Tag: Sustainability

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IPAT and the End of Growth

In the early 1970s Ehrlich and Holdren devised a simple equation in dialogue with Commoner identifying three factors that created environmental impact. Thus, impact (I) was expressed as the product of (1) population, (P); (2) affluence (A); and (3) technology, (T):

I = P * A * T

Population is the number of people on the planet, affluence is measured in GDP per capita, and technology is environmental impact per GDP. When looking at the growth rates of each I, P, A, and T the formula changes towards this form:

dI = dP + dA + dT

In order to see how the impact changes from one year to the next one, you just have to sum up the changes in population increase, affluence, and technological progress.… Read more

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The risk and promise of business ethics

“The matter has a name: business ethics. And a secret, that is its rules. But my guess is that this matter belongs to the variety of phenomena like the raison d’etat or English cuisine that appear in the form of a mystery, because they have to keep secret that they do not exist.”*

When you look into the real world you can hardly find any substantial objection to Niklas Luhmann’s verdict. Quite on the contrary there is tantamount evidence that business behaves without any reference to ethics, not even to the ethics of rogues.… Read more

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Economic Sustainability Revisited

When business people and management scholars speak of sustainability, they most often refer to the idea of a triple bottom line for planet, people and profit – sustainability as the integration of ecological, social and economic goals or dimensions. The focus of research, just as the activities of “sustainability managers”, is on calculating and evaluating ecological and social sustainability. Carbon footprinting, lifecycle analysis, employee motivation and human capital as an asset – these topics are often driving sustainability debates in companies.… Read more

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Why monetize sustainability?

When talking about corporate responsibility, the issue of measurement comes up after a while. And rightly so, because if you cannot measure it you can hardly formulate goals, develop programs for implementation and evaluate your success in achieving them. But what is measured? The answer is simple: money. Regardless if you are trying to measure your company’s ecological or societal impact, most of the times you end up with calculating in Euro, Dollar, Pound and other currencies.… Read more

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Degrowth capitalism — Oxymoron or blind spot?

In the persistent controversy over the necessity and possibility of ongoing economic growth for ecological sustainability and societal well-being, growth critics gather around Serge Latouche’s décroissance — degrowth. Being sort of a degrowth economist myself, I started to wonder about something you might wish to call “degrowth capitalism”. Having my disciplinary background in management science, it always appeared to me as a strange blind spot in the degrowth debate. The level of the firm is all too easily neglected, with the minor exceptions of social entrepreneurship.… Read more