A framework to enrich the scientific, political and managerial understanding of sustainable development issues for the automotive industry: the GERPISA's 'tradeoffs and synergies' approach

The Groupement d'Etude et de Recherche sur la Production Industrielle et les Salaries de l'Automobile (GERPISA) project focuses on the question of tradeoffs and synergies between the different dimensions of Sustainable Development (SD) in the automobile industry. It retains the definition of SD that was predominant in 2007, which considers as sustainable the development that guarantees compatibility between economic competitiveness, social responsibility and environmental protection. In the recent context of a growing operationalisation of the 'new framework', the GERPISA project seeks to analyse the manner in which the discourse of SD is being translated into practice at both the corporate and public policy levels. The project will contrast the notion of tradeoff with the notion of synergy to understand the discrepancies between practices and discourse, to investigate the diversity of interpretations and to develop a realistic understanding of the changes that are related to this new framework. As a result, we will measure and analyse the variability of the practices that are associated with the implementation of the new framework in the automobile industry at the European level and at the global level, and we will evaluate the extent to which European practices are different. This evaluation will cover both the practices of firms and the design of public policy.