Sustainability is a journey – not a destination (Goldblatt, 2012). The purpose of this essay is to determine the degree to which this journey towards sustainability has begun in the case of the business events, also known as MICE (Meetings Incentives, Conferences and Exhibitions) industry.
Endorsement of the Bruntland Report (WCED, 1987) by the United Nations and its members at the Earth brought prominence to the concepts of sustainability and sustainable development (Drexhage and Murphy, 2010).
There are several definitions of Sustainable Development, the most popular one being “development which meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs” which was proposed within the same report ( WCED ,1987,p43.) . Despite the different definitions proposed by various authors (Harris et al. 2001, Sharachchandra 1991) they agree on certain key concepts that comprise the definition of sustainable development. These are inter and intra generational equity of resources, a long term rather than a myopic perspective, and the integration of the environment, economy and society. The last concept is also known as the triple bottom line, which consists of People, Planet, Profit (Elkington, 1998). People imply the society or the social dimension, planet implies the environmental dimension and profit implies the economic dimension.
The Economic dimension is concerned with matters involving the flow of money such as costs, income, employment, revenue etc., the environmental with matters that represent natural resources such as pollution, wastage, and depletion of non-renewable energy, the social with matters involving the society and people such as health and wellbeing, social equity, ...
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Vanclay, F.M. (2004). “The Triple Bottom Line and Impact Assessment: How do TBL, EIA, SIA, SEA and EMS relate to each other?”, Journal of Environmental Assessment Policy & Management, 6(3), pp.265-288.
Wilson, A. (2009). “ ETFE: The new fabric roof”. Available at: http://www.architen.com/technical/articles/ETFE-the-new-fabric-roof. Accessed: 4 December, 2013.
World Business Council for Sustainable Development (2000). Corporate Social Responsibility: Making Good Business Sense. World Business Council for Sustainable Development, Geneva.
World Commission on Environment and Development (WCED) (1987). Our Common Future; Oxford University Press, New York.
Zadek, S. (2001), “Balancing Performance, Ethics and Accountability”. In Starkey, R. and Welford, R (eds), The Earthscan Reader in Business and Sustainable Development, Earthscan, London.
Recently, many organisations and countries are trying to prevent the pollution and its bad impacts to human. In order to make that project be more realistic and effective, the European Union has offered a prize called ‘European Green Capital Award’. The main purpose of this award is to find a true green economy model and encourage other cities to improve the quality better. Bristol has received this recognition for 2015 due to its project to protect the environment and investment suitably. The project is based on both people’ consideration and the successful implication of Triple bottom line. However, the small and medium enterprises in Bristol also play an important role in contributing to the prize of this city. Therefore, Bearpit Social - a small coffee shop, which has been applied the business concept to have a suitable development plan as well as help Bristol develop more comprehensively. This report was written to help organisations understand more clearly about the Triple bottom line and how to implicate to improve the business operation in the most effective way.
Sustainability is a concept with a diverse array of meanings and definitions – a widely used glamorous, ambiguous, ambivalent and vague concept that is used by different stakeholder groups in various ways. Presumably to avoid noodling over a terminology or to avoid the confrontation with a definition, most widely the concept is broken down a planning process (c.f. e.g. Döring & Muraca, 2010). That is why most common sustainability is understood as sustainable development.1
Without doubt the XXI century has changed our priorities, especially when it comes to the way we do business. Popular sustainable business models, as advertised in the media, have evolved into much more than a moral obligation or an external requirement to generate money. Essentially, are forcing companies to reinvent the systems and approaches with which they generate value and profitability to the company.
[WCED] World Commission on Environment and Development. 1987. Our common future. New York: Oxford University Press. 444p.
The United Nations Conference on Environment and Development (1992) The Declaration of Rio on Environment and Development [Online] Available at: http://www.unep.org/Documents.multilingual/Default.asp?DocumentID=78&ArticleID=1163
In fact, we can further understand the concept of sustainable development by looking at three dimensions which are environmental, social and economy. Nowadays, environmental protection is one of the core values in sustainable development. Environmental degradation occurs when there is deterioration of the natural environment including the atmosphere, water, soil and forests. Shortage of food, clean water, materials for shelter and other essential resources are caused by these environmental problems. People, especially the poor who depend on natural resources that are gradually degrading like forests, land, air, and water will be affected the most as their supplies of food and other resources are damaged. Eradicating poverty by achieving an equitable and sustainable development without environment detriment becomes consumer issues in development.
“Sustainable Development: At its heart, sustainable development is the simple idea of ensuring a good quality of life for everyone, now and for generations to come. It is about living within the carrying capacity of the environment so that how we live, work and enjoy leisure activities, which do not harm or put undue pressures on the environment. It is about ensuring everyone has the opportunity to have a decent education, a quality environment that they take pride in, good health and a decent job (n.p, 2014)”
The 1992 Earth Summit in Rio was just one of several international conferences on the environment assembled since the early 1970’s. In 1972, the United Nations conference on Human Environment was held in Stockholm to address acid rain and regional pollution problems of northern Europe. This was the first international gathering to recognize environment and development issues. Other issues soon followed regarding international management of environmental resources. In 1975, the Convention on Internat...
According to the International Institute for Sustainable Development, sustainable development is defined as development that meets the needs of the present generation without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs. If we follow this definition, it becomes easy to see that the vast majority of the “developed” world has not, and is not developing sustainably. The idea of sustainable development requires us to consider how our action of developing will affect other countries, and future generations. Many people believe in “the butterfly effect”, where the flapping of a butterfly’s wings in one part of t...
(7) Adams, W. M. The Future of Sustainability: Re-thinking Environment and Development in the Twenty-first Century. Rep. The World Conservation Union, 22 May 2006. Web. 23 Oct. 2013.
This conference triggered the creation of a new resolution titled, “Transforming our world: the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development”. This resolution incorporated “far-reaching” goals concerning poverty, cooperation, and protection issues, intending for these goals to be resolved by 2030. As asserted in A/RES/70/1, the United Nations seeks “to strengthen universal peace in larger freedom” by primarily creating partnership between countries. Following this, Agenda 21, a finalized plan of action, was created by a conference run by the United Nations Conference on Environment and Development (UNCED) and adopted by 178 governments. The Commission on Sustainable Development (CSD) was created in the following conference to assure that the goals addressed in Agenda 21 were properly executed. This agenda was a commitment to maintain diverse aspects of sustainability such as combating climate change, improving sanitation, and helping human settlements. A/RES/70/210 recalls that the United Nations “acknowledges the importance of making cities and human settlements inclusive, safe, resilient, and
Green buildings are not only designed for present use, but consideration is also been given to future uses as well. An adaptable structure can be "recycled" many times over the course of its useful life. If specific technical issues prevent use of the building for a new function, then the materials used in its construction are designed to facilitate ease of recycling and reprocessing of materials.
‘Development that meets the needs of the present with the ability for the future generation to meet their own needs.’ (World Commission on Environment and Development, 1987) Sustainable development requires three key components: economy, society and environment, sustainable development can be success through striking balance in those factors. These three components are indispensible, they compel to depend on each other. On the other words, we can only gain a decent and energetic environment and society if the economy is strong with a healthy a stable growth rate.
Corporate Social Responsibility is an organisation’s obligation to serve the company’s own interest and the one’s of the society. Moreover, Corporate Social Responsibility has a definition of a concept where the companies integrate social and the environmental concerns into their own business operation and also on a basis of voluntary with their interactions they have with the stakeholders. Corporate Social Resp...
Sustainability simply defined to me as balancing act between the development of sustainability is necessary for both planet Earth and humans to survive. This is reinforced in the World Commission on Environment and Development report (1987) that sustainable development must meet the needs of the present without compromising the well-being of future generations”. The Earth Charter Organization widened the idea of sustainability to respect for a culture of peace, universal human rights, nature, and economic justice (What is sustainability?, n.d.).