RESPONSIBLE BUSINESS LEADERSHIP
LECTURE 1
Responsible business leadership consists of:
Sustainability: conduct that balances social, environmental and economic value, and
serves to restore value through triple bottom line optimization.
Responsibility: conduct fulfilling stakeholder responsibilities and serving
stakeholders value optimization.
Ethics: conduct that builds on moral philosophy and behavioral ethics and embraces
ethical behavior and serves moral excellence.
This course is about ideas and ways of thinking to bring about a change in the world.
We investigate the core concepts of sustainability, responsibility and ethics. Then we look at
business domains to which we apply the concepts.
Important questions to ask:
how can we let business do better for society as a whole?
How can we as practitioners, managers, and leaders do better?
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
SDG’s: “an urgent call for action by all countries – developed and developing – in a global
partnership. They recognize that ending poverty and other deprivations must go together with
strategies that improve health and education etc. all while tackling climate change and
working to preserve our oceans and forests”.
,SDG 12: responsible consumption and production
Goal 12 is about ensuring sustainable consumption and production patters, which is key to
sustain the livelihoods of current and future generations.
Unsustainable patterns of consumption and production are root causes of the tripe planetary
crises of climate change, biodiversity loss and pollution.
, LECTURE 2: SUSTAINABILITY
What is sustainability?
The quadruple squeeze = earth is being squeezed by 4 aspects:
The demographic aspect: human growth 20/80 dilemma
Climate dilemma 550/450/350
Ecosystems 60% loss dilemma
Element of surprise 99/1
A planetary boundaries framework
The framework aims to define the environmental limits within which humanity can safely
operate.
Freshwater change
Stratospheric ozone depletion
Atmospheric aerosol loading
Ocean acidification
Biogeochemical flows
Land-system change
Novel entities
Biosphere integrity
Climate change
Why should businesses care about this?
Sustainability not only enhances the image of the business in the eyes of customers and other
stakeholders but also improves the availability of resources for everyone.
Sustainability = sustainable is the development that meets the needs of the present without
compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs.
When looking at sustainability in a business context, there are 3 constituent dimensions:
1. Scope: what are regarded as sustainability issues?
2. Substitutability: can poor performance in one sustainability issue be compensated by
good performance in another?
3. Goal orientation: how do we assess sustainability?
Sustainability is…
Multifaceted
Systematic
Complex and non-linear
Why would we need a triple bottom line? (One of the frameworks of sustainability)
Triple bottom line: people, planet, profit
But why should sustainability be ‘social’?
“If we fail to address wider political, social and ethical issues, the backlash will inevitably
undermine progress in the environmental area.”
“sustainable development is most likely – and will be achieved at the lowest overall cost to
the economy- in those societies where there are the highest levels of trust and other forms of
social capital.”
Sustainable development increases all 3 types of capital simultaneously or at least doesn’t
decrease any of them.
LECTURE 1
Responsible business leadership consists of:
Sustainability: conduct that balances social, environmental and economic value, and
serves to restore value through triple bottom line optimization.
Responsibility: conduct fulfilling stakeholder responsibilities and serving
stakeholders value optimization.
Ethics: conduct that builds on moral philosophy and behavioral ethics and embraces
ethical behavior and serves moral excellence.
This course is about ideas and ways of thinking to bring about a change in the world.
We investigate the core concepts of sustainability, responsibility and ethics. Then we look at
business domains to which we apply the concepts.
Important questions to ask:
how can we let business do better for society as a whole?
How can we as practitioners, managers, and leaders do better?
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
SDG’s: “an urgent call for action by all countries – developed and developing – in a global
partnership. They recognize that ending poverty and other deprivations must go together with
strategies that improve health and education etc. all while tackling climate change and
working to preserve our oceans and forests”.
,SDG 12: responsible consumption and production
Goal 12 is about ensuring sustainable consumption and production patters, which is key to
sustain the livelihoods of current and future generations.
Unsustainable patterns of consumption and production are root causes of the tripe planetary
crises of climate change, biodiversity loss and pollution.
, LECTURE 2: SUSTAINABILITY
What is sustainability?
The quadruple squeeze = earth is being squeezed by 4 aspects:
The demographic aspect: human growth 20/80 dilemma
Climate dilemma 550/450/350
Ecosystems 60% loss dilemma
Element of surprise 99/1
A planetary boundaries framework
The framework aims to define the environmental limits within which humanity can safely
operate.
Freshwater change
Stratospheric ozone depletion
Atmospheric aerosol loading
Ocean acidification
Biogeochemical flows
Land-system change
Novel entities
Biosphere integrity
Climate change
Why should businesses care about this?
Sustainability not only enhances the image of the business in the eyes of customers and other
stakeholders but also improves the availability of resources for everyone.
Sustainability = sustainable is the development that meets the needs of the present without
compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs.
When looking at sustainability in a business context, there are 3 constituent dimensions:
1. Scope: what are regarded as sustainability issues?
2. Substitutability: can poor performance in one sustainability issue be compensated by
good performance in another?
3. Goal orientation: how do we assess sustainability?
Sustainability is…
Multifaceted
Systematic
Complex and non-linear
Why would we need a triple bottom line? (One of the frameworks of sustainability)
Triple bottom line: people, planet, profit
But why should sustainability be ‘social’?
“If we fail to address wider political, social and ethical issues, the backlash will inevitably
undermine progress in the environmental area.”
“sustainable development is most likely – and will be achieved at the lowest overall cost to
the economy- in those societies where there are the highest levels of trust and other forms of
social capital.”
Sustainable development increases all 3 types of capital simultaneously or at least doesn’t
decrease any of them.
