IS BEING SUSTAINABLE MEANS MORE

PROFITABLE OR MORE ENVIRONMENTAL

INTRODUCTION

As we are witnessing from global warming, extreme changes in weather conditions and
degradation of environment, the need for environmental sustainability has become major
concern. World population is also growing at a larger rate, the need for resources is also
increasing. Industrial activities led to the degradation of environment affecting the ecosystems.
Those enterprises who were responsible for this were not held accountable for it. These
negative consequences came into the notice of global leaders. So leaders from all over the world
gathered to find solution for this problem. In order to prevent the environment they signed few
treaties. (Nkechinyere V. Attah, 2010).
International treaty on environment which is known as United Nations Framework Convention
on Climate Change (UNFCCC) was produced at the United Nations Conference on
Environment and Development (UNCED), called as the Earth Summit.

INTRODUCTION
Let us see what Environment and Sustainability are:

Environment is an ultimate source of life. The needs of human beings are dependent on the
environment indirectly or directly.
In 1987, UN Commission on Economic Development in its Brundtland report titled Our Common
Future defined sustainability as that which meets the needs of the present without compromising
the ability of the future generations to meet their own goals(United Nations, 1987).

Sustainability has three components:

Environment
Society
Economy

Elements of Sustainability

Environment: It includes biodiversity, interaction between biotic and abiotic factors, energy,
fuels etc.
Social: It includes structures of institution, organization and political, quality of life, equity,
cultural, ethnic and linguistic diversity of human beings.
Economy: It includes capital, money, technology, investment, employment, market actors
etc. Overall sustainability of all these three components will make our world a better place to
live in (Sutton, 2004)
Figure: Adapted from source:
(Finidori, 2013)

Literature Review of Environmental

Sustainability And Sustainable Growth
Five major Agreements that were introduced for sustainability:

Rio Declaration

Forest Principles,

Convention on Climate Change,

Convention on Biological Diversity and

Agenda 21.
Another world summit in 2002 was held in Johannesburg, South Africa on sustainable
development. Some points where countries agreed mutually at this summit were:
Energy efficiency.
Increase access to drinking water to more people.
Access to energy services.
Use of Renewable Energy.
Reduce Biodiversity loss.
Implementation of national development sustainble strategies.
Another Effort is Kyoto Protocol, its aim was to set a binding goal on industrialized countries
to reduce green house gases emission (GHG).

Literature Review of Environmental

Sustainability And Sustainable Growth

Kyoto Protocol was highly flawed (Shaw, 2002) . From the beginning, it faced problems to reach some agreements. Some countries
emission targets were more than allowed. USA is one such country whose emission levels were quarter of the emission of worlds
greenhouse gases. Countries like India and China were reluctant on further reductions.
A lot of NGOs and Private organizations were taking strong steps towards sustainability. More attention is on social and
environmental dimensions of business activities in organizations which were linked to triple bottom line ( Elkington, 1997 ). Managers
focusing on the triple bottom line; People (social), Planet (environmental) and Profit (economic).
They explained their strategies for sustainable development in their reports (Baskin, 2006, ACCA, 2004). A group of 29 organizations
came with a project called VISION 2050. The aim of this project was to draw a framework which will bring fundamental changes in
human and organisational behavior , governance structure and economic policies by 2050.

Literature Review of Environmental

Sustainability And Sustainable Growth
Human progress and development cannot be achieved without sustainability. It is said that these
components are obstacles in the way of development but in reality sustainability and development can be
achieved simultaneously. (Sutton, 2004)
Environment sustainability: It is the ability to maintain the existence and qualities of things of our
environment.
Social sustainability: For this prerequisite is environmental sustainability. It focuses on quality of life
and in improving the life of people by reducing poverty. It is a process that tries to raise the standard of
living of people in a sustained manner.
Economic Sustainability: Every countrys goal is development. To have a better economic conditions is
what each nation want. The economic sustainability is a process that seeks for growth and development
of a nation by modernization and investment on long term basis.
Figure: Adapted from source:
(Swiss statistics,2002)

Sustainable Development
There are two major elements of sustainable development: (WCED, 1987)
Equity- It means taking care of the needs of weakest ( poorest)
section of society in the world. It focuses on overall development of a country including all
the sections of society. Equality in development is its motto.
Growth with limitations:
Growth with long term damage and burden on resources is more harmful than status quo
because in long run it will not be able to sustain and ruin the future of current generation and
present of future generations.
Principles of Sustainable development:

SUSTAINABILITY MODEL
Prism Model of Sustainability:
In recent times, alternative models of sustainability have been introduced that can define the scope of
sustainability extensively. The Prism of sustainable development is adapted from the Wuppertal
school (Spangenberg and Bonniot 1998; Valentin and Spangenberg 1999). It describes about the four
components.
Social dimension (human capital), Environmental dimension (natural capital), and Economic dimension
(man-made capital)as the base for Institutional dimension (social capital). In each of these components,
there are few norms which are used to measure how far one can sustain in development (cf. Valentin
and Spangenberg 1999).
- Adapted from Spangenberg and Bonniot (1998) ; & Valentin & Spangenberg (1999)
Institutional Dimension
( social capital)
Economic Dimension
( Man-Made Capital)

Social Dimension
(Human Capital)

Environmental Dimension
(Natural capital)
Fig: Prism of sustainable development

SUSTAINABILITY MODEL
This prism model of sustainable development is criticized by, Kain (2000, p. 25) argues,
that the economic dimension tends to include assets emanating from all four dimensions,
thus, adding confusion to the description and analysis. Consequently, he proposed a model
MAIN prism of sustainable development. In this, Kain used these words Mind, Artefact,
Institution and Nature in order to release the prism model from the burden of terms like
social and economic, which are known to be puzzling than informative.
Fig - The MAIN prism of sustainable development (Source: Stenberg 2001, p. 43)

(KAIN, 2000)

SUSTAINABILITY MODEL
Environmental Component (Nature) consists of all natural capital, which may be divided into
Non-renewable and Renewable resources.
Economic Component (Artefact) includes man-made capital like buildings, technology, roads
etc.
Social Component (Mind) should be conceived as matter of individual perspective like
knowledge and experience.
Institutional Component involves organizational society and the relation between people.
Management of Human Consumption-

ISSUES AND CHALLENGES

Can we imagine our life without fresh air, clean water, food, natural
resources and fertile soil? The answer is No.
The reason is that we cannot survive without these elements for a longer
period of time. This elements constitute environment. In order to keep
getting the services of environment. Its sustainability is very necessary.
How an issue can be a sustainability issue?
(Sutton, 2004)
Whenever there is a threat to the quality, maintenance and existence of
system , process, object and characteristic that is valued then
Sustainability issue arises.

Environmental Sustainability Issues and challenges

Some of the issues that poses threat on environmental sustainability are:

(Sutton, 2004)
Destruction of the Environments and habitats of native species
Discharge of pollutants and other hazardous materials into the
environment .
Emission of greenhouse gases into the atmosphere which cause climate
change.
Depletion of non renewable sources like fuels and petroleum products is
putting burden on the resources.
Water is getting polluted due to harmful industrial chemicals and
underground water table is diminishing which will lead to scarcity of
water in future.
Nutrients of soils are disappearing making the soil infertile.

Environmental Sustainability Issues and challenges

(Department of economic and Social affairs, 2013)

World is facing challenges in all three dimensions of sustainable

development i.e. economic, social and environmental.
The people who are living in extreme poverty, and income are more than
1 billion
Inequalities between people among the countries and within the country
are increasing at a rapid speed
Consumption and Production in an unsustainable patterns have resulted in
huge economic and social costs which will later endanger life of various
species on the planet.
Global actions are required to achieve sustainable development which can
help the nations to progress in social and economic spheres of life
maintaining the equilibrium with the environment.

Solutions For Environmental Sustainability Issues

And Challenges

(Department of economic and Social affairs, 2013)

Sustainable development should be inclusive i.e. It should look after the weakest
sections of society.
Strategies should be action-oriented and adaptable for all type of developments.
Consumption and Production patterns should be changed
Conservation and preservation of natural endowments should be encouraged;
Inequality(social, gender and economic) should be reduced and governance should
be strengthened.
Food and nutrition security should be ensured in order to prevent the obstacles
raising food insecurity.
Good Governance and better administration.
Policy Interventions.

Environmental Protection For Its Sustainability

(Goodland , 1995)
Use of renewable source of energy:
Wind energy and Solar energy
Reuse of materials and recycling of waste products
Conservation of forest by planting trees.
Equity driven policies: Focusing on gender and social equity.
Use of products that cause less pollutions
Spreading awareness among people towards sustainable development making them
responsible.
Developing industries outside the cities where people do not live.
Banning the industries that use harmful chemicals.
By using Bio fuels and organic products.
By buying green i.e. by using green energyBuying green helps: (U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, 2009)
Most of the green products are reusable and recyclable. It needs less packaging. It
reduces toxic pollutants and helps in conserving energy and water. It is nontoxic, so it
is beneficial for health. It saves money from increased energy and water efficiency and
reduces the regulatory and production costs. It reduces the green house gas emissions .

Advantages of sustainable development

Carbon neutral,
primarily sustainable
natural resource use.
Minimal issues of
compliance and safety .
No environmental
liabilities .
Zero wastage
Pollution free world.
More Economic
credibility
Technology
innovation, Growth and
Development.
Social, economic and
Environment
credibility.

CONCLUSION

Life with clean and sustainable environment is a boon and

development cannot be achieved without sustainability of
environmental resources.

Sustainable development is a way to build a better world and it is the only way which
can assure long term progress and happiness in the lives of people

REFERENCES

ACCA (2004). Towards transparency: Progress on global sustainability reporting 2004,

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Outlook. Master of Science in Organizational Dynamics Theses. Pennsylvania.

REFERENCES

Shaw, Jonathan (2002). The Great Global Experiment, Harvard Magazine, November December,
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