EnvStud 608 – Business and Sustainability
Content:
Business activities are responsible, directly or indirectly, for most human impacts on the earth's ecosystems - and business operations today are conducted with too little thought as to their sustainability - that is, the satisfying of our own needs without diminishing the chances of future generations. The term "sustainability," which has both ecological and social components, poses business an inescapable challenge: without sustainability there will soon be no more profits. Hence, business people have a strong self-interest in minimizing the ecological damage of their operations. Executives must take responsibility themselves for reeducating themselves and their managers. Social change takes place within the interplay among media, corporations, and the public. Within the financial world, also, new ideas are stirring. Technology, which many take to be hostile to the environment, also has a new role to play in moving toward sustainability, greatly reduces environmental impacts, and produces consistent support for positive social and ecological goals.
Course Lecturer: Gerhard Berchtold, PhD
ECTS credits: 6
Coursebook:
In this book, business people, economists, ecologists, and other thinkers outline new practical approaches that business and society, including media and educators, must take to move towards sustainability.
Steering business toward sustainability
Edited by Fritjof Capra and Gunter Pauli (Eds.)
United
© The United
United Nations University Press
The United Nations University, 53-70, Jingumae 5-chome,
Shibuya-ku, Tokyo 150, Japan
Typeset by Asco Trade Typesetting Limited, Hong Kong
Printed by Permanent Typesetting and Printing Co., Ltd., Hong
Kong, on totally chlorine-free (TCF) paper
Cover design by Joyce C. Weston
UNUP-909
ISBN 92-808-0909-1
- Teacher: Gerhard Berchtold
- Teacher: Peter Hodecek