Definitions

Definitions of sustainable development

Sustainable development can mean many things:

• To a strategic planner for a corporation it might mean the analysis to determine if there is enough water available in an area to sustain the company’s business plan. Some may think this folly because water is so plentiful – they would be wrong.
• To an environmentalist it might mean companies and society needing to stop growing at the expense of the earth and to develop a better harmony. Global warming, clearing of trees and over-fishing of oceans are common sustainable topics.
• To a third-world activist it could be the impact of industrialization on the social fabric of a particular country – the cultural ecology.

Sustainable development encompasses the classic tension of preserving the past while improving the future.

Yet the ultimate goals of multinational corporations are the same: managing shareholder value, maintaining your market share by responding to the global marketplace, and ensuring the removal of barriers to growth.

What’s different? Identifying and managing risks has become more complicated: less direct, more enigmatic; less precise, more intangible:

• Environmental controls mean product life-cycle control. The regulated entity is the product not the manufacturing facility. Made in the USA – sold in Germany – controlled by USA and German regulations
• Non-government organizations (NGOs) – these organizations are more powerful and dictate social and environmental changes by affecting the marketplace. Ask Nike, Shell or Monsanto.