International Business Environments and Operations 16th Global Edition test b...
Wfs Conference Martin De Wit
1. Factoring sustainability into
South Africa’s future
Martin de Wit
Address delivered to World Future Society, 6 May 2010, BMW Pavillion, Cape
Town.
2. Sustainability
• Sustainability in its shortest
definition is the capacity to endure
• To endure one does not only need
material goods, but also a mental
and spiritual resilience and set of
skills on how to cope.
3. Biophysical stress
Indicator Result for SA Key aspects Outcome
Ecological Footprint 2.8 ha/pp/yr vs. target Carbon Ecologically
of 1.8 ha/pp/yr Crop land unsustainable
Grazing land
91st out of 134
countries (2009)
Environmental 0.508/1.0 Environmental burden Environmentally
Performance Index of disease unsustainable
115th of 163 countries Climate change
(2010) Air pollution on
ecosystems
4. Serious stress on human wellbeing
Indicator Result for SA Key aspects Outcome
Corruption 55th out of 180 Increase in perceived corruption in Moderately sustainable
Perceptions countries (2008) last 2 years
Index
Subjective Well 41st out of 79 Happiness, life satisfaction Moderately sustainable
Being countries
Human 129th out of 182 Life expectancy Humanely Unsustainable
Development countries (2007) Literacy
index Education
Quality of Life 92nd out of 111 Material well-being, life expectancy, Humanely and politically
Index countries (2005) political stability, divorce rate, unsustainable
community life, climates,
unemployment, political freedom,
gender equality
Happy Planet 118th out of 143 Human well-being and Humanely Unsustainable
Index countries (2009) environmental impact
5. Recent progress in material wellbeing
Figure 1: Gross National Income per capita (constant 2005 prices, Rand per annum) Figure 2: GDP per capita (PPP, constant, 2000$)
$10500
$9900
$9300
$8700
$8100
$7500
1972
1974
1976
1978
1980
1982
1984
1986
1988
1990
1992
1994
1996
1998
2000
2002
2004
Source: SA Reserve Bank Source: Nationmaster.com based on World Development Indicators
6. Insufficient savings
Figure 3: Adjusted net savings, %
0.40
0.25
South Africa
China
0.10 Brazil
Russia
India
AVG World
-0.05
-0.20
1976
1977
1978
1979
1980
1981
1982
1983
1984
1985
1986
1987
1988
1990
1991
1992
1993
1994
1995
1996
1997
1998
1999
2000
2001
Source: Based on World Bank data
8. Comparative optimism
Figure 5: Figure 6:
Source: Pew Global Attitudes
Source: BBC World Service Poll, 2004.
Project Survey
9. Recent optimism
Table IV: South Africans believe the country is going in the right direction
Nov 09 May 09 May 08
Country is going Male 60% 45% 47%
in right direction
Female 53% 41% 44%
Source: IPSOR Markinor, Pulse of the People Public Opinion Series
10. Hope and the future
Once you choose hope, anything is possible -
Christopher Reeve
We are all in the gutter, but some of us are looking at
the stars - Oscar Wilde
To eat bread without hope is still slowly to starve to
death - Pearl S. Buck
Who hopes for what he already has? But if we hope
for what we do not yet have, we wait for it patiently
- Apostle Paul in letter to Romans (Rom 8:24-25,
NIV)
11. From hope towards an ethics of
sustainability
• Factoring sustainability into South
Africa’s future is in the first place to
start acting on the individual and
collective hope we have as a nation.
• This hope can translate into deep
changes in attitude and behaviour.
12. Wedges for change
• material wedges to start bending the trends of
material and resource use as well as the
generation of pollution and waste.
• lifestyle wedges, such as pressures on conspicuous
consumption
• behavioural wedge to change attitudes and
behaviour
13. Time will tell whether that optimism
(quoting Václav Havel) is...
not the conviction that something
will turn out well,
but the certainty that something
makes sense,
regardless of how it turns out.