Applied Cognitive Psychology sustainabiltiy Flashcards
What is sustainability?
- The report included a definition of “sustainable development” which is
now widely used:
Sustainable development is meeting the needs of the present
without compromising the ability of future generations
to meet their own needs.
where and when
In 1987, the United Nations World Commission on Environment and Development released the report Our Common Future, commonly called
the Brundtland Report.
Two key concepts:
- The concept of ‘needs’, in
particular, the essential needs
of the world’s poor, to which
overriding priority should be
given - The idea of limitations imposed
by the state of technology and
social organization on the
environment’s ability to meet
present and future needs
Sustainable development thus tries:
tries to find a balance between economic
development, environmental protection, and social well-being.
A diagram indicating the
relationship between the three
pillars of sustainability, suggesting
that both economy and society are
constrained by environmental
limits
3 p=
People Planet Profit
Sustainability and ACP
- EU Government
- National Government
- Municipalities(the tier of government closest to the people)
- NGO’s( A non-governmental organization (NGO) is a group that functions independently of any government with the objective of improving social conditions.0
- Individuals
- Companies
The attitude-behavior gap
The reported intension to buy sustainable products
the amount of sustainable products purchased
- Recycling: re-using products (second hands fashion)
- Upcycling: convert waste into new products (new design, e.g. bags)
- Commercial perspective: marketability and lower material cost
- Developing vs. developed countries
- Purchasing decision process for
sustainable products is not well understood - Sustainable versus fashionable choice ?
- Individual characteristics
e.g. Environmental concerns, perceived consumer effectiveness,
normative expectations of others - Product characteristics
e.g. perceived product value, desire for individuality - Socio-demographic variables
Upcycling
- The fashion tile industry is one
of the world’s most polluting
industries < volume of
production - Textiles production requires a
lot of land for crops and uses a
lot of water, energy, chemicals
and other resources leaving
often untreated pollution
behind and has a highly
negative environmental,
economic and social footprint
Mostly used on a small scale, sold as
unique pieces or added elements in
some collections
* The upcycling design process differs
from regular design → a garment is
designed based on the parameters of the
waste materials
* Implementing upcycling on the
industrial level requires transparency to
understand the waste created in mass
production
The Sustainable Development Goals:
In 2015 the UN came up with 17 Sustainable Development Goals 193 landen
(SDGs) which are aimed to be achieved by 2030.
dus 15jaar plan
The main purpose of the SDGs is to address global challenges and
work towards ending poverty, protecting the planet, and ensuring
prosperity for all.
The SDGs offer a common language to governments, NGO’s,
companies and individuals about sustainability targets.
The SDGs are deeply interconnected – a lack of progress on one goal
hinders progress on others.
Millennium Development Goals
De Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) waren acht specifieke doelstellingen voor ontwikkeling die in 2000 door de Verenigde Naties (VN) werden vastgesteld als onderdeel van de Millenniumverklaring. Deze doelstellingen waren bedoeld om mondiale armoede en andere sociale, economische en milieuproblemen aan te pakken tegen het jaar 2015. De acht MDGs waren als volgt:
- Het uitbannen van extreme armoede en honger.
- Het bereiken van universeel basisonderwijs.
- Gendergelijkheid bevorderen en empowerment van vrouwen.
- Het verminderen van kindersterfte.
- Het verbeteren van de gezondheid van moeders.
- Het bestrijden van hiv/aids, malaria en andere ziekten.
- Het waarborgen van milieuduurzaamheid.
- Het ontwikkelen van een wereldwijd partnerschap voor ontwikkeling.
De MDGs vormden een belangrijk kader voor ontwikkelingsinspanningen over de hele wereld gedurende de periode van 2000 tot 2015. Hoewel niet alle doelstellingen volledig werden bereikt, boekten veel landen wel vooruitgang op verschillende gebieden. De MDGs werden opgevolgd door de Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), die werden aangenomen in 2015 en een breder scala aan doelstellingen omvatten met een horizon tot 2030.
Wicked problems
- are problems with many interdependent factors making them
seem impossible to solve. - often lack clarity in both their aims and solutions.
- require thoughtful and holistic collaboration on solutions.
Because the factors are often incomplete and difficult to define,
solving wicked problems requires a deep understanding of the
stakeholders involved, and an innovative approach provided by
design thinking
→ Systems thinking
Systems thinking
Systems thinking looks at connected wholes rather than separate parts.
* Systems thinkers are curious, have open minds, are good listeners and
seek out root causes.
* A systems thinker tries to expand the range of options available for
solving a problem.
The need for systems leadership (governmental but also in
businesses)
→ In a world of increasing inequality, civil unrest and environmental
stress, business will only thrive if the 2030 Agenda is realized.
system leaders
- Systems approaches are essential for delivering a credible, viable, and adaptive
plan to achieve complex challenges like net zero that help manage risks and
ensure wider societal goals are delivered. Systems leadership is about
building a culture in which systems approaches can flourish. - Systems leaders set the tone for an organization to work more systemically
and encourages staff to embed systems approaches in their work
A systems leader will
Influence other leaders to shift the collective focus in the right direction and
develop and maintain cross-departmental and cross-directorate relationships
so there are shared understanding of goals and of the system.
Encourage the use of systems principles and tools for complex problems by
promoting collaboration across traditional siloes, within or outside the team.
Think about the wider system and ask questions that explore the possible impact of certain actions on the wider system.
Ensure positive changes towards shared goals are sustained through
monitoring and evaluating progress towards them.
Corporate responsibility
Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR)
means taking responsibility for the
impact of the business on the
environment, society, employees
and animal welfare while striving for
economic success.
Why do some governments allow businesses to
cause pollution?
Legal implementation deficit Europe vs Nations
Less regulations attract businesses
why so important?
With the right balance between people,
planet and profit, companies pay attention to
social issues such as internationally recognised
basic working conditions, the chain of
responsibility, and corruption. CSR can generate
benefits in terms of innovation capacity, loyalty,
and reputation.
Philanthropy
Philanthropy involves businesses engaging in charitable activities or donations that benefit society. This could include donating money, resources, or time to support social causes such as education, healthcare, environmental conservation, or community development. Philanthropic initiatives are typically separate from the core business operations and are often seen as a way for companies to give back to the community or address specific societal issues.
Integration
Integration of CSR involves incorporating social and environmental concerns into the core business strategy and operations. Rather than treating CSR as a separate activity, integrated CSR aims to align business goals with broader societal objectives. This approach entails considering the social and environmental impacts of business decisions and taking proactive steps to minimize negative externalities while maximizing positive contributions to society. Integrated CSR may involve initiatives such as adopting sustainable practices, reducing carbon emissions, ensuring ethical sourcing, promoting diversity and inclusion, and engaging with stakeholders in meaningful dialogue.
Buttom-up:
*Employee engagement
* Best knowledge of their own job
* Purpose
* Community building
Top-down:
- Reputation
- Regulation
- Non-financial reporting
- Full integration in the business
Greenwashing
disclosing negative information and disseminating
positive information about an organization’s
environmental and/or social efforts
how to have Corporate responsibility
Comparable standards
and measures for
reporting
→ To prevent firms from
Greenwashing
The Non-Financial Reporting Directive requires companies in EU
Member states with more than 500 employees to disclose certain
types of non-financial and diversity information in their yearly
management reports. Its primary purpose is to encourage
transparency and accountability by requiring companies to produce
corporate responsibility disclosures at regular intervals, and outline
their specific policies on them.
The non-financial reporting directive
-environment
-social
-governance
- enviromental protection
- social responsibility and treatment of employees
- Respect for humanrights
- company board diversity regarding : gender, age, education & proffesion
- Anti - corruption and bribery
Legal implementation deficit:
the failure to transpose EU legislation into national laws
- Non-financial reporting requirements to oppose this.
Integrated Value Management -
Prof. Wayne Visser
Outside-in approach (instead of inside-out)
Phase 1
Context
analysis
Phase 2
Stakeholder
assessment
Phase 3
Management
Phase 4
review Reporting
sustainability
society= standard of living, education, jobs, equal opportunity
economics= growth, profit, cost saving, R&D
enviroment= natural recourse use, pollution prevention, bio-diversity
social economic aspects
= business athics, fair trade, worker benefits, fair taxations
environmental economic aspects
=energy efficiency, renewable fuels, susides incentives, green technology
social environmental
=conservation policies, environmental justice, global stewardship
paper Exploring attitude-behavior gap in sustainable consumption: comparison of recycled and upcycled fashion products
Over 35% of respondents exhibited positive high purchase intention but failed to engage in purchasing these products.
The difference between green and non-green buyers depended on certain critical factors, such as utilitarian value, PCE (PCE-prijsindex, of de Persoonlijke Consumptie Uitgaven prijsindex, is een maatstaf voor inflatie in de Verenigde Staten.) , subjective norm, and demographic variables.
In terms of upcycled products, subjective norms, education level, and utilitarian (utilitarian=
designed to be useful or practical rather than attractive.
“a utilitarian building”)
value were variables that discriminate between green and non-green buyers.
paper New challenges for corporate sustainability reporting:
United Nations’ 2030 Agenda for sustainable development
and the sustainable development goals
- In general terms, the quality of information provided by the sampled corporate sustainability reports is very low. This outcome is corroborated by the low SDGQ scores that clearly show that there is plenty of room for improvement. Specifically, for the majority of UN_SDGs, the assessed reports achieve a score below the 0.5, which is a definite indication that the sampled firms provided an incomplete picture of their management practices regarding the UN_SDGs.
- UN_SDG_16 has the lowest SDGQ score (0.20), which is associated with, among other things, firms’ anti-corruption policies and anticompetitive behavior as well as human right and discrimination issues (see Table 1 ).
- Nevertheless, there are some positive results. Analysis of sustainability reports indicates that firms seem to be more familiar with the scope of the UN_SDG_7, UN_SDG_9, and UN_SDG_13 (the UN_SDG scores were 0.60, 0.68, and 0.56, respectively). Actually, examined reports provide sufficient information to assess corporate performance regarding the issues related to the content of these UN_SDGs.
- Despite these encouraging findings, none of the scores were close to 1, which means that further enhancement of reporting approaches is needed
Also, the industry sector is a factor that seems to
affect the reporting practices adopted by firms concerning UN_SDGs.
This outcome could be explained by the characteristic of each industry sector and the magnitude of its impacts on different dimensions of
sustainability
paper Concepts and forms of greenwashing:
a systematic review
- All of these authors describe the phenomenon as two main behaviors simultaneously: retain the disclosure of negative information related to the company’s environmental performance and expose positive information regarding its environmental performance. This twofolded behavior can be named as selective disclosure.
- Guo et al. [22] explain that when companies fail to reach their green goals, the decoupling behaviors can reduce cognitive legitimacy (take-for grandness of constituents), moral legitimacy (positive green evaluation), and pragmatic legitimacy (benefiting constituents)
“product/service-level claim greenwashing”
As greenwashing was first accused in 1986 by Jay Westerveld [38] , an activist who noticed an organizational communication with a misleading trait
, which uses textual arguments that explicitly or implicitly refer to the ecological benefits of a product or service to create a misleading environmental claim
‘Executional Greenwashing’ . This strategy of greenwashing does not use any type of claim that was described before, but it suggests natureevoking elements such as images using colors (e.g., green, blue) or sounds (e.g., sea, birds). Backgrounds representing natural landscapes (e.g., mountains, forests, oceans) or pictures of endangered animal species (e.g., pandas, dolphins) or renewable sources of energy (e.g., wind, waterfalls) are examples of executional nature-evoking elements [37] .
Integrative framework for implementing the SDGs.pdf
inform
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