Class notes Flashcards
Explain the Fishbank simulation we did in class 2 and what it taught us
We learned about the importance of government regulation vs collective action. With common resources, people tend to prioritize individualistic values. This leads to a race to the bottom, where governments compete with one another for economic activity by deregulating a business environment, resulting in fewer environmental or worker protections.
What is structural inequality?
refers to the system of
privilege and inequality created and maintained
by interlocking societal institutions (i.e., created
by institutions within an economy).
in what ways does business increase/decrease inequality?
Businesses can take corrective or transformative actions in order to help solve a problem. The private sector is generally deeply rooted in structural inequalities, and they have the ability and responsibility to address that role.
Describe briefly what are the 17 Sustainable Development Goals (not their definition, just explain what they represent as a whole)
The Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) or Global Goals are a collection of 17 interlinked global goals designed to be a “blueprint to achieve a better and more sustainable future for all”
The 17 SDGs are: (1) No Poverty, (2) Zero Hunger, (3) Good Health and Well-being, (4) Quality Education, (5) Gender Equality, (6) Clean Water and Sanitation, (7) Affordable and Clean Energy, (8) Decent Work and Economic Growth, (9) Industry, Innovation and Infrastructure, (10) Reduced Inequality, (11) Sustainable Cities and Communities, (12) Responsible Consumption and Production, (13) Climate Action, (14) Life Below Water, (15) Life On Land, (16) Peace, Justice, and Strong Institutions, (17) Partnerships for the Goals.
What is the sustainability leadership gap?
The disconnect between where companies need to be and where they actually are in terms of sustainable performance
What is the rhetoric to reality gap?
Business commitment to sustainability is at an all-time high.
Senior leaders are responsible for the success/failure of the organization. They are uniquely positioned to drive a sustainability transformation. What companies look for in leaders has consequences.
Businesses are doing a great job embedding talk of sustainability into company descriptions. But they are falling short in hiring leaders prepared to lead a sustainability transformation.
What are the 3 categories for the sustainability leaders? give a small description for each.
- The born believers: A passion for the
environment or social
issues was fostered from
an early age
2. The convinced: Acquired an increased understanding of the strategic importance of sustainability as they grew in their careers and the interconnectivity between corporate decision making and environment and social issues.
3. The awoken: Experienced a pivotal moment of realization, prompted by some major event or experience, that there was more to business than profit and that they personally had to do more.
What is the sustainability leadership model?
Experience => Competencies => Behaviours => Sustainability Outcomes
What is a sustainability report?
Means for communicating companies’ activities and
performance on a wide range of sustainability
(environmental, social, governance, and other) topics
What are the 3 big reporting frameworks (for now)? Who are they addressing? What is their approach?
Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) Sustainability Reporting Guidelines: All stakeholders, Multi-stakeholders approach
International Integrated Reporting Council (IIRC) Integrated Reporting
(IR) Framework: Providers of financial capital, Value Creation Approach
Sustainability Accounting Standards Board’s (SASB) Standards for environmental, social and governance (ESG) disclosures: Investors and SEC, Investor-Centric approach
Who am I? Standards of measurement designed to capture critical information about corporate performance
Metrics
Who am I? Measures used to calculate the social, economic, and environmental impacts of services or products
Sustainability metrics
What is the difference between natural and human enhanced greenhouse effect?
Natural: Light from the sun passes through the atmosphere and is absorbed by the Earth’s surface, warming it. Greenhouse gases, like carbon dioxide, act like a blanket, trapping heat near the surface and raising the temperature.
Human: Human activities release greenhouse gases. Although plants and the ocean absorb carbon dioxide, they can’t keep up with all the extra carbon dioxide. So the amount of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere has been increasing, trapping more heat.
Comment on reporting/disclosure
- Increased focus on materiality
- Increased focus on SDGs
- Increasingly integrated
- Movement toward science-based targets
What is the difference between Scope 1, 2, and 3 Emmissions?
Scope 1 Emissions→ Greenhouse gas metric bounded by direct emissions from internal operations.
Scope 2 Emissions → Greenhouse gas metric bounded by indirect emissions from other companies over which the reporting company has control, such as emissions generated by energy suppliers, resulting from the reporting company’s electricity consumption.
Purchase of energy and electricity (for a lot of companies it is the biggest)
Scope 3 Emissions → Greenhouse gas metric bounded by indirect emissions caused by entities in the company’s supply chain over which it has no control, such as second or third tier suppliers.
Who am I? The business function responsible for creating goods and services. It involves the management of people, equipment, technology, information, and other resources to transform inputs into finished goods and services.
Operations Management
Who am I? The management of the transformation process to reduce resource consumption, pollution, and waste while benefiting employees, customers, and communities in order to reduce short-term risks and shore-up long-term cash flows.
Sustainable operations management
Who am I? The design and management of flows of products, information, and funds throughout the network of all entities involved in producing and delivering a finished product to the final customer.
Supply chain management
Who am I? he strategic, transparent integration and achievement of an organization’s social, environmental, and economic goals in the systematic coordination of key inter-organizational business processes for improving the long –term economic performance of the individual company and its supply chains.
Sustainable supply chain management
What is the total cost of ownership?
The true cost of doing business with a particular supplier for a particular good or service. Widely used for supplier qualification, evaluation and selection. Often used in life-cycle costing.
What is the life-cycle assessment?
Disclosure of the sum total of adverse impacts of all stages of a product system, from raw material acquisition or natural resource production to the disposal of the product at the end of its life, including extracting and processing of raw materials, manufacturing, distribution, use, re-use, maintenance, recycling and final disposal (cradle-to-grave)
What are the 4 steps to LCA?
- Define the goal and scope
- Life-Cycle Inventory Analysis (LCI)
- Impact Assessment
- Interpretation
Who am I? The act of misleading consumers regarding the environmental practices of a company or the environmental benefits of a product/service
Greenwashing
Which of the 7 sins am I? A claim suggesting that a product is ‘green’ based on a narrow set of attributes without attention to other important environmental issues.
Sin of the hidden trade-off
