Sustainability in the Decision Making Process: A Systematic …
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2.1 Sustainable Development
The massive expansion of economic activity initiated after the Industrial Revolution
produced a context of significant transformations, both in the environment and in society (Maddison 2007), causing a significant increase in the average standard of living
in financially wealthy countries at the same time in which the emergence of diverse
problems around the world, among them the climatic changes, the disorderly population growth and the elevation of the indices of misery in underdeveloped regions
(Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change 2014; National Climate Assessment
2014; Risk Business Project 2014; Steffen et al. 2015).
The search for an understanding of the factors that permeate these transformations
motivated the United Nations (UN) to establish a debate agenda marked by the holding of world conferences, such as Stockholm in 1972, and Nairobi, 1982 (Feil et al.
2013) that would culminate in the elaboration of a concept of sustainable development, proposed in 1988 in the Report Our Common Future and widely disseminated
in the Rio 92 Conference.
According to the World Commission on Environment and Development (1988),
“sustainable development seeks to meet the needs and aspirations of the present
without compromising the possibility of serving them in the future.”
Sustainable development, according to this definition, reveals itself as a new
paradigm, as it seeks to break with exploration and consumption patterns, focused
exclusively on profit making, aiming at a more comprehensive perception of sustainability, composed of multiple dimensions (Lemos 2010).
It is important to note that, although widely accepted, this conception is also
criticized, and it is considered by some authors as “vague” (Clifton and Amran 2011),
“static” (Raatzsch 2012) and excessively focused on “needs” human capacities (Sen
2011).
In the present study, the concept defended by CMMAD is accepted, understanding
that sustainable development is not a science or technique, but rather, according
to (Martinez and Bringas 2014) a normative-guiding principle that, in order to be
operationalized, needs political, social and organizational engagement.
Clarifying what is sustainable development, it is necessary to understand this issue
in the business sphere, about what is discussed below.
2.2 Business Sustainability
The business activity was directly related to sustainable development, through the
Triple Bottom Line (Ciegis et al. 2009), a proposal of corporate sustainability outlined
by Elkington (2011) structured in the same dimensions of sustainability as those
employed by CMMAD.
The TBL aims to integrate the economic, social and ecological perspectives of
the companies, directing the decisions and actions related to the organizational man-
293
2.1 Sustainable Development
The massive expansion of economic activity initiated after the Industrial Revolution
produced a context of significant transformations, both in the environment and in society (Maddison 2007), causing a significant increase in the average standard of living
in financially wealthy countries at the same time in which the emergence of diverse
problems around the world, among them the climatic changes, the disorderly population growth and the elevation of the indices of misery in underdeveloped regions
(Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change 2014; National Climate Assessment
2014; Risk Business Project 2014; Steffen et al. 2015).
The search for an understanding of the factors that permeate these transformations
motivated the United Nations (UN) to establish a debate agenda marked by the holding of world conferences, such as Stockholm in 1972, and Nairobi, 1982 (Feil et al.
2013) that would culminate in the elaboration of a concept of sustainable development, proposed in 1988 in the Report Our Common Future and widely disseminated
in the Rio 92 Conference.
According to the World Commission on Environment and Development (1988),
“sustainable development seeks to meet the needs and aspirations of the present
without compromising the possibility of serving them in the future.”
Sustainable development, according to this definition, reveals itself as a new
paradigm, as it seeks to break with exploration and consumption patterns, focused
exclusively on profit making, aiming at a more comprehensive perception of sustainability, composed of multiple dimensions (Lemos 2010).
It is important to note that, although widely accepted, this conception is also
criticized, and it is considered by some authors as “vague” (Clifton and Amran 2011),
“static” (Raatzsch 2012) and excessively focused on “needs” human capacities (Sen
2011).
In the present study, the concept defended by CMMAD is accepted, understanding
that sustainable development is not a science or technique, but rather, according
to (Martinez and Bringas 2014) a normative-guiding principle that, in order to be
operationalized, needs political, social and organizational engagement.
Clarifying what is sustainable development, it is necessary to understand this issue
in the business sphere, about what is discussed below.
2.2 Business Sustainability
The business activity was directly related to sustainable development, through the
Triple Bottom Line (Ciegis et al. 2009), a proposal of corporate sustainability outlined
by Elkington (2011) structured in the same dimensions of sustainability as those
employed by CMMAD.
The TBL aims to integrate the economic, social and ecological perspectives of
the companies, directing the decisions and actions related to the organizational man-