Sustainability by Eva Collins

1. Business and Sustainability
Dr Eva Collins
Presentation to
191 Class
25 July 2011

2. After 50 Minutes You Will Be
Able to Answer the Following:
• Does business have a role in sustainability?
• What are the challenges for business related to
sustainability?
• What are ecopreneurs and how might they help us get
to a sustainable future?
© THE UNIVERSITY OF WAIKATO • TE WHARE WANANGA O WAIKATO 26 July 2012 2

3. Does Business Have a Role in
Sustainability?
© THE UNIVERSITY OF WAIKATO • TE WHARE WANANGA O WAIKATO 26 July 2012 3

4. Traditional Business Model
© THE UNIVERSITY OF WAIKATO • TE WHARE WANANGA O WAIKATO 26 July 2012 4

5. Ray Anderson
Interface Carpet Company
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OUG4JXE6K4A
© THE UNIVERSITY OF WAIKATO • TE WHARE WANANGA O WAIKATO 26 July 2012 5

6. Does Business Have a
Role in Sustainability?
• Corporations are the only organisations
with the resources, the technology, the
global reach and ultimately the motivation
to achieve sustainability. (Hart 1997)
• What’s needed is to turn conventional
markets – and conventional business
thinking – on their heads. (Elkington 1997)
© THE UNIVERSITY OF WAIKATO • TE WHARE WANANGA O WAIKATO 26 July 2012 6

7. What is Sustainable Enterprise?
No negative impact on future generations
© THE UNIVERSITY OF WAIKATO • TE WHARE WANANGA O WAIKATO 26 July 2012 7

8. What are the challenges for business
related to sustainability?
• Finite resources
• The paradox of growth
• Consumerism
• New Zealand issue
• Scale
• 100% sustainable?
© THE UNIVERSITY OF WAIKATO • TE WHARE WANANGA O WAIKATO 26 July 2012 8

9. What Would a Sustainable Business
Model Look Like?
© THE UNIVERSITY OF WAIKATO • TE WHARE WANANGA O WAIKATO 26 July 2012 9

10. One Idea for a Sustainable Business
Model
• A sustainable business model has an overall positive
effect on the natural environment and contributes
positively to the social fabric, moving us toward a
sustainable future. Features include:
• Driven by values
• Closing the loop
• Redefining “the product” and who needs
to own it
• Adding to the social fabric
© THE UNIVERSITY OF WAIKATO • TE WHARE WANANGA O WAIKATO 26 July 2012 10

11. TerraCycle
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UvWNlH_4gRg
© THE UNIVERSITY OF WAIKATO • TE WHARE WANANGA O WAIKATO 26 July 2012 11

12. Ecopreneurs and Social Entrepreneurs
Using commerce to change the world
© THE UNIVERSITY OF WAIKATO • TE WHARE WANANGA O WAIKATO 26 July 2012 12

13. Finite resources, The paradox of growth, Scale, 100% sustainable?
Driven by values, Closing the loop, Redefining “the product” and
who needs to own it, Adding to the social fabric
© THE UNIVERSITY OF WAIKATO • TE WHARE WANANGA O WAIKATO 26 July 2012 13

14. Finite resources, The paradox of growth, Scale, 100% sustainable?
Driven by values, Closing the loop, Redefining “the product” and
who needs to own it, Adding to the social fabric
© THE UNIVERSITY OF WAIKATO • TE WHARE WANANGA O WAIKATO 26 July 2012 14

15. The Latest News on Business and
Sustainability in New Zealand
http://www.pureadvantage.org/

16. Creative Destruction
“You never change things by fighting the existing reality. To
change something, build a new model that makes the existing
model obsolete” (Richard Buckminster Fuller, philosopher, futurist
and global thinker, 1895 - 1983).
© THE UNIVERSITY OF WAIKATO • TE WHARE WANANGA O WAIKATO 26 July 2012 16