Transition to Sustainable Business

PR identifies how the world is changing. The most fundamental change that PR identifies is one that lies at the foundation of our knowledge. This fundamental change determines how knowledge is made possible. This is in essence a very simple kind of change – BUT it is difficult to perceive and accept that so much can change as a result of so little!

Intrinsic Sustainable Development (ISD) (2011) is grounded in a change of “what makes knowledge possible”.  To explain this kind of change, ISD relies on the work of Michel Foucault (1970) who called the “possibility of knowledge” an EPISTEME.  Foucault described only three different epistemes in European history from Renaissance times to Classical and then the Modern. Foucault died in 1984 before any evidence of an emerging episteme to replace the Modern was available.

In ISD, an emerging episteme is identified and called “Primal”.  On a technical level, the change from the Modern to the Primal episteme is equivalent to going from abstract belief systems to empirically grounded science (or to be even more technical from an epistemology to an ontology). On a day to day level, this means that we shift from living according to overarching societal beliefs (in notably economics and free markets) to becoming part of the living world once more.

Such changes will have a huge impact on business. John Elkington (2013, p. 62) observes: “We need to redesign our, economies, politics and culture.” Elkington gave the world the “Triple Bottom Line” approach so that businesses would acknowledge their dependence upon achieving good social and environmental performances as well as economic. But in his review of “Corporation 2020: Transforming Business for Tomorrow’s World” (Sukhdev 2012), Elkington admits his approach has been wrong.

Elkington’s approach had been to tweak corporations, change their performance at the margins to improve social and environmental conditions without a change in business core values and activities.  But Elkington now sees this as the wrong approach and he writes “The challenge is now ecological, in a broader sense: we must reshape the context within which both the corporations and the investors operate…” (Elkington 2013, p. 62).

Reading “Corporation 2020: Transforming Business for Tomorrow’s World” (Sukhdev 2012) changed Elkington’s mind. Corporations 20:20 argues that we must as a matter of some urgency shift from a 1920’s corporate model of “free-market-capitalists” and “cost-externalising” to a 2020 corporate model with the following mission: 

            Corporation 20:20 MISSION

1. The purpose of the corporation is to harness private interests to serve the public interest.

2. Corporations shall accrue fair returns for shareholders, but not at the expense of the legitimate interests of other stakeholders.

3. Corporations shall operate sustainably, meeting the needs of the present generation without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their needs.

4. Corporations shall distribute their wealth equitably among those who contribute to its creation.

5. Corporations shall be governed in a manner that is participatory, transparent, ethical, and accountable.

6. Corporations shall not infringe on the right of natural persons to govern themselves, nor infringe on other universal human rights.

For more about Corporation 20:20 visit their website here.

The Transition of Industry

But the change does not end with changing corporations. Corporation 20:20 is part of a project called the GreatTransition; it is a transition toward a just and liveable world perceived and pursued by the Tellus Institute.

PR is pleased to recognise both “Corporation 2020: Transforming Business for Tomorrow’s World” (Sukhdev 2012) and the Tellus Institute’s Great Transition as belonging to the emerging Primal episteme. We are on our way to an exciting, liveable in its fullest sense, future!

References

Birkin, F. and Polesie, T. (2011). Intrinsic Sustainable Development: epistemes, science, business and sustainability. Singapore, World Scientific Press.

Elkington, J. (2013). Pursuing Change. Resurgence, 277, p. 62.

Foucault, M. (1970). The Order of Things: an archaeology of the Human Sciences. London, Routledge.

Sukhdev, P. (2012). Corporation 2020: Transforming Business for Tomorrow’s World. Washington, Island Press.