Turning rhetoric into reality in pursuit of the triple-bottom-line – Erb Faculty Director, Joe Arvai published in Risk Analysis an International Journal
Many business cases, and business school classes, are overflowing with high-sounding and aspirational rhetoric about the need to adopt sustainability as a guiding principle for enterprise. Who can argue against this? Research shows that decoupling economic progress from resource use and environmental decline can also be one of the biggest drivers of future success. Likewise, consumers in both mature and emerging markets are coming to expect businesses to produce products and services in a manner that addresses broad sustainability objectives. But, merely knowing that the business transition toward sustainability is worthwhile, and knowing how to make it happen are two different things.
Joe Árvai, a decision scientist within the Erb Institute, and his team have been working with the private and public sectors to turn rhetoric into reality by developing and testing science-based decision-support systems that business can use to achieve the hotly desired but elusive triple-bottom-line.