THE CHALLENGE OFSUSTAINABILITY

Arthur Lyon Dahl Ph.D.International Environment Forum (IEF)

http://www.bcca.org/iefand

European Bahá'í Business Forum (EBBF)http://www.ebbf.org

(Prepared for AIESEC conferences 2006)

PREVALENT PESSIMISMUNCERTAINTY ABOUT

FUTURE• Globalization is stressing economic/social

systems, cultures, institutions, value systems• Persistent poverty, inequality in the world• Inability to create adequate employment• Increasing insecurity, social breakdown• Environmental degradation, climate change• Growing risks to health, epidemics• Information revolution makes us more aware

(and less tolerant) of these problems• Your prospects less good than your parents

Present unsustainability

• Population will grow to 9 billion by 2050

• 20% of population uses 80% of resources

• Fossil fuels running out• Planetary resources degraded• Climate change - impacts poor most• Extremes of wealth and poverty

widening

Ecological footprint• Surface needed to supply the needs and absorb

the wastes of an individual, community, or country

• Global average 2.3 ha/person• Italy 3.26 ha/person (lowest in western Europe)• France 5.74 ha/person, Switzerland 5.26 ha/p.• Resources available 1.9 ha/person• We overshot the earth's capacity in 1975http://redefiningprogress.org/programs/sustainabilityindicators/ef/

http://www.myfootprint.org

http://www.globalfootprint.org/

Scenarios• Business as usual

• Fortress world

• Transition to sustainability

Scenarios from World 3(Meadows et al. (1992) Beyond the Limits)

Business as usual Transition 1995 Transition 2015

Business as usualwill lead to(Aral Sea, from UNEP, GEO 3)

• Natural, economic, and social disasters

• Threats to Western material civilization

• Rolling up of old world order

CertaintiesWe are in the middle of a major transformation in society

The past is not a good predictor of the future

Change is inevitable, and the rate of change is accelerating, requiring adaptive management

Globalization cannot be stopped, but it can be transformed

Institution building for international governance will continue

We can consciously work for change, or wait for catastrophe to force us to change

There will be new forms of wealth creation and business

Creativity and innovation will be increasingly necessary for success

Values and ethics will be fundamental to social transformation

Newdirections

SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT

“Development that meets the needs of the present generation without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their needs”

UN Commission on Environment and Development 1987

The private sector has been too competitive to create a joint vision of development and sustainability

Sustainability – an ethical concept

- we are trustees or stewards of the planet's resources and biodiversity- ensure sustainability and equity of resource use into distant future- consider the environmental consequences of development activities- temper our actions with moderation and humility- value nature in more than economic terms- understand the natural world and its role in humanity's collective development both material and spiritual

Sustainable environmental management must come to be seen not as a discretionary commitment mankind can weigh against other competing interests, but rather as a fundamental responsibility that must be shouldered, a pre-requisite for spiritual development as well as the individual's physical survival.(based on Bahá'í International Community, Valuing Spirituality in Development. 1998)

The importance of values

• Values are what determine how humans relate to each other

• They are the social equivalent of DNA, encoding the information through which society is structured

• For society to evolve, its values must also progress

• What values will help us to address the challenges of the 21st century?

Values for a sustainable society

• Justice

• Solidarity

• Altruism

• Respect

• Trust

• Moderation

• Service

Rethinking the Economy

- The present economic system is not meeting human needs

- 50 years of economic development, despite some progress, has failed to meet is objectives- There is no global governance for a global economic system

Questions

• Is eating your only purpose in life?

• Should profit be the only purpose of business?

• Should you try to keep growing forever?

• Should growth be the main goal of businesses and economies?

Economics for people- Economics has ignored the broader context of humanity's social and spiritual existence, resulting in:- Corrosive materialism in the world's more economically advantaged regions- Persistent conditions of deprivation among the masses of the world's peoples- Economics should serve people's needs; societies should not be expected to reformulate themselves to fit economic models. - The ultimate function of economic systems should be to equip the peoples and institutions of the world with the means to achieve the real purpose of development: that is, the cultivation of the limitless potentialities latent in human consciousness. (adapted from Bahá'í International Community, Valuing Spirituality in Development, 1998)

New economic models

- further a dynamic, just and thriving social order

- strongly altruistic and cooperative in nature

- provide meaningful employment

- help to eradicate poverty in the world

Challenge to economic thinking from the environmental crisis

- we can no longer believe that there is no limit to nature's capacity to fulfil any demand made on it by human beings

- giving absolute value to expansion, to acquisition, and to the satisfaction of people's wants is not a realistic guide to policy

- economic decision-making tools cannot deal with the fact that most of the major challenges are global

Is bigger always better?

What are the most appropriate scales for economic activities?

Are there limits to increasing productivity?

Should short term always win over long term?

Challenge to business

- How can economic efficiency, profit and wealth creation combine with corporate social responsibility and respecting environmental limits?

- How do we raise productivity and create employment?

For social sustainability

In increasingly diverse communities, how do we go from prejudice and withdrawal to open integration and unity?

Cooperation and Reciprocity

Cooperation and reciprocity are essential properties of all natural and human systems, increasing in more highly evolved and complex systems

Community

How do we create unity in diversity?

What is the best size for a community?

What does the information revolution mean for community life and organization?

JUSTICE AND EQUITY

- It is unjust to sacrifice the well-being of most people -- and even of the planet itself -- to the advantages which technological breakthroughs can make available to privileged minorities

- Only development programmes that are perceived by the masses of humanity as meeting their needs and as being just and equitable in objective can hope to engage their commitment, upon which implementation depends

(based on Baha'i International Community, Prosperity of Humankind)

Solidarity

We should consider every human being a trust of the whole.

The goal of wealth creation should be to make everyone wealthy.

Voluntary giving is more meaningful and effective than forced redistribution.

HOW DO WE MAINTAIN THE ECOLOGICAL BALANCE

OF THE PLANET?

Preserving the Ecological Balance

Agriculture and the preservation of the ecological balance of the world are fundamental to the sustainable economic and social development of all countries

Living within environmental limits

To maintain the ecological balance, we must:- understand the operation of complex ecological systems;- create observation and management mechanisms at the scale of the systems;- reduce human impacts to a level appropriate to the vulnerability and resilience of the systems;- restore damaged systems to the level necessary to maintain natural and human ecosystem services;- replace exploitation of wild systems with cultivated products as far as possible;

- allow development only to the extent that system improvements extend the carrying capacity of the ecosystem in question.

Renewable Resources

To be sustainable long into the future, the economy must be based on renewable resources (agriculture, forests, fisheries, bio-industries), closed materials cycles and integrated product lifecycles

The goal:an organicallyunited world

IS THERE ANY

HOPE?

The need today is for visionary leaders to relate practical realities to a new framework of values

The years ahead will be difficult, but you are the reason for hope

Thank you

The planet will thank you too