks will be added for each discussion topic.

Last modified: 13 October 1998

Code	Issues	Questions
Definition	People often have their own assumed meaning for the term sustainability and they get confused or even annoyed when others use it to mean something different. Also if sustainability is to mean something specific then there must be some things it doesn't mean.	What do people mean when they use the term sustainability? Should they mean the same thing? How should we use the term to reduce confusion? What meanings should we not give to sustainability if its conceptual power is to be retained?
Pursuing sustainability?	Lot's of organisations think they are pursuing sustainability when in fact they are not.	What's the difference between simply 'acting on the environment' (or social or economic welfare) and 'promoting sustainability'? Are the actions for a sustainability-promoting corporation (identified above) appropriate and adequate?
To or towards?	People have got into the habit of talking about taking action to 'towards' sustainability.	Is sustainability something that we try to approach but never expect to achieve (like perfection) or is it a practical goal that should be achieved? Does it matter if we don't achieve sustainability?
Speed and scale	Many programs to promote action on sustainability tell corporations the direction they should be going in but they do not say how far and how fast progress should be made in the preferred direction.	Should we try to specify the speed and scale of change needed if society is to be sustainable?
Mainstreaming radical agenda	When people try to mainstream progressive approaches to the environment, society and the economy they usually assume that they have to water down the radicalism of their program in order to win acceptance. But we know that the achievement of ecological sustainability requires very radical change.	How can we win mainstream acceptance for a radical agenda? How can we avoid frightening the horses without putting them to sleep?
Propagation	People often say that major corporate change cannot be achieved without strong support from top management. But there are few top managers in Australia that would support a radical sustainability agenda in their corporation. And other top managers are unlikely to pick up a radical sustainability agenda until it has been maintreamed.	How can we propagate a radical sustainability agenda throughout Australian corporations when few top managers will currently support such a an educational program?
Motivation	The primary reason for promoting sustainability is the good of society and other species. And yet traditionally we assume that it is profit making or the expansion of corporate power that motivates corporations.	What would motivate corporations (for profit and not-for-profit) to become sustainability-promoting?
Special methods	Promoting sustainability seems to be inherently difficult. Complex system problems have to be solved. for profit organisations need to be motivated to pursue the public good. Powerful vested interests have to be redirected by apparently weaker players. Major trade-offs against multiple objectives have to be avoided while practical outcomes are achieved.	Are there any special methods or mind sets that would make sustainability-promotion feasible or even easy?
Examples	How might the sustainability-promoting corporation operate? Many good ideas can be developed based on theory and professional judgement. But for many people this form of insight is not compelling. Also actual experience can tell us a lot about the practicalities that theory might miss.	So, what examples do we have of sustainability-promoting corporations - anywhere in the world? How do they promote sustainability? How do they make a profit or ensure their viability while pursuing the public good?