INNOVATING FOR

SUSTAINAILITY
MBAC0036
What is Sustainable Development?
 Antecedents
In the later half of the 20th Century 4 key themes
emerged:
1. Peace
2. Freedom
3. Development
4. Environment
• Peace: The peace that was thought to be
secured in the post world war was immediately
threatened by nuclear arms race. While the
number of wars has diminished over the last
decade, peace is still sought.

• Freedom: Democratic Governance, human

rights, rights of women, minorities etc.
• Environment: The place where we live. The
surroundings or conditions in which a person,
animal, or plant lives or operates.

• Development: Is what we all do in attempting

to improve our lot within that abode.

“These two are Inseparable”

EVOLUTION:
The world commission on Environment and
Development was initiated by the General
Assembly of the United Nations in 1982, and
its report “Our Common Future” was
published in 1987.

It was chaired by the then Prime Minister of

Norway, Gro Harlem Brundtland thus earned
the name the “Brundtland Commission”
The Brundtland Commission defined Sustainable
Development as

“Ability to make development sustainable- to

ensure that it meets the needs of the present
without compromising the ability of future
generations to meet their own needs”
Thus ….
 Sustainability is often thought of as a long-term goal
(i.e. a more sustainable world), while sustainable
development refers to the many processes and pathways
to achieve it (e.g. sustainable agriculture and forestry,
sustainable production and consumption, good
government, research and technology transfer,
education and training, etc.).
 Sustainability is a broad term that describes managing
resources without depleting them for future generations.
Sustainable development describes the processes for
improving long-term economic well-being and quality
of life without compromising future generations’ ability
to meet their needs.
• People concerned about sustainable
development suggest that meeting the needs of
the future depends on how well we balance
social, economic, and environmental
objectives--or needs--when making decisions
today. Some of these needs are itemized
around the puzzle diagram.
3 Pillars of Sustainable Development
• Many of these objectives may seem to conflict
with each other in the short term. For example,
industrial growth might conflict with
preserving natural resources. Yet, in the long
term, responsible use of natural resources now
will help ensure that there are resources
available for sustained industrial growth far
into the future.
 SOCIAL ISSUES

• All people in a society must have access to certain basic

goods and services in order to lead healthy, fulfilling and
productive lives.
• Education and training must be available, so that
everyone has the chance to earn a decent living and learn
new skills.
• Girls must have the same opportunity as boys to go to
school or to get jobs. Women must have access to basic
family planning services and adequate health care and
nutrition for themselves and their children.
• The elderly must receive the medical care, social
security and pensions they need to support themselves as
they grow older. Ensuring fair access to basic services is
an essential task of governments around the world.
 Economic Module
• The goal of sustainable development is to improve
living standards and the quality of people’s lives, both
now and for future generations.
• Economics is a system of deciding how to allocate
limited resources that will be used to meet human needs
and wants.
• Whenever we buy, sell, or barter something, we are
taking part in the exchange of goods and services that
makes up the economy.
• Examples of such goods and services can vary widely—
from food, school buses, books, minerals, and military
weapons, to bank loans, factories, electricity, hospitals,
hair cuts, clothes, and television programs.
 Environmental Module
• The goal of sustainable development is to improve
living standards and the quality of people’s lives,
both now and for future generations.
• Industrial and developing countries alike share
environmental concerns. Both must strive to
ensure that citizens in both cities and rural areas
have clean air to breathe, safe drinking water, and
adequate supplies of clean renewable energy.
• Agriculture and industry must make efficient and
responsible use of the natural resources--land,
soil, forests, rivers, oceans, mineral deposits--
upon which they rely.
• Still another mode of defining Sustainable
Development is through the VALUES that
represent or support sustainable development.
• VALUES are expressions or beliefs in, the
worth of objects, qualities or behaviours.
• They often invoke feelings, define or direct us
to goals, frame our attitudes and provide
standards against which the behaviour of
individuals and societies can be judged.
 Values underlying
THE MILLENIUM DECLARATION

• The Millenium Declaration- outlines 60 goals for

peace, development, environment. United Nations
founded a core set of values to be essential for
international relations in the 21st century.
They are:
• Freedom: Men and Women should have the right
to live their lives and raise their children in dignity,
free from hunger and free from violence and
injustice.
Equality: No individual or no nation should be
denied the opportunity to benefit from
development.
Solidarity: Global challenges must be managed
in a way that distributes the costs and burdens
fairly.
Tolerance: Human beings must respect one
another, in all diversity of beliefs, culture and
language.
Respect for Nature: Prudence must be shown in
the management of all living species and
natural resources in accordance with the
precepts of Sustainable Development
Shared Responsibility: Responsibility for
managing worldwide economic and social
development, as well as threats to international
peace and security must be shared among the
nations of the world and should be exercised
multi-laterally.
 Why is sustainability important for
business?
• Right here and now, the growing, production,
distribution, reuse, recycling and disposal of
goods and services by business, industry and
enterprise - to meet the needs, desires and
aspirations of people all around the world - is
at the heart of the ecological, social, economic
and political challenges we face.
 For example, at the most basic production and disposal
levels:
 it takes 162g of oil and 7 litres of water to manufacture a
1 litre bottle of water
 for each tonne of paper that is recycled:
 + 13 trees are saved
 + 2.5 barrels of oil are saved
 + 4100kWh of electricity are saved
 + 4 cubic metres of landfill are saved
 + 31,780 litres of water are saved
 each year Australians use 6.9 billion plastic shopping
bags. Tied together, this number of bags would stretch
around the Earth 37 times
 Business can profit from sustainability in
many ways by:
• Reducing resource use (energy, water etc) where costs for
energy, electricity, fuel, gas, water, materials, packaging and
so on are stabilised or reduced
• Developing new eco-friendly and consumer-healthy
products for the emerging wave of green consumers and
creating whole new markets of loyal, ethical customers
• Better meeting the emerging ethical and environmental
demands of customers and clients, business can create long
term, meaningful relationships with its customers and
suppliers
• Being better prepared for the introduction of environmental
and social regulations imposed by government, business can
reduce the stress and costs of changing the way it operates
and ensure it is compliant with government rules
 Business can profit from sustainability in
many ways by:
• Being better prepared for the introduction of
environmental and social regulations imposed by
government, business can reduce the stress and
costs of changing the way it operates and ensure it
is compliant with government rules
• Being more resource-efficient in their operations,
business can reduce the risk of increasing costs, and
interruptions and shocks to operations
• Building long-term relationships and trust with
customers, clients and suppliers, businesses are
more likely to weather unexpected shocks and
changes to their operations and industry sector
• Aligning personal values with business operations,
both business owners and staff will be more
committed to the businesses’ success and longevity
• Developing ethical and sustainable practices,
businesses can build new customer bases and expand
their existing customer base
• Creating a more accessible and meaningful business
and business story for our changing times, new
customers are likely to be attracted to your business
and your existing customers are more likely to remain
loyal
• Connecting and collaborating with like-minded
businesses and their owners, business can create and
grow local economic and business strength
 ENVIRONMENTAL ISSUES- THE GROWING
AWARENESS AND NEED FOR REGULATION

• Global environmental law is the set of legal

principles developed by national, international, and
transnational environmental regulatory systems to
protect the environment and manage natural
resources. Global environmental law is emerging
through multiple pathways. Most dominant are
deliberate efforts of transplantation,
convergence, and integration and
harmonization.
• Transplantation, is the deliberate copying and
adaptation of significant portions of statutes or
particular doctrines of law by one country
from another.
• The term convergence is used to describe
how disparate legal systems, like biological
species, can evolve to become more similar
not because of deliberate acts of copying but
rather as a response to similar external
pressures, especially environmental pressures.
• Finally, integration and harmonization both
refer to multi-country efforts of legal
cooperation and standardization that result in
similar legal approaches. Such multi-country
cooperation can most easily be seen in formal
international treaties and institutions, such as
the WTO.
• Participation in multilateral environmental
agreements has facilitated informal, cross-
border collaboration between government
officials, who learn from each other’s
experience and share technical expertise, and
has furthered the legal process of internalizing
environmental norms into national legal
systems.
• An innovative approach towards
environmental law and policy has been
undertaken by the US Environmental
Protection Agency (EPA). Since 1995, the EPA
has launched, under the so-called
"Reinvention Strategy" reinvention initiatives.
All these efforts concentrate on five principles:
• Better environmental information: the EPA committed
itself to improve information, facilitate information, offer
citizens the right to know on industrial pollution,
facilitate reporting requirements and improve data
systems. The overall objective of this policy is to place
almost all environmental quality data on the Internet in a
format easy accessible by the public.
• Stronger partnerships: this approach aims at including all
stakeholders in the early formulation of programmes and
policies. The hope is to build cooperative rather than
adversarial relationships with stakeholders.
• Flexibility for better results: here, the EPA waives many of the
technical production standards imposed upon industry and
allows the private sector to reduce pollution however they see
fit, as long as the objectives and goals are achieved (as would
be attained under traditional regulations)
• Getting to compliance - and beyond: the EPA has initiated a
number of compliance assistance and compliance incentive
projects which aim at motivating the private sector to
implement environmental regulations more efficiently.
• Less regulatory burden: here, the general goal is to consolidate
regulations, improve the quality of the regulations and reduce
paperwork
 In INDIA
• In India, the Ministry of Environment and Forests
(MoEF) is the apex administrative body for :- (i)
regulating and ensuring environmental
protection; (ii) formulating the environmental
policy framework in the country; (iii) undertaking
conservation & survey of flora, fauna, forests and
wildlife; and (iv) planning, promotion, co-
ordination and overseeing the implementation of
environmental and forestry programmes.
• The Ministry is also the Nodal agency in the
country for the United Nations Environment
Programme (UNEP). The organizational
structure of the Ministry covers number of
Divisions, Directorate, Board, Subordinate
Offices, Autonomous Institutions, and Public
Sector Undertakings to assist it in achieving all
these objectives.
• Besides, the responsibility for prevention and
control of industrial pollution is primarily
executed by the Central Pollution Control
Board (CPCB) at the Central Level, which is a
statutory authority, attached to the MoEF. The
State Departments of Environment and State
Pollution Control Boards are the designated
agencies to perform this function at the State
Level.
Thank you