Search results
1 – 10 of 753A sustainability reporting framework must demonstrate that resources are fairly bought and used to support diverse life on earth within habitable ranges. The purpose of this paper…
Abstract
Purpose
A sustainability reporting framework must demonstrate that resources are fairly bought and used to support diverse life on earth within habitable ranges. The purpose of this paper is to propose a principle-based sustainability reporting framework that measures, audits and reports based on sustainability outcomes and impacts as part of the corporate reporting framework.
Design/methodology/approach
This paper draws on the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (UN SDGs) and targets for preparing a reporting framework. It uses Gaia Theory and the Theory of Distributive Justice constructs that align with sustainable development principles to delineate a reporting approach.
Findings
Frameworks that promote sustainability reporting have increasingly embraced UN SDGs but overly focus on performance promoting inter-firm comparisons. This framework introduces principle-based sustainability reporting where firms demonstrate their chosen contribution to sustainable development using 17 UN SDGs as goal posts.
Research limitations/implications
This conceptual paper presents theoretical constructs that future research can empirically validate to enhance sustainability reporting.
Practical implications
This principle-based sustainability reporting framework is implementable for corporate reporting, where sustainability reporting integrates with the financial and economic intellectual capital reporting frameworks.
Social implications
This framework highlights the importance of acquiring and using resources to distribute justice and fairness. It is a joint project between firms and stakeholders.
Originality/value
This framework promotes integrated thinking for firms to engage in principle-based sustainability reporting and provides a roadmap for sustainability reporting using the SDG Compass logic model.
Details
Keywords
W. Edward Stead and Jean Garner Stead
Economic wealth is humankind′s most dominant myth. However, this mythmust be significantly altered if economic activity and ecologicalsustainability are to be achieved for…
Abstract
Economic wealth is humankind′s most dominant myth. However, this myth must be significantly altered if economic activity and ecological sustainability are to be achieved for posterity. Changing the economic myth means shifting the paradigms which underlie it, and shifting these paradigms means changing the assumptions and values which lie at the heart of business′s relationship to the planet. Research supports the notion that widescale, fundamental change efforts are required to achieve such shifts. Examines the magnitude of the changes which probably will be necessary in order to achieve a truly sustainable society in the future. Discusses the nature of some of the scientific, economic, and management paradigm shifts which need to take place in business organizations before the myth of economic wealth can be truly modified to include Mother Earth.
Details
Keywords
The purpose of this article is to present an alternative theory to why publicly‐traded physician practice management companies in the US were popular and successful for a limited…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this article is to present an alternative theory to why publicly‐traded physician practice management companies in the US were popular and successful for a limited number of years and then essentially self‐destructed.
Design/methodology/approach
The short history of publicly‐traded practice management companies suggests that they had limited value and utility in the US healthcare industry. It is the premise of the paper that the sudden appearance these for‐profit companies upset the natural order within the healthcare industry and created a disequilibria which ultimately resulted in their demise. While Gaia theory is most commonly applied to the natural sciences, it has been applied to a number of interdisciplinary issues.
Findings
Physicians gravitated to these for‐profit companies either out of fear of encroaching managed care or out a desire to sell their practice to the highest bidder. Physician practice management companies, on the other hand, saw a way to entice stockholders to invest in a growth industry. The paper suggests that the physician practice management companies added little new value to the health care industry and applies Gaia theory as a possible explanation for this phenomena. Gaia theory was first postulated in 1979 to address the evolution of the material environment and corresponding organisms as a tightly coupled system which attempt to manipulate the environment for the purpose of creating biologically favorable conditions.
Originality/value
The paper is one of the first to suggest that the laws of nature, as understood from the perspective of Gaia theory, may have applicability to the US health care industry.
Details
Keywords
Göran Svensson and Beverly Wagner
Companies and their business networks impact on Earth's life and ecosystems must be seriously addressed and minimized. The purpose of this paper therefore proposes and describes a…
Abstract
Purpose
Companies and their business networks impact on Earth's life and ecosystems must be seriously addressed and minimized. The purpose of this paper therefore proposes and describes a generic model as well as a network model of business sustainability.
Design/methodology/approach
“Business sustainability” is defined as a company's or an organization's efforts to manage its impact on Earth's life‐ and eco‐systems and its whole business network. The work concentrates on one research question, namely: how can business sustainability and E‐footprints be conceptualised?
Findings
The model introduced emphasises not only the importance of business networks adopting an E‐footprint and an Earth‐to‐Earth (EE) cradle‐to‐cradle approach, but also a transformative Earth (E) footprint‐model derived and inspired from a causal framework in complexity sciences.
Research limitations/implications
Research is rare that simultaneously focuses on EE‐approaches, E‐footprint stakeholders and zero‐sum cycles. The authors have striven to address this gap by introducing a business sustainability model in an EE‐approach and with an interconnecting transformative E‐footprint‐model.
Practical implications
It is crucial to embed appropriate routines and processes within the company in the first instance with the aim of business sustainability. This may cause a ripple effect in the company's business network as raw material producers, value‐adding suppliers and customers become drawn into make appropriate strategic, tactical and operative adaptations in their own business dealings. This stresses the importance of E‐footprint stakeholders fostering networks of both interdependent and collaborative corporate efforts aimed at business sustainability.
Originality/value
The main contribution should be a business sustainability model of life and ecosystems from an EE‐approach with a transformative E‐footprint.model. Each company within a business network must endeavour to minimise its E‐footprint through its zero‐sum cycles. These should be seen as interdependent and interconnected thereby contributing to the total E‐footprint of the business network.
Details
Keywords
The purpose of this paper is to present the concept of global “strategic sustainability”, represented by a conceptual framework, the “spheres of strategic sustainability”. The…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to present the concept of global “strategic sustainability”, represented by a conceptual framework, the “spheres of strategic sustainability”. The paper examines routes, solutions and a vision for corporate strategic sustainability in the macro context of the global physical environment and the planet. This builds on previous research identifying key drivers and strategies for corporate sustainability.
Design/methodology/approach
The paper is conceptual in nature and underpinned by Gaia theory, ecosystems theory and the laws of thermodynamics. These three offer specific foci for sustainability research including holism, integration and synthesis: without which, sustainability research would be difficult to achieve.
Findings
The paper identifies two major domains – “corporate” and “consumer” strategic sustainability. It examines the corporate domain in which routes are identified through responses to existing globalisation, corporate strategy and corporate culture.
Research limitations/implications
The paper provides insight and preliminary conceptual development towards a full theoretical model of corporate and consumer strategic sustainability. The framework will guide future conceptual and empirical investigations and broaden and deepen our understanding of how firm's can construct strategic business models that incorporate sustainability.
Originality/value
The paper offers a conceptual framework that develops the concept of “corporate strategic sustainability” and provides positive, practical solutions to incorporating sustainability into business models. It also challenges the current dominant socio‐economic paradigm and sets the scene for a more positive eco‐paradigm that serves the present and future needs of the planet, environment, businesses and human society.
Details
Keywords
This chapter examines the historical development of different conceptions of health among environmental activists in the postwar United States.
Abstract
Purpose
This chapter examines the historical development of different conceptions of health among environmental activists in the postwar United States.
Methodology/approach
The historical analysis combines archival research with oral history interviews.
Findings
This study argues that applications of “health” to describe the environment are more diverse than generally acknowledged, and that environmental activists were at the forefront of connecting the two terms within broader public discourse.
Originality/value of chapter
This study provides a historical context for understanding the contemporary diversity of perspectives on the links between ecology and health. It illustrates the cross-fertilization between scientists, philosophers, and environmental activists in the 1970s that led to this contemporary diversity.
Details