The sustainable development: An ethical and profitable strategy for companies?

Résumé du document

During the Johannesburg summit of 2002, the world of international business renewed its commitments towards the concept of sustainable development. Today, for most companies, durability has become necessary as a business strategy. In some companies, many researches are made to find the best solutions to get involved in the sustainable development concept. The sustainable development is already well implemented in the Scandinavian countries for several years, in particular for environmental aspects. In those countries, a large part of energy resources comes from wind turbines. Beyond the energy example, we know that in these countries, the idea of cleanliness is very strong. The way of life and the culture may play an important role in sustainable development. Nowadays, people are becoming concerned more about the environment and sustainable development has become a factor of choice for many consumers.

Extraits

[...] The sustainable development thus constitutes a requirement likely to help us with rebuilding an economic analysis and practice in order to serve all the born human beings or to be born. References Wikipedia The Sustainable Development OECD - Strategies for Sustainable Develpment Common Future”, Report of the World Commission on Environment and Development, World Commission on Environment and Development United Nations. 1987."Report of the World Commission on Environment and Development." United Nations Division for sustainable Development. Documents: Sustainable Development Issues World Commission on Environment and Development, Our Common Future (Oxford, England: Oxford University Press, 1988). [...]

[...] - Markets: business opportunities resulting from the sustainable development - Bank and investment: the industry of financial services also integrates criteria of sustainable development There are many ways of implementing the sustainable development in the business strategy of a company. First of all, the company may include an environmental management in its strategy. This must lead to the reduction of the raw material consumption or limit the impacts of its activity and products on the milieu. The company mobilizes means and sets up methods to be able to control its environmental impacts. [...]

[...] The sustainable development: an ethical and profitable strategy for companies? Introduction During the Johannesburg summit of 2002, the world of international business renewed its commitments to the concept of sustainable development. Today, for most companies, the durability has become necessary in the business strategy. In some companies, many researches are made to find the best solutions to get involved in the sustainable development concept. The sustainable development is already well implemented in the Scandinavian countries for several years, in particular for environmental aspects. [...]

[...] Thus, a company can benefit from a sustainable development oriented strategy thanks to the long- term cost saving and process optimizations but it can also get a better image from its customers through its environmental involvements. Unfortunately, the application of the sustainable development is difficult because the economic objectives are primordial and the ethical dimension is often occulted as for many other cases. There are also many small companies that can't afford heavy investments (Freedman and Jaggi, 1982) in this “sustainable” way, even if they know that such a strategy is profitable on a long-term basis. [...]

[...] Many other definitions of the sustainable development were proposed, but they were not as relevant as the original one as they were not including all the dimensions of the concept. However, whatever the definition used for this concept is and the way of applying it, the integration of social, economic and environmental dimensions of the development remains always the basis for a development which can be qualified as “sustainable”. The sustainable development has 3 main objectives: - the environmental protection - the social equity (between nations, individuals and generations) and cohesion - the economic prosperity The prime objective is to safeguard the earth's capacity to support life in all its diversity, respect the limits of the planet's natural resources and ensure a high level of protection and improvement of the quality of the environment. [...]