Practical Sustainability Strategies

How to Gain a Competitive Advantage

George P. Nassos, Nikos Avlonas

• Editore: Wiley
• Anno: 2020
• ISBN:
  9781119561095
• Edizione: 2
• Argomento: Ciencias físicas
• Categoria: Química

The guide to sustainable strategies and tools to improve competitive business advantage, updated with practical case studies and supporting teaching material

The revised and updated second edition of Practical Sustainability Strategies is filled with proven strategies and tools for organizations to integrate sustainability into their business models. Drawing on the authors' research and years of hands-on experience, the book defines strategies that organizations can put in place to develop, extend, or maintain competitive advantage without harming the environment.Additionally, the authors provide tools for measuring and reporting progress and present illustrative case studies that clearly demonstrate the importance of implementing sustainability.

Since the first edition was published in 2013, new strategies, measurements, and certifications have been developed. The book, which is used by several business schools around the globe, has been updated to include these new and effective strategies, including circular economy, the sharing economy, adaptation, resiliency, and strategies to fight climate change. This new edition also highlights the UN Sustainable Development Goals that have been adopted worldwide. This updated second edition:

• Covers new strategies, measuring systems, GRI, STARS and B-Lab certifications
• Offers teaching slides and questions for use in the classroom
• Explores the principles and importance of sustainability
• Examines more than 10 different sustainability strategies
• Presents the economic justification for sustainability with illustrative examples

Written for sustainability managers, ESG professionals, engineers, process designers, policy makers, CEOs, business schools, and others, the second edition of Practical Sustainability Strategies offers an updated guide to the most recent strategies and tools that can be put into place to improve competitive advantage, while also providing a positive impact to the community and workplace.

PART I
INTRODUCTION TO SUSTAINABILITY

CHAPTER 1
Urgency to Adopt Sustainability

It has been close to 60 years since we started reading books or articles about the environment with “Silent Spring” by Rachel Carson being one of the first important books published in 1962. Many other outstanding books have been written about the environment since then such as “The Ecology of Commerce” by Paul Hawken in 1993 and “Natural Capitalism” by Paul Hawken, Amory Lovins, and L. Hunter Lovins in 2008. The number and frequency of new books have increased as more and more people are concerned about the state of the environment.

Very few people question the decline in the state of our environment, only the degree to which it has deteriorated or the rate at which it is continuing to deteriorate. Regardless of the current status of our environment, it is important to put in perspective what has happened to our earth since its creation. Historians estimate that the earth is about 4.5 billion years old, but it is really difficult to understand exactly what this means. What does 1 billion really mean? Let's consider a situation where a 21-year-old girl is given US$1 billion as a gift, and she places the money in a noninterest bearing account. She will be able to spend US$60,000 every day of her life until she retires at the age of, say, 65 and still have US$36 million left over for retirement. This gives someone a better understanding of 1 billion really means.

So how can we put 4.5 billion years in perspective so we can understand what has happened to the earth since its creation. As suggested by David Brower [1], former Executive Director of the Sierra Club, let us compress the geologic time, from the initial formation of the earth until now, into the six days of biblical creation [2], from Monday to Saturday.

CREATION OF THE ENVIRONMENT

Using the compressed time scale, the earth was formed at midnight, the beginning of the first day, Monday. There is no life until Tuesday about 8:00 A.M., and millions of species begin to appear and disappear throughout the week. Photosynthesis begins and it gets into high gear by Thursday morning, just after midnight. By Saturday, the sixth and last day of creation, there is sufficient oxygen in the atmosphere that amphibians can come onto land, and enough chlorophyll manufactured for the vegetation to begin to form coal deposits. The giant reptiles appear around 4:00 P.M. and primates show up at 10:00 P.M. on this last day, but Homo sapiens don't appear until 11:59:54—just six seconds ago. In other words, if we compress the age of the earth to six days, or 144 hours, “man” is not created until the last six seconds. A quarter of a second to midnight, Jesus Christ appears. One-fortieth of a second ago is the beginning of the industrial age, and one-eightieth of a second ago, we discover oil, thus accelerating the carbon blowout started by the industrial revolution.

Scientists have predicted that this 4.5 billion year old earth will be around for another “week.” But look at the damage that has been done in just the past one-fortieth of a second. Almost 90% of the major fisheries have been depleted or are at their biological limit [3]. It is estimated that the forest cover has been reduced by as much as 40% worldwide [4]; 50% of the wetlands [5], and more than 95% of the US grasslands have been lost [6]. By 2025, two-thirds of the world's population may face water shortages [7]. The big question now is how long will we last, another one-fortieth of a second—about five generations? Or will we be able to survive for another quarter of a second—about 2000 years? Or can we make a difference to extend a healthy world to some indefinite period of time? Or is it too late, and are we in the midst of a period of overshooting the carrying capacity of the earth, followed by a rapid collapse?

God did not create the natural environment for the benefit of the people so they can use and misuse it. The environment can be used indefinitely as long as it is replenished. It has the capacity to support the needs of living creatures—plants and animals, including humans—but only a finite number. If this carrying capacity is exceeded to the degree that it cannot be replenished, the population that it is supporting will decrease significantly. This can be demonstrated by a real experiment conducted by scientists a number of years ago.

EXCEEDING THE ECOLOGICAL FOOTPRINT

Near the end of World War II in 1944, the United States Coast Guard placed 29 reindeer on St. Matthew Island in the Bering Sea as an emergency food supply for the US military. This island consisted primarily of vegetation and was void of any predators. Specialists had calculated that the island could support between 13 and 18 reindeer per square mile, or a total population of between 1600 and 2300 animals.

In 1957, the population was 1350; but just six years later in 1963, the population had exploded to 6000. Were the scientists wrong in their calculations of how many reindeer the island could support?

Eventually it was determined that the original calculations had been correct. The 6000 reindeer vastly exceeded the carrying capacity of the island and they were soon decimated by disease, starvation, and extreme weather conditions. Such a drastic overshoot, however, did not lead to restabilization at a lower level with some of the reindeer dying off. Instead, the entire habitat was so damaged by the overshoot of reindeer that the number of animals fell far short of the original carry capacity. In 1966, just three years later, there were only 42 reindeer living on St. Matthew Island rather than the expected 1600–2300. The reduction was primarily due to disease and starvation.

This is an example of what could happen to the earth. In the case of St. Matthew Island, the resources used by the reindeer were grasses, trees, and shrubs, all renewable resources that can be replenished. Many of the resources necessary for human survival, however, are not renewable. There is only a finite quantity of resources such as minerals, oil, and coal. We must be cognizant of the over utilization of both renewable and non-renewable resources.

To examine this over-utilization of the earth's resources, we must look at a concept called the ecological footprint. This is a tool for measuring and analyzing human natural resource consumption and waste output within the context of nature's renewable and regenerative capacity (or bio-capacity). It represents a quantitative assessment of the biologically productive area required to produce the resources (food, energy, and materials) and to absorb the wastes of an individual or region. In terms of resources, it includes cropland, grazing land, forest, fishing grounds, and built-up land. The footprint to handle waste output includes the forests required to absorb all the carbon dioxide emissions resulting from the individual's energy consumption.

In order to be sure we don't exceed the carry capacity of the earth, the footprint for humanity must be within the annual regenerative capability of nature. Similarly, we must not exceed the absorptive capacity of the planet for the handling of the waste that is produced. A sustainable environment will exist if we live within the earth's regenerative and absorptive capacity. If we remove more from nature than can be provided indefinitely, we are on an unsustainable track.

An organization called Global Footprint Network [8] has been calcula...

Indice dei contenuti

• COVER
• TABLE OF CONTENTS
• PREFACE OF GEORGE P. NASSOS
• PREFACE OF NIKOS AVLONAS
• ABOUT THE COMPANION WEBSITE
• PART I: INTRODUCTION TO SUSTAINABILITY
• PART II: SUSTAINABILITY STRATEGIES
• PART III: PRACTICAL TOOLS AND GUIDELINES
• PART IV: CONCLUSION
• INDEX
• END USER LICENSE AGREEMENT