Chapter five

Sustainably competent professionals

When I ask people what they associate with the word “sustainability,” some will immediately mention nature and the environment: climate change, for instance, or aerosols.

Others will quickly add, “But wait, sustainability, isn’t that about people, too?” And when asked for an explanation, they may mention poverty and hunger in developing countries, refugees, or discrimination and issues concerning a multicultural society.

Yes! Sustainable development is about many, many issues. Sometimes this makes it hard for people to understand the concept properly. It may seem as if every problem we are struggling with – in the world, in Europe, Africa, or Asia, in our country, or even in our own town or village – has to do with sustainability. Many people have the feeling that “sustainability” is some sort of container into which you can throw each and every problem in the entire world. If this is true, then what’s the use of such a word? What does it explain? How can you ever know how to live or work in a sustainable way?

The concept of “sustainable development” was used for the first time in 1980, in a publication of three global organizations for nature and the environment. One of them was the World Wildlife Fund. In the following years, the Brundtland Commission performed a thorough study on behalf of the United Nations. In 1987, the commission published its final report called “Our Common Future.” According to the report, sustainable development is:

In other words: On the one hand, sustainable development is about now: about the desire to grant every person in the world a decent life. This concerns, for example, combating poverty and hunger. Moreover, it includes quality education and healthcare for everybody – wherever in the world – a healthy living environment, freedom, democracy, safety, and human rights. In short, it gives each human the chance to be a full member of society.

On the other hand, sustainable development is also about later: about the concerns that we are overexploiting our planet with our present lifestyle. It is about our desire to grant our children, grandchildren, and great-grandchildren a decent future, which is only possible if we drastically change our present way of living.

Solutions that really work

Yeah, but – some people ask me – are those two, now and later, really connected? What makes sustainable development different from a grab bag of issues, a container concept? Actually, all those issues in the “grab bag” are strongly linked to one another; they influence each other in many ways.

Let me just give you one example. One of the big issues of our generation is world population growth. This growth takes place at dazzling speed. It took mankind hundreds of thousands of years to grow to one billion people. This point was reached around the year 1800. The second billion took us less than 130 years. In 2011, we completed the seventh billion, an accomplishment we achieved in just 12 years!

What is driving such growth? All right, sex, of course. But that is certainly not the only answer. An important key lies in the fact that population growth occurs almost entirely in poor countries. Why there? Because the people there need children to provide for them in old age. When you live in poverty, your children are seen as the only ones who will feed you, clothe you, and house you when you are old. Moreover, if child mortality in your country is high, you may certainly hope to have a lot of kids! It’s a fixed pattern: everywhere where prosperity increases, the birth rate decreases. In various wealthy countries, the population is shrinking slightly.

If you want your great-grandchildren to have a decent future, global population growth must come to a halt; so much is absolutely certain. If not, our planet will not survive! Managing population growth depends upon solid economic growth in developing countries. So even if you don’t wish for poor people to become prosperous out of a feeling of solidarity or compassion, you still would be wise to wish them prosperity from a rational perspective. It is quintessential for your own future and that of your own children and their offspring.

On the other hand, such strong economic growth may, of course, increase the global ecological footprint considerably as the present Republic of China illustrates, for example, unless we find clever ways to avoid this. Partly, this can be done with the help of new science and technology. The rest will have to be accomplished through changes in our behavior as consumers.

This example shows that poverty, economy, ecology, science, technology, and human behavior interact strongly with each other. For that reason, sustainability is not simply a container or grab bag with all problems thrown separately into it. On the contrary, sustainability is the only way to understand the ways in which all those problems and issues are linked and to find solutions that really work.

The Triple P

The way in which the Brundtland Commission describes sustainable development has been generally accepted. However, to be honest, in real life it is hard to apply practically. “Meet the needs of the present generation.” Right, but how? And by the way: which needs? Everybody drives a second car and gets a new smartphone every six months? “Future generations” – wonderful, but how many generations? A thousand?

Many models have been designed to explain sustainability more concretely. One of the best known was created by Ismail Serageldin in 1996: the “Triple P,” i.e. the three P’s: “people,” “planet,” and “profit.” Together they are called the “pillars of sustainability.” You have seen them a few times in earlier chapters. Let me summarize:

• Social sustainability (“people”) at an individual level is about respect for human rights, freedom and safety, cultural values, education and health, personal development, diversity, empowerment, and participation. At a societal level, it concerns peace, democracy, solidarity, and social cohesion.
• Ecological sustainability (“planet”) relates to conservation and resilience of the natural environment. This implies that ecosystems and biodiversity are protected and that the ability of the natural environment to provide us with resources and regenerate our waste is not harmed.
• Economic sustainability (“profit”) is present if development toward social and ecological sustainability can take place in a sufficiently stable economic environment and is financially feasible, and if individuals, families, and communities are guaranteed to be free of poverty. (Sometimes, instead of “profit,” the broader concept of “prosperity” is used).

Sustainable development means that all aspects and themes above are seen as mutually dependent and interrelated, in that the various interests, problems, and solutions are constantly and harmoniously weighed against and connected with each other. This principle is often: “The three P’s must be in balance.”

The necessity of sustainably competent professionals

The Brundtland report and the Triple P don’t guarantee that sustainable development is now crystal clear to everybody or that it is easy to decide in all cases, which decisions or actions are sustainable and which are not. Choices concerning sustainable development are usually far from simple. If the use of oil and gas contributes to the greenhouse effect and hence to climate disruption, would it be wise to use nuclear power for a couple of generations, or would that be even more unsustainable? Should we make cars more sustainable, or would that be highly unsustainable in the long term because we might have to get rid of all or most cars? Should we ban child labor in Asia and Africa as fast as we can, even if this means that the parents who depend on their children’s income would starve?

No, easy answers don’t exist. The dilemmas are complicated, and so are the solutions. At the same time, there are lots of opportunities – opportunities to make the world more beautiful and just than it is at present. Wouldn’t it be great if there were no more hunger anywhere? If war could disappear altogether? If all people could live freely and securely? If nature were resilient? I believe these ideas are possible. Whether I am right, I cannot know for sure, but there are two things I do know for sure.

The first certainty is that if we all believe that the human world is doomed to perish, we will be right. Negative thinking will become a self-fulfilling prophecy, a prediction that makes itself come true, simply because everybody will lean back and do nothing. Consequently, what we should do is roll up our sleeves. Let’s work on sustainability with everything we’ve got!

The second certainty is that because solutions are complicated, we need everybody to make them work. Look, at present, a number of companies – large ones and small ones – are contributing intensively to sustainable development, mainly because, by coincidence, they are managed by people who have decided to do so. The same is true for governments of countries. Some have a sustainability policy, but only until the next election brings in another government. In other words, whether a company or a country strives to operate sustainably depends on who happens to be in the executive position, i.e. ultimately by coincidence.

However, sustainable development is far too essential to leave it up to chance. In order for it to become institutionalized, we need everybody, each professional, in lower and higher positions, in whatever enterprise, government, educational institution, or societal organization. We need you, too.

Are you ready?