The way we respond to different situations depends on how we perceive the world and how we think it works. Living life is not a zero-based decision-making process. It tends most often to be an incremental process where we add and interpret new information to existing meanings and understandings that are rarely reevaluated in the process. If some generally accepted knowledge appears to have led to successful decisions in the past, we tend not to challenge that knowledge even though it may have become invalid over time and in view of changing situations. Over the 35 or so year life of our profession, much around us has changed. With the ever increasing speed and availability of communication resources; exponential growth in information technology; continuous population increases; consolidation of worldwide wealth, capital and resources; dramatic growth of corporate power; dramatic political changes; changing status of nations, growth of the agro industry, and more, no one can reasonably expect that long-held underlying assumptions of how the world works can still be valid or do not warrant scrutiny.
There are many questions to be asked and answered. Some of those are identified here and addressed below.
May 7, 2009 by
AROMAKE AFIEGBE | Filed under: Moving from Eco-Marketing to Sustainable Consumption [4] | No Comments »
Bridges, Claudia M., and Wendy Bryce Wilhelm. “Going Beyond Green: The “Why and How” Of Integrating Sustainability into the Marketing Curriculum.” Journal of Marketing Education 30 1 (2008): 33-46.
Teaching sustainable marketing practices requires that curricula advocate a “triple bottom line” approach to personal and marketing decision making, emphasizing requirements for a sustainable lifestyle, company, economy, and society. These requirements include environmental/ecological stewardship (maintenance and renewal of “natural capital”), social stewardship (equitable distribution of resources, human, and community well-being), and economic stewardship (valuing financial continuity over profit). In this article, the authors suggest how marketing educators might incorporate these sustainability principles into marketing pedagogy. Toward that end, the authors (a) offer a formal definition of the term sustainability, (b) examine the current role of sustainability in marketing strategy at the firm level, (c) present a brief history of academic literature relevant to this topic and review current initiatives at academic institutions, (d) offer resources for integrating sustainability into marketing curricula, and (e) propose and describe the implementation of an MBA-level marketing elective dedicated to the topic of sustainability.
May 1, 2009 by
Brian Butler | Filed under: Generating Sustainability Innovation [4] | No Comments »
Innovation and Global Sustainable Growth. Paper presented at the Business and Insdustry Advisory Committee (BIAC) Consultation with Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) Ministers, London, England.
This paper cites investment and trade as innovation drivers and identifies best practices for industries and services within various sectors to become more sustainable through innovation. Showcasing a wide variety of ideas, this effort illustrates the effectiveness innovation provides to bolster economic development. The ideas outlined also provide an effective tool to alter mindsets and behaviors in an effort to reduce the fear of change and motivate the development of future innovation campaigns.
May 1, 2009 by
Brian Butler ,
and
admin | Filed under: Generating Sustainability Innovation [4] | No Comments »
Bossink, B (2007) Leadership for Sustainable Innovation, International Journal of Technology Management and Sustainable Development, 6(2), 135-149.
In an illustration of methods used for generating sustainable innovation, this article discusses the Environmental Manager’s style on the innovation processes. Several Dutch projects are planned and the various leadership styles are tracked and results of their effectiveness are measured and critiqued.
May 1, 2009 by
Brian Butler and
| Filed under: Generating Sustainability Innovation [4] | 1 Comment »
Maxwell, D., Sheate, M., & van der Vorst, R. (2003, October 27-28). Sustainable Innovation in Product and Service Development. Paper presented at the 8th International Conference, Towards Sustainable Product Design 8, Imperial College, London, England.
This paper introduces a method for creating sustainable innovation through a combination of traditional Sustainable Product Development approaches including additional efforts (Sustainable Product and Service Development) within the product supply chain. Industry case examples illustrate how this approach facilitates innovation and business benefits, and removes barriers such as; lack of focus on functionality, on product supply and value chains, integration of common language and terminology.
May 1, 2009 by
Brian Butler | Filed under: Eco-Services and Business: Implications for Environmental Strategy [4] | No Comments »
Goldman, R.L., Thompson, B.H., & Daily, G.C. (16 May 2006). Institutional incentives for managing the landscape: Inducing the Cooperation for the production of ecosystem services. Cooperation for Ecological Economics, 64(2007) 333-343.
This article describes a model for agricultural landscapes to incorporate a system to conserve ecosystem resources. Where agricultural lands hold a high potential for diverse ecosystem services, it is important for land owners to adopt an environmental strategy in the form of a comprehensive protective system. Three levels of conservation that are covered are local services such as pollination, regional services such as water purification and flood control, and global services including carbon sequestration.
May 1, 2009 by
Brian Butler | Filed under: Eco-Services and Business: Implications for Environmental Strategy [4] | No Comments »
Tallis, H., Kareiva, P., Marvier, M., & Chang, A. (15 July 2008). An ecosystem services framework to support both practical conservation and economic development. PNAS, 105(28) 9457-9464.
This article focuses upon the premise that conservation and development projects should be able to achieve both ecological and social progress. This idea is a fundamental goal of an environmental manager where economic gains are paired with successful conservation measures. Projects that advance both conservation of Eco-Services and Social Development (or poverty alleviation) are classified as a “win-win” outcome but are not always identified, whereas the authors propose to create a global monitoring system to document both successes and failures.
May 1, 2009 by
Brian Butler | Filed under: Eco-Services and Business: Implications for Environmental Strategy [4] | No Comments »
Fisher, B., Turner, R.K., Morling, P. (10 May 07). Defining and classifying ecosystem services for decision making. Eological Economics, 68 (2009) 643-653.
The article illustrates the quantification of Eco Services which is the first step to realizing the importance of an environmental strategy. Without an agreed upon definition and classification system, there is no thorough way to measure Eco Service value, so, through several examples, the authors offer a definition of ecosystem services that is likely to be operational for ecosystem service research and several classification schemes.
April 2, 2009 by
Brian Butler ,
John Morelli and
| Filed under: The Role of Environmental Ethics in Decision-making | 1 Comment »
This workshop will be an exploration and discussion of what environmental professionals believe is the basis for decisions they make and whether the values that an environmental professional places on the environment have a place in decisions related to company policies and actions that have the potential to affect the environment (both positively and negatively).
If there is time, we will discuss whether a company can have an environmental ethic and what impacts that may have on the company and the environmental professional’s ability to make certain decisions.
The workshop objective is to try and formulate answers to some of the following questions:
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Is having an environmental ethic an essential part of, or does it naturally accompany, being an environmental professional?
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What values do you place on the environment?
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What is the impact of your environmental ethic on the decisions you make as an environmental professional?
Moderator: Danielle Mettler,
