IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/wly/sustdv/v25y2017i1p25-34.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Sustainability Standards and Sustainable Development – Synergies and Trade‐Offs of Transnational Governance

Author

Listed:
  • Clara A. Brandi

Abstract

This article investigates potential trade‐offs between the socioeconomic and environmental dimensions of development within the context of transnational business governance and sustainability standards, exemplified by smallholder certification in the palm oil sector as a means to improve both sustainability and the inclusion of small farmers in global value chains. This article finds that there are important trade‐offs between environmental sustainability and inclusive development. First, there is a worry that the diffusion of standards that aim at enhancing environmental sustainability may undermine the socioeconomic situation of smallholders by excluding them from global value chains and from international markets that demand certified commodities. Second, while smallholder certification can generate socioeconomic benefits for farmers included in certification schemes, these potential benefits may have contradictory and undesired implications for environmental sustainability. The article analyses these trade‐offs and discusses implications with a view to fostering the synergies between economic, environmental and social sustainability. Copyright © 2016 The Authors Sustainable Development published by ERP Environment and John Wiley & Sons Ltd

Suggested Citation

  • Clara A. Brandi, 2017. "Sustainability Standards and Sustainable Development – Synergies and Trade‐Offs of Transnational Governance," Sustainable Development, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 25(1), pages 25-34, January.
  • Handle: RePEc:wly:sustdv:v:25:y:2017:i:1:p:25-34
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://hdl.handle.net/
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    Citations

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


    Cited by:

    1. Dimitropoulos, Panagiotis & Koronios, Konstantinos & Sakka, Georgia, 2023. "International business sustainability and global value chains: Synthesis, framework and research agenda," Journal of International Management, Elsevier, vol. 29(5).
    2. Ogahara, Zoë & Jespersen, Kristjan & Theilade, Ida & Nielsen, Martin Reinhard, 2022. "Review of smallholder palm oil sustainability reveals limited positive impacts and identifies key implementation and knowledge gaps," Land Use Policy, Elsevier, vol. 120(C).
    3. Wulai Jijue & Junlan Xiang & Xin Yi & Xiaowen Dai & Chenming Tang & Yuying Liu, 2024. "Market Participation and Farmers’ Adoption of Green Control Techniques: Evidence from China," Agriculture, MDPI, vol. 14(7), pages 1-21, July.
    4. Michelle Scobie, 0. "International aid, trade and investment and access and allocation," International Environmental Agreements: Politics, Law and Economics, Springer, vol. 0, pages 1-16.
    5. repec:agr:journl:v:xxxi:y:2024:i:2(639):p:325-340 is not listed on IDEAS
    6. Michelle Scobie, 2020. "International aid, trade and investment and access and allocation," International Environmental Agreements: Politics, Law and Economics, Springer, vol. 20(2), pages 239-254, June.
    7. Schleifer, Philip & Fiorini, Matteo & Fransen, Luc, 2019. "Missing the Bigger Picture: A Population-level Analysis of Transnational Private Governance Organizations Active in the Global South," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 164(C), pages 1-1.
    8. Fangyu Ye & Qilong Deng, 2021. "Strategies for poverty alleviation supply chain with government subsidies and misreporting behavior in China," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 16(7), pages 1-19, July.
    9. Eusebius Pantja Pramudya & Otto Hospes & C. J. A. M. Termeer, 2018. "Friend or foe? The various responses of the Indonesian state to sustainable non-state palm oil initiatives," Asian Journal of Sustainability and Social Responsibility, Springer, vol. 3(1), pages 1-22, December.
    10. Henderson, Kirsten & Loreau, Michel, 2023. "A model of Sustainable Development Goals: Challenges and opportunities in promoting human well-being and environmental sustainability," Ecological Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 475(C).
    11. Milind Kumar Jha & K. Rangarajan, 2020. "The approach of Indian corporates towards sustainable development: An exploration using sustainable development goals based model," Sustainable Development, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 28(5), pages 1019-1032, September.
    12. Watts, John D. & Pasaribu, Katryn & Irawan, Silvia & Tacconi, Luca & Martanila, Heni & Wiratama, Cokorda Gde Wisnu & Musthofa, Fauzan Kemal & Sugiarto, Bernadinus Steni & Manvi, Utami Putri, 2021. "Challenges faced by smallholders in achieving sustainable palm oil certification in Indonesia," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 146(C).

    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:wly:sustdv:v:25:y:2017:i:1:p:25-34. 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.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using 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)1099-1719 .

    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.