Preparing for a Sustainable Future

The term sustainability has become one of the most significant in the current era. It seems to be ubiquitous amongst academics, politicians, business leaders, media personnel and even the general public. It is no exaggeration to state that it is considered all over the world to be the most pressing issue to be addressed for the long-term future of the planet and its inhabitants. The topic is of course complex, and the issue of sustainability is under much debate as to what it actually is and how it can be achieved, but it is completely certain that the resources of the planet are fixed in quantity and, once used, cannot be reused except through being reused in one form or another. At present, much of the discourse of sustainability has focused upon the environment and in particular upon climate change and the effects that this is having. Thus, the discourse has tended to be about mitigation.

Sustainability of course requires all three pillars of the triple bottom line-economic, environmental and social-to be addressed. Indeed, it might be considered that the effects upon the social, and how we choose to live our lives, might well be the most profound effect of achieving sustainability. This book therefore focuses upon some of the many aspects of the social and how we can adapt our lives to accommodate the requirements of sustainability. it therefore takes a very different approach to addressing the issues of sustainability, while of course not ignoring the other pillars. This book therefore sets out to examine various aspects of the changes to personal, corporate and institutional behaviour which may have to come about in our search for sustainability. It is tended to address some of the issues and how they are being dealt with in various parts of the world. As always, our concept is to share best practice and thereby enrich both the discourse and our progress towards sustainability. Thus, we focus upon the current situation while also considering the extent to which the focus is changing so much that we need to think about new approaches to our understanding of behaviour and differing effects in practice. The international origins of the contributors to this book make this an original contribution taking some of the best ideas from around the world.

This book therefore addresses these issues from a perspective not generally addressed by researchers, or even by politicians and the press. It therefore provides fresh perspectives upon the important issue of our common future. As always, this approach is based on the tradition of the Social Responsibility Research Network srrnet.org (a worldwide body of scholars with membership of several thousand), which in its 20-year history has sought to broaden the discourse and to treat all research as inter-related and relevant to business. This tradition has always been to explore the subject widely and to seek relevant solutions, while also sharing best practice. This book is based primarily upon some of the contributions from the network at our recent conference and shows both commonality and diversity in approaches and effects.

Auteur

David Crowther is an expert in various fields: he is a specialist in business administration, a games theoretician and a psychologist while also a qualified accountant who had worked as an accountant, systems specialist and general manager in local government, industry and commerce for over 20 years. After a number of years in the financial services sector, including a spell as a divisional managing director during which he set up and ran a credit card scheme, he decided to leave the business world and become an academic. In 1994, he joined Aston University and there obtained a Ph.D. in 1999 for research into corporate social performance. In 2001, he became the first professor of Corporate Social Responsibility in the world. He now holds various positions as a professor as well as being visiting professor in various institutions. He gives advice as a chief research fellow at the Lithuanian Institute of Agrarian Economics and has consulted extensively around the world. At Ansted University, he is also a member of the Board and President of the Sustainability Research Institute. He has consulted widely including to US Presidential candidates, UN, EU and governments. David has published more than 60 books and has also contributed several hundred articles to academic, business and professional journals and to edited book collections. He has also spoken widely at conferences and seminars worldwide and acted as a consultant to a wide range of government, professional and commercial organisations. In 2002, he established the Social Responsibility Research Network, an international body which now has several thousand members, together with associated international conference series, journals and books series. In 2010, he established the Organisation Governance Network and conference series. He is listed in Who's Who in the World and various other directories. His research is into sustainability, governance and corporate social responsibility with a particular emphasison the relationship between social, environmental and financial performance. His latest project has been to edit and produce the Palgrave major reference work on CSR.

Shahla is an engineer by background and worked for over 20 years in the National Standards Institute of Iran. There she was responsible for assessing products, developing national standards and international affairs as well as sitting on the National Steering Committee developing ISO 26000. In 2013, she relocated to the UK where she is now based. She is both a British and an Iranian citizen and continues to publish within her area of sustainability. She currently researches, writes and runs the Social Responsibility Research Network while also acting as consultant, editor, guest lecturer and keynote speaker.

Shahla has taught extensively-both to students and to managers-and translated much material into Farsi. As a qualified physical fitness trainer, she led courses in Tehran for a number of years. Sheis a founding editor of the journal Technological Sustainability (published by Emerald) and is a member of the editorial boards of several journals and book series around the world and consults and speaks in various locations. She has published more than 20 books in English and translated several into Farsi; she has published over 50 articles in English as well as numerous articles in Farsi. Her most recent book "The World's Future Crisis: Extractive Resources Depletion" was recently published by Springer. Her latest projects have been to edit and produce the "Palgrave Handbook on CSR" and to edit the Routledge Handbook to the Future of Management Research.