Climate Change

1. Climate Change Stern Review (2006): • Scientific evidence is now overwhelming: climate change present very serious global risks and it demands an urgent global reponse • Scientific evidence points to increasing risks of serious, irreversible impacts from climate change associated with business-as-usual paths for emissions • Climate change threatens the basic elements of life for people around the world: access to water, food production, health, and use of land and the environment • The damages from climate change will accelerate as the world get warmer • The impacts of climate change are not evenly distributed – the poorest countries and people will suffer earliest and most. • Climate change may initially have small positive effects for a few developed countries, but the much higher temperature increases are likely to be very damaging (Blowfield and Murray 2008:pp. 238) Source: http://www.worldviewofglobalwarming.org/pages/glaciers.html

2. The tragedy of the commons “There was once a village on the shore of a great ocean. Its people made a good living from the rich fishing grounds that lay offshore, the bounty of which seemed inexhaustible. Some of the cleverest fishermen began to experiment with new ways to catch more fish, borrowing money to buy bigger and better equipped boats. Since it was hard to argue with success, other copied their new techniques. Soon fish began to be hard to find, and their average size began to decline. Eventually, the fishery collapsed, bringing economic calamity to the village. A wise elder commented, ‘You seen, the fish were not free after all. It was our folly to act as if they were.’” (cited in Lawrence & Weber 2008)

3. Sustainable Development • “Sustainable development is development that meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs.” (World Commission on Environment and Development [Brundtland Commission] 1987) • Intra-generational justice/equity: fair distributions across the present population of the world, in terms of quality of life, measured, perhaps, by comparative standards of living or benefits from sharing the resources of the planet (Blowfield & Murray 2008:pp. 235) • Inter-generational justice/equity: bring in views, preferences and interests of future generations (Fisher & Lovell 2009: 344) see Rawls’ ‘veil of ignorance’

4. Sustainability • “Sustainability refers to the long-term maintenance of systems according to environmental, economic and social considerations.” (Crane & Matten 2007:23) • Business can only be sustainable if the wider social, economic and environmental systems in which they operate are sustainable • supports ‘systems thinking’

5. Corporate Responsibility • Hart (1997) ‘Beyond Greening’ • Pollution prevention • environmental management systems such as ISO 14000 • Product stewardship • minimising environmental impact of product • Clean technology • Sustainability vision

6. Industrial Ecosystems - Kalundborg industrial ecosystem Fly ash & limestone gunk ASNAES POWER PLANT GYPROC WALLBOARD Low-grade cement Fly ash Used steam CEMENT COMPANY Surplus heat High sulphur gas NOVO NORDISK ENZYME PLANT CITY OF KALUNDBORG Chemicals Waste as fertilizer CHEMICAL PLANT Steam for heat Used steam Wastewater for cooling FARMS STATOIL REFINERY FISHERY Heavy oil Source: Shrivastava 1995, cited in Crane & Matten 2007:pp. 395