The themes of technological innovation, entrepreneurship, and organizing

OVERVIEW OF SUSTAINABILITY AND SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT

While there are varying definitions of sustain­ability from different sectors of industry, what is important is that it strives for protection of the environment, prudent use of natural resources, equitable social progress, and maintenance of economic well-being without compromising the environment and society. Figure 1 shows the three dimensions of sustainability. Long-term strategies towards achieving sustainability should consider all three aspects (i. e. the whole or complex sys­tem), either at the decision stage or during the operational stage.

The three core pillars of sustainability (Figure 2) or the ‘triple bottom-line’ (i. e. People. Planet and Prosperity) are inter-connected and hence may influence each other in multiple ways. Un­derstanding the inter-connectedness and employ­ing strategies that consider all three dimensions is critical to achieving sustainability. Strategies that concentrate on short-term gains often focus on one aspect of the triple bottom line. Ongoing research and development in the field of sustain­ability science has expanded those 3 core pillars to 5 pillars of sustainability: environment, culture, politics, society and economy (McConville & Mihelcic, 2007).

Inclusion of environmental and societal aspects in addition to economic aspect into long-term strategies enables a company/firm or other entities to meet the needs of the present without compro­mising the needs of the future. It also gives the entity a competitive advantage over its competi­tors as the public and society become socially and environmentally conscious. Further inclusion of the triple bottom line in decision-making, brought about by a change in mental model of the decision­maker towards sustainability, has the potential to significantly reduce/mitigate the upward trend in carbon dioxide emissions, energy consumption, water use and nitrogen fluxes in waterways. Adop­tion and diffusion of sustainable strategies (sus­tainable management practices, education, tech­nology) is key to controlling, reducing, mitigating the upward trend unsustainable practices.

According to Mihelcic et al. (2003), sustain­able development is the design and use of human and industrial systems to ensure that humankind’s use of natural resources and cycles do not lead to diminished quality of life due either to losses in future economic opportunities or to adverse impacts on social conditions, human health and the environment. According to the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), sustainable development ‘is a vision of development that encompasses populations, animal and plant species, ecosystems, natural

resources and that integrates concerns such as the fight against poverty, gender equality, human rights, education for all, health, human security, intercultural dialogue, etc.’

In the context of sustainable development, indicators are information sets which are formally selected to measure changes in assets and issues that are key for the product development and management. Indicators are measures expressed in single numbers, percentage or ratios, qualitative descriptions or existence/non-existence of certain elements concerning environmental, social and economic issues (OECD, 1993). They are signals of current issues, emerging situations or problems, need for action and results of actions. Sustainabil­ity indicators should be easy to comprehend, as well as be economically and technically feasible to measure for them to be classified as good (OECD, 2003). Benefits from good indicators include (adapted from OECD, 2003):

• Better decision making in order to lower risks or costs;

• Recognition of emerging risks and or con - flictive issues, thus allowing prevention;

• Detection of impacts to allow for timely remedial action when needed;

• Performance measurement of the imple­mentation of development plans and man­agement actions;

• Reduced risk of planning mistakes;

• Reduced public liability; and

• Regular monitoring which can lead to roll­ing improvement.

According to the Organization for Economic

Cooperation and Development, there are different

kinds of indicators, each with different purposes

for decision makers:

• Early warning indicators (e. g., decline in product sales and number of customers who intend to return);

• Indicators of stresses on the system (e. g., raw material shortages);

• Measures of the current state of the indus­try that the product primarily serves;

• Measures of the impact of product devel­opment and production on the biophysical and socio-economic environments (e. g. in­dices of the level of deforestation, changes of consumption patterns and income levels in local communities);

• Measures of management efforts; and

• Measures of management effect, results or performance.