ANNOUNCEMENT
Date:
Tuesday, March 17th, 2015
Time:
19:15-21:00 hours
Location:
Tilburg University, Warandelaan 2, Tilburg
Room DZ 4 (Dante Building)
Speaker:
Joe DesJardins
Is it Time to Step Off the Sustainability Bandwagon?
Joseph R. DesJardins holds the Ralph Gross Chair in Business and the Liberal
Arts at the College of St. Benedict and St. John's University in Minnesota
where he is also a Professor in the Department of Philosophy. He has
authored numerous books, including Environmental Ethics: An Introduction
to Environmental Philosophy (Wadsworth). He presently serves as the
President of the Society for Business Ethics.
Abstract
Since the 1987 report, “Our Common Future, “sustainable” and “sustainability” have become
ubiquitous, regularly used to modify an innumerable range of activities, ranging from agriculture and
architecture to zoning and zoos. The noun “sustainability” has become a generic stand-alone concept,
as well as being modified by such diverse adjectives as economic, environmental, social, ecological,
corporate, financial, global, human, and organizational.
Sustainability has become equally widespread within business, with virtually every business division
including management, marketing, investing, accounting, strategy, and operations developing
sustainable models and practices.
We should be cautious whenever any concept becomes so popular among such a wide range of people
and institutions, but especially so if that concept explicitly claims an ethical foundation with significant
ethical implications. I will argue that the concept and its potential for good is being undermined by the
systematic misuse, misunderstanding and flawed application of the concept in many business settings.
Under the guise of sustainability, business is being asked to do both less than and more than what is
ethically required by the commitment to sustainable development. As a result, several serious
challenges that remain to be addressed before sustainability can become an ethically legitimate
business strategy go unanswered. The question needs to be asked, “Is it time for business to abandon
the sustainability paradigm?”