Is Business Doing Enough to Address “Environmental Degradation” –and Other Important Points-of-Debate At A Recent Harvard B-School Conference

by Hank Boerner – Chair & Chief Strategist, G&A Institute
Is the business community doing enough to advance sustainability…are institutional investor doing enough with their allocation of capital and identification and targeting of positive outcomes for the invested capital? 
As we continue to be encouraged by the rising interest in sustainable investing by mainstream institutions, and the broadening interest of corporate executives and boards in corporate sustainability, responsibility, citizenship, ESG (et al), we are also intrigued by the more complex questions that arise.
A recent Harvard University Business School conference explored some of the challenging and complex questions related to corporate sustainability efforts, climate change, “business-focused” solutions to the “deteriorating” environment, and roadblocks to achieving sustainability goals.  The conference was titled, “Understanding and Overcoming Roadblocks to Sustainability.”
Participants included management researchers, business and environmental historians and practitioners.
One participant raised an interesting question that caught the eye:  “What’s the use of a zero-waste and carbon-free island resort in a world headed toward a temperature rise of 4-degrees Celsius?”  What is practical in this instance?
The comments of some participants were that progress could and was being made in certain sectors, and in the process, the solutions are becoming more complex and challenging – so let’s think about what some are calling the “Earth Systems” approach.
The very concept of “sustainability” was critiqued by many speakers, as the description has broadened since first emerging in the 1980s.
Among the important observations offered: “Overcoming roadblocks requires public policies to be much more aligned with creating the right incentives to support long-term commitments and radical shifts at the same time…and business may be the only entity that can effectively lobby to pass such policy.”
This space is too limited in presenting the report on the conference by co-organizer Geoffrey Jones in the Harvard B-School “Working Knowledge” report.  Overall, the conference participants added important points for all of us to consider as we continue on society’s and our own “sustainability journey.”
We recommend your reading of the recap as well as the comments that resulted from others’ reading and weighing in with their thoughts on the subject.  It’s all in our Top Story this week.
Has Sustainability Lost its Relevance?
(Wednesday – June 20, 2018) Source: Harvard Business School – Companies have thought for decades about business-focused solutions to fix the deteriorating environment. But judging by continually rising waters and temperatures, we may need a rethink about what sustainability means, suggest..