UCD_BC_Ivory Tower_24-27.qxd 25/8/08 16:44 Page 24
IVORY TOWER
‘Sustainable development has three pillars:
economic development, social justice and
environmental management’
NCE the preserve of the minority conserva- working hard with government and with the NGOs to improve
O
tionists and green campaigners, today the its environmental performance. It no longer has the privilege of
question is no longer whether climate change choosing between development and the environment.”
is a reality, but rather what can be done to Neither is it viable for businesses to pay lip service to sus-
halt its progress or, at worst, maintain the tainability, he argues. “The business community needs to create
status quo. As a result, environmental man- a culture that can live in harmony with sustainable develop-
agement and sustainable development in ment. It must articulate a vision through actual policies, and
general have become key leadership issues we need to judge its performance against these policies.”
within the global business community. Christophe Dreschler, lecturer at UCD School of Business,
“You cannot really talk about the environment on its own,” also believes business has woken up to the realities. “The con-
says Dr Yousef Husein Eiadat, lecturer at UCD School of cept of green business is now some 15 years old. In the past it
Business. “Sustainable development has three pillars — eco- tended to be about environmental management that would
nomic development, social justice and environmental manage- realise a profit potential, like making savings on water or
ment. Sustainability means that all three must rise, or at least energy bills,” he says. “Today we are much further down the
be non-negative on a sustainable basis for the long term. Of line, because climate change is tangible now. We know the gla-
course there will be no sustainable development if the planet is ciers will be gone in 10 or 15 years; we know about the health
ravaged by climate change.” problems from pollution in major cities. Many business people
A much greater investment in clean technologies will be cru- have children too. They know they have a stake in this.
cial if we are to move towards sustainability. “In the 21st cent- “Today, because climate change is easy to understand and is
ury, which we call the bottleneck period, we’re experiencing an linked to carbon management, businesses can see very quickly
increase in total population of about three to four billion,” says how they can have a positive impact on the environment, and
Eiadat. “Many of the technologies we have are not up to where many are genuinely putting the policies and the processes in
they need to be if we are to tackle broad environmental place. It has probably never been as easy as it is now to convince
impacts.” business leaders that companies have a place in society and that
He says we may need to make difficult or unpopular choices. climate change can and must be combated.”
“We need to talk about fertilisers, genetically modified (GM) Dreschler says the effort towards truly sustainable business
seeds and nuclear energy. If scientific evidence proves that GM practices must come from the top down. “It all starts with the
trebles food production, that GM crops resist drought, then we leaders, and if the leaders are not behind it there will not be a
have to consider this. It is the same with nuclear. If we can strategy. They can produce all the prospectuses and brochures
guarantee security and solutions for nuclear waste, then it has they like, but it’s easy to find out quickly if sustainability is gen-
to be on the table. uinely part of the strategy, if it’s truly implemented, and if there
“We have a population of 6.7 billion and rising. We’re going to are actions, systems and processes in place.”
need to tap into a very wide range of energy sources. It’s facts At the School of Business, Dreschler and his research team
like these that make sustainable development very hard to are working on Sustainability Strategy Maps that allow corpo-
agree on.” rations to put genuine measurable systems and processes in
place based on the ‘triple bottom line’ of sustainability: eco-
Sustainable business nomic value; value through a system of corporate social respon-
And is the business community stepping up to the plate? “I sibility; and value through environmental management. No
think the business community now understands the challenges, business will be able to ignore these three pillars of good busi-
and the situation we’re in,” says Eiadat. “It has a stake in ness practice, if we are to create a sustainable future.
24 UCD BUSINESS CONNECTIONS
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