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The Business Case
for Sustainable Development
The most broadly accepted
criterion for corporate sustainability constitutes a
firm’s efficient use of natural capital. This
eco-efficiency is usually calculated as the economic
value added by a firm in relation to its aggregated
ecological impact. This idea has been popularised by the
World Business Council for Sustainable Development (WBCSD)
under the following definition: “Eco-efficiency is
achieved by the delivery of competitively-priced goods
and services that satisfy human needs and bring quality
of life, while progressively reducing ecological impacts
and resource intensity throughout the life-cycle to a
level at least in line with the earth’s carrying
capacity.”
Similar to the eco-efficiency concept but so far less
explored is the second criterion for corporate
sustainability. Socio-efficiency describes the relation
between a firm’s value added and its social impact.
Whereas, it can be assumed that most corporate impacts
on the environment are negative (apart from rare
exceptions such as the planting of trees) this is not
true for social impacts. These can be either positive
(e.g. corporate giving, creation of employment) or
negative (e.g. work accidents, mobbing of employees,
human rights abuses). Depending on the type of impact
socio-efficiency thus either tries to minimize negative
social impacts (i.e. accidents per value added) or
maximise positive social impacts (i.e. donations per
value added) in relation to the value added.
Both eco-efficiency and socio-efficiency are concerned
primarily with increasing economic sustainability. In
this process they instrumentalize both natural and
social capital aiming to benefit from win-win
situations. However, as Dyllick and Hockerts point out
the business case alone will not be sufficient to
realise sustainable development. They point towards
eco-effectiveness, socio-effectiveness, sufficiency, and
eco-equity as four criteria that need to be met if
sustianable development is to be reached.
Decade of Education for Sustainable Development
The United Nations has
declared a Decade of Education for Sustainable
Development starting in January 2005. A non-partisan
multi-sector response to the decade has formed within
the U.S. via the U.S. Partnership for the Decade of
Education for Sustainable Development.[18] Active
sectors teams have formed for youth, higher education,
business, religion, the arts, and more. Organizations
and individuals can join in sharing resources and
success stories, and creating a sustainable future.
Sustainable development is not just about business
perspective but should be understood in such way to
benefit the world as a whole.
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