IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/bla/bstrat/v17y2008i7p444-453.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

The sustainability spectrum and the sciences of sustainability

Author

Listed:
  • Thomas P. Seager

Abstract

Understanding sustainability requires integrating multiple perspectives and investigative methods to explain multidimensional concepts. However, the traditional approach to research and education is organized along disciplinary lines that tend to exclude awareness of contributions in one field that may inform problems in another. This presents a serious obstacle to advancing an understanding of sustainability, which is focused on the interactions between industrial and ecological systems, rather than examining each system independently. This paper offers a broad description of different perspectives with regard to sustainability including security, reliability, resilience and renewal, and briefly describes the emerging sciences essential to understanding sustainability: ecological economics, industrial ecology, ecosystem health, and sustainable decision making, policy and design. In the latter, the challenges have yet to find an academic locus. Nonetheless, it is in this area that knowledge of sustainability science must be applied and it is consequently most proximate to business leaders, policy makers and designers. Copyright © 2008 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd and ERP Environment.

Suggested Citation

  • Thomas P. Seager, 2008. "The sustainability spectrum and the sciences of sustainability," Business Strategy and the Environment, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 17(7), pages 444-453, November.
    • Handle: RePEc:bla:bstrat:v:17:y:2008:i:7:p:444-453
    DOI: 10.1002/bse.632
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://doi.org/10.1002/bse.632
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1002/bse.632?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Nigel Roome, 2001. "Conceptualizing and studying the contribution of networks in environmental management and sustainable development," Business Strategy and the Environment, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 10(2), pages 69-76, March.
    2. Robert P. Anex & Will Focht, 2002. "Public Participation in Life Cycle Assessment and Risk Assessment: A Shared Need," Risk Analysis, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 22(5), pages 861-877, October.
    3. Ayres, Robert U., 2007. "On the practical limits to substitution," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 61(1), pages 115-128, February.
    4. Farber, Stephen C. & Costanza, Robert & Wilson, Matthew A., 2002. "Economic and ecological concepts for valuing ecosystem services," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 41(3), pages 375-392, June.
    5. Ayres, Robert U., 2004. "On the life cycle metaphor: where ecology and economics diverge," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 48(4), pages 425-438, April.
    6. Mirowski,Philip, 1992. "More Heat than Light," Cambridge Books, Cambridge University Press, number 9780521426893, October.
    7. T. P. Seager & J. H. Lambert & K. H. Gardner, 2007. "Fostering Innovation in Contaminated Sediments Management Through Multicriteria Technology Assessment and Public Participation," Risk Analysis, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 27(4), pages 1043-1052, August.
    8. Cathy L. Hartman & Peter S. Hofman & Edwin R. Stafford, 1999. "Partnerships: a path to sustainability," Business Strategy and the Environment, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 8(5), pages 255-266, September.
    9. Pierre Desrochers, 2001. "Cities and Industrial Symbiosis: Some Historical Perspectives and Policy Implications," Journal of Industrial Ecology, Yale University, vol. 5(4), pages 29-44, October.
    10. Robin Gregory & Ralph L. Keeney, 1994. "Creating Policy Alternatives Using Stakeholder Values," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 40(8), pages 1035-1048, August.
    11. Thomas Dyllick & Kai Hockerts, 2002. "Beyond the business case for corporate sustainability," Business Strategy and the Environment, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 11(2), pages 130-141, March.
    12. Peterson, Garry, 2000. "Political ecology and ecological resilience:: An integration of human and ecological dynamics," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 35(3), pages 323-336, December.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Elisa Chaleta & Margarida Saraiva & Fátima Leal & Isabel Fialho & António Borralho, 2021. "Higher Education and Sustainable Development Goals (SDG)—Potential Contribution of the Undergraduate Courses of the School of Social Sciences of the University of Évora," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(4), pages 1-10, February.
    2. Giovanna Andrea Pinilla‐De La Cruz & Rodrigo Rabetino & Jussi Kantola, 2022. "Unveiling the shades of partnerships for the energy transition and sustainable development: Connecting public–private partnerships and emerging hybrid schemes," Sustainable Development, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 30(5), pages 1370-1386, October.
    3. Ozgur Isil & Michael T. Hernke, 2017. "The Triple Bottom Line: A Critical Review from a Transdisciplinary Perspective," Business Strategy and the Environment, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 26(8), pages 1235-1251, December.
    4. Gail Whiteman & D. René de Vos & F. Stuart Chapin & Vesa Yli‐Pelkonen & Jari Niemelä & Bruce C. Forbes, 2011. "Business strategies and the transition to low‐carbon cities," Business Strategy and the Environment, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 20(4), pages 251-265, May.
    5. J. Park & T. P. Seager & P. S. C. Rao & M. Convertino & I. Linkov, 2013. "Integrating Risk and Resilience Approaches to Catastrophe Management in Engineering Systems," Risk Analysis, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 33(3), pages 356-367, March.
    6. Michael D. Gerst & Melissa A. Kenney & Brett E. Howard & Robert J. Giraud, 2020. "A decision‐analytic approach to screening in chemical alternatives assessment," Business Strategy and the Environment, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 29(3), pages 1597-1604, March.
    7. Marko Keskinen & Suvi Sojamo & Olli Varis, 2019. "Enhancing Security, Sustainability and Resilience in Energy, Food and Water," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 11(24), pages 1-8, December.
    8. Jiarong Xie, 2023. "Identifying and Ranking the Dimensions of Urban Resilience and Its Effect on Sustainable Urban Development in Tongdejie, China," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 15(6), pages 1-16, March.
    9. Elisa Chaleta & Margarida Saraiva & Luís Sebastião & Marília Cid & António M. Diniz & Fátima Leal & Paulo Quaresma & Luís Rato, 2021. "University Teachers’ Conceptions of the University and the Place of Sustainability," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(4), pages 1-10, February.
    10. Amer Ait Sidhoum & K Hervé Dakpo & Laure Latruffe, 2022. "Trade-offs between economic, environmental and social sustainability on farms using a latent class frontier efficiency model: Evidence for Spanish crop farms," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 17(1), pages 1-17, January.
    11. Thomas P. Seager & Zachary A. Collier & Igor Linkov & James H. Lambert, 2013. "Environmental sustainability, complex systems, and the disruptive imagination," Environment Systems and Decisions, Springer, vol. 33(2), pages 181-183, June.
    12. Paul Shrivastava & Silvester Ivanaj & Sybil Persson, 2013. "Transdisciplinary Study of Sustainable Enterprise," Business Strategy and the Environment, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 22(4), pages 230-244, May.
    13. Anette Hallin & Tina Karrbom‐Gustavsson & Peter Dobers, 2021. "Transition towards and of sustainability—Understanding sustainability as performative," Business Strategy and the Environment, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 30(4), pages 1948-1957, May.
    14. Yeowon Kim & Daniel A. Eisenberg & Emily N. Bondank & Mikhail V. Chester & Giuseppe Mascaro & B. Shane Underwood, 2017. "Fail-safe and safe-to-fail adaptation: decision-making for urban flooding under climate change," Climatic Change, Springer, vol. 145(3), pages 397-412, December.
    15. Susan T. Jackson, 2021. "Risking Sustainability: Political Risk Culture as Inhibiting Ecology-Centered Sustainability," Risks, MDPI, vol. 9(11), pages 1-15, October.
    16. Steven Cooke & Jesse Vermaire, 2015. "Environmental studies and environmental science today: inevitable mission creep and integration in action-oriented transdisciplinary areas of inquiry, training and practice," Journal of Environmental Studies and Sciences, Springer;Association of Environmental Studies and Sciences, vol. 5(1), pages 70-78, March.
    17. Jan Vespermann & Andreas Wittmer, 2011. "Financial, ecological and managerial impacts of emission trading schemes: the case of Lufthansa," Business Strategy and the Environment, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 20(3), pages 174-191, March.
    18. Derk Loorbach & Janneke C. van Bakel & Gail Whiteman & Jan Rotmans, 2010. "Business strategies for transitions towards sustainable systems," Business Strategy and the Environment, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 19(2), pages 133-146, February.
    19. Therese Fagerlind & Martin Stefanicki & Andreas Feldmann & Jouni Korhonen, 2019. "The Distribution of Sustainable Decision-Making in Multinational Manufacturing Enterprises," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 11(18), pages 1-17, September.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Häyhä, Tiina & Franzese, Pier Paolo, 2014. "Ecosystem services assessment: A review under an ecological-economic and systems perspective," Ecological Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 289(C), pages 124-132.
    2. Marileena Koskela & Jarmo Vehmas, 2012. "Defining Eco‐efficiency: A Case Study on the Finnish Forest Industry," Business Strategy and the Environment, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 21(8), pages 546-566, December.
    3. Beça, Pedro & Santos, Rui, 2010. "Measuring sustainable welfare: A new approach to the ISEW," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 69(4), pages 810-819, February.
    4. Andrew Peterman & Arno Kourula & Raymond Levitt, 2020. "Organizational roles in a sustainability alliance network," Business Strategy and the Environment, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 29(8), pages 3314-3330, December.
    5. Fredrik von Malmborg, 2004. "Networking for knowledge transfer: towards an understanding of local authority roles in regional industrial ecosystem management," Business Strategy and the Environment, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 13(5), pages 334-346, September.
    6. Kolinjivadi, Vijay & Gamboa, Gonzalo & Adamowski, Jan & Kosoy, Nicolás, 2015. "Capabilities as justice: Analysing the acceptability of payments for ecosystem services (PES) through ‘social multi-criteria evaluation’," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 118(C), pages 99-113.
    7. Antonella Zucchella & Pietro Previtali, 2019. "Circular business models for sustainable development: A “waste is food” restorative ecosystem," Business Strategy and the Environment, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 28(2), pages 274-285, February.
    8. Jones, Michael John, 2010. "Accounting for the environment: Towards a theoretical perspective for environmental accounting and reporting," Accounting forum, Elsevier, vol. 34(2), pages 123-138.
    9. Bunse, Lukas & Rendon, Olivia & Luque, Sandra, 2015. "What can deliberative approaches bring to the monetary valuation of ecosystem services? A literature review," Ecosystem Services, Elsevier, vol. 14(C), pages 88-97.
    10. Mark Heuer, 2012. "Sustainability Governance Across Time and Space: Connecting Environmental Stewardship in the Firm with the Global Community," Business Strategy and the Environment, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 21(2), pages 86-97, February.
    11. Jean D. Kabongo, 2020. "The intellectual structure of the journal Business Strategy and the Environment: A 25‐year author cocitation analysis," Business Strategy and the Environment, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 29(1), pages 170-179, January.
    12. Tian Yang & Changhao Liu & Raymond P. Côté & Jinwen Ye & Weifeng Liu, 2022. "Evaluating the Barriers to Industrial Symbiosis Using a Group AHP-TOPSIS Model," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(11), pages 1-30, June.
    13. Dianne McGrath, 2011. "Accounting for the Environment: Towards a Theoretical Perspective for Environmental Accounting and Reporting," Social and Environmental Accountability Journal, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 31(2), pages 169-170, September.
    14. Tulin Dzhengiz, 2018. "The Relationship of Organisational Value Frames with the Configuration of Alliance Portfolios: Cases from Electricity Utilities in Great Britain," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 10(12), pages 1-29, November.
    15. Ioana Gutu & Daniela Tatiana Agheorghiesei & Alexandru Tugui, 2023. "Assessment of a Workforce Sustainability Tool through Leadership and Digitalization," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 20(2), pages 1-30, January.
    16. Arts, Bas, 2014. "Assessing forest governance from a ‘Triple G’ perspective: Government, governance, governmentality⁎⁎This article belongs to the Special Issue: Assessing Forest Governance," Forest Policy and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 49(C), pages 17-22.
    17. Jung Eon Kwon & Hyung Rok Woo, 2017. "The Impact of Flipped Learning on Cooperative and Competitive Mindsets," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 10(1), pages 1-15, December.
    18. Rambaud, Alexandre & Richard, Jacques, 2015. "The “Triple Depreciation Line” instead of the “Triple Bottom Line”: Towards a genuine integrated reporting," CRITICAL PERSPECTIVES ON ACCOUNTING, Elsevier, vol. 33(C), pages 92-116.
    19. Maria Björklund & Helena Forslund, 2019. "Challenges Addressed by Swedish Third-Party Logistics Providers Conducting Sustainable Logistics Business Cases," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 11(9), pages 1-15, May.
    20. Merriam Haffar & Cory Searcy, 2018. "Target‐setting for ecological resilience: Are companies setting environmental sustainability targets in line with planetary thresholds?," Business Strategy and the Environment, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 27(7), pages 1079-1092, November.

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:bla:bstrat:v:17:y:2008:i:7:p:444-453. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Wiley Content Delivery (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/journal/10.1002/(ISSN)1099-0836 .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.