Environmental Scanning and Sustainable Development doc

By basing her chapter on works relative to the activity of traditional strategic scanning, she shows that an environmental scanning device orientated towards sustainable development has

Environmental Scanning

and Sustainable Development

Edited by Nicolas Lesca

First published 2011 in Great Britain and the United States by ISTE Ltd and John Wiley & Sons, Inc

Adapted and updated from Veille et développement durable published 2010 in France by Hermes

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1 Management Environmental aspects 2 Sustainable development 3 Strategic

planning Environmental aspects 4 Business intelligence I Lesca, Nicolas II Veille et developpement durable HD30.255.E595 2011

658.4'083 dc22

2011008132 British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Data

A CIP record for this book is available from the British Library

ISBN 978-1-84821-284-8

Printed and bound in Great Britain by CPI Antony Rowe, Chippenham and Eastbourne

Introduction xi

Nicholas LESCA Chapter 1 Sustainable Development: a Vague and Ambiguous “Theory” 1

Yvon PESQUEUX 1.1 Introduction 1

1.1.1 The origins of the notion 2

1.1.2 The extensiveness of the notion 3

1.1.3 Milestones of the institutionalization of sustainable development 4

1.2 Sustainable development as a “vague” theory 6

1.2.1 Sustainable development and “principles” 6

1.2.2 Conceptual dimensions and sustainable development 7

1.2.3 Sustainable development and its indicators 8

1.2.4 The organizational dimension of sustainable development 8

1.3 Company actions justified by reference to the notion of sustainable development: consequentialism tested by modern deontology 9

1.3.1 The chronological stages of taking ecological stakes into account 10

1.3.2 The management stakes of sustainable development 11

1.4 The dimensions of ambiguity of the notion 14

1.4.1 The associated references 14

1.4.2 The “tensions” associated with the notion 16

1.4.3 Ambiguities of the meaning of sustainable development 17

1.4.4 The ambiguity of company attitudes vis-a-vis sustainable development 18

1.5 Conclusion: calling into question managerial references in

relation to sustainable development 19

1.5.1 Provisional detour via the markets: the “right to pollute” 20

1.5.2 The return of politics and regulation 21

1.6 Bibliography 22

Chapter 2 Parameters and Particularities of Sustainable Development-oriented Strategic Scanning 25

Marie-Laurence CARON-FASAN 2.1 Introduction 25

2.2 Strategic scanning 26

2.2.1 Strategic scanning activities 26

2.2.2 Strategic scanning and its different facets 27

2.2.3 Sustainable development-oriented scanning and its different facets 32

2.3 Applying a sustainable development-oriented strategic scanning process 36

2.3.1 Strategic scanning as a process of gathering information 36

2.3.2 Strategic scanning as a cybernetic system 40

2.3.3 Strategic scanning as a project 41

2.4 Conclusion 44

2.5 Bibliography 45

Chapter 3 Sustainable Development of Large Network Service Companies: Inhabiting Territories via Middle Managers, Strategic Scanners 47

Alain Charles MARTINET and Marielle Audrey PAYAUD 3.1 Introduction 47

3.2 The foundation of modeling 48

3.2.1 The objective: a heuristic model 48

3.2.2 Epistemology: the re-evaluation of practical reasoning and the science of design 49

3.2.3 The method favors research-intervention and long-term immersion 50

3.2.4 The content: taking into account a forgotten element of research in strategic management – the territory 51

3.2.5 A paradoxical aim: the sustainable company in a liquefied world 51

3.3 The architecture of the model 52

3.3.1 Large service companies that are territorialized 53

3.3.2 Technically disparate sector 54

3.3.3 Relatively fragmented territory 55

3.3.4 A production capacity strategic formula 57

3.3.5 Company or group 59

3.3.6 A management style inspired by investor and developer configurations 60

3.4 Middle managers: key players of sustainable development 62

3.4.1 Network, territory and middle managers 62

3.4.2 Recognition of dispersal and features is via scanning-strategist middle managers 64

3.4.3 The role of middle managers according to the strategic formula 65

3.4.4 The binding of a group 68

3.5 Conclusion 71

3.6 Bibliography 72

Chapter 4 Small Business and Sustainable Development 77

Michel MARCHESNAY 4.1 Introduction 77

4.2 The favored SD fields 77

4.2.1 The ecosystem 78

4.2.2 Healthcare 78

4.2.3 Ethics and social responsibility 79

4.3 SB: a multiple identity 79

4.3.1 The ideal type of SB 79

4.3.2 … responds to the diversity of SB types… 80

4.3.3 … and the entrepreneurs’ reasons for action 81

4.3.4 A typology of entrepreneurs/SD 82

4.4 Strategic scanning in SBs: a specific approach 84

4.4.1 The foundations of the specificity 84

4.4.2 An appropriate grid of analysis 86

4.5 Types of entrepreneurs, strategic scanning and SD 87

4.5.1 The militant 87

4.5.2 The organizer 89

4.5.3 The eco-enthusiast 92

4.5.4 The opportunist 96

4.6 Conclusion 98

4.7 Bibliography 99

Chapter 5 Human Resources Scanning: a Tool for the Implementation of Sustainable Development? 101

Marie-Christine CHALUS-SAUVANNET 5.1 Introduction 101

5.2 Theoretical approach, explanations and the link between

HRS and SD 102

5.2.1 The choice of human resources 102

5.2.2 Characteristics of HRS 103

5.2.3 HRS in terms of SD 105

5.3 Research methodology 109

5.3.1 The choice of methods for data collection 109

5.3.2 Presentation of information about the companies studied 109

5.3.3 Information sought and research progress 111

5.4 Results and discussion 111

5.4.1 Which SD and which HRS practices were used? 112

5.4.2 Links between HRS and SD 114

5.5 Conclusion 124

5.6 Bibliography 125

Chapter 6 Sustainable Scanning in a Network: an Ambitious Project for Company/territory Synergies Creation 129

Magalie MARAIS, Solange HERNANDEZ and Olivier KERAMIDAS 6.1 Introduction 129

6.2 Sustainable scanning within RPISED: a “chameleon” concept locally orchestrated 131

6.2.1 Sustainable scanning: a tool at the heart of tensions and opportunities in the organizational project of sustainable development 131

6.2.2 RPISED: a relay structure or leverage for efficient implementation of sustainable scanning? 137

6.3 An empirical study of sustainable scanning in the RPISED: a methodological approach 140

6.3.1 Three case studies in the PACA region 140

6.3.2 The methodology of gathering and processing data 142

6.4 Empirical contributions to the theory: presentation of the main results 143

6.4.1 Scanning in terms of sustainable development: companies’ point of view 143

6.4.2 The role of RPISED in the improvement of sustainable development-oriented scanning 148

6.5 Conclusion 156

6.6 Bibliography 157

Chapter 7 The Greenhouse Gas Inventory: a Scanning Tool in

the Fight Against Climate Change 161

Odile BLANCHARD 7.1 Introduction 161

7.2 Methodology for constructing a GHG inventory 163

7.2.1 Scope of the inventory 164

7.2.2 Collection of data 167

7.2.3 Collection or estimation of emission factors 168

7.2.4 Calculation of emissions 169

7.2.5 Specificity of the carbon footprint of a product 171

7.2.6 Guidelines for the construction of a GHG inventory 172

7.3 The GHG inventory as a strategic scanning tool 173

7.3.1 The emissions inventory as an internal strategic scanning tool 173

7.3.2 The emissions inventory as an external strategic scanning tool 177

7.3.3 Summary 179

7.4 Conclusion 180

7.5 Bibliography 182

Chapter 8 Targeting “Sustainable Scanning”: a Methodology Based on Logistics and Supply Chain Management 185

Nathalie FABBE-COSTES, Christine ROUSSAT and Jacques COLIN 8.1 Introduction 185

8.2 Sustainable development: multiple logistical stakes 186

8.3 Relevance of logistics and SCM to anticipate evolutions linked to sustainable development and imagine strategic directions: examples 191

8.4 The logistics intelligence process to target sustainable scanning 196

8.5 Confronting LIP and sustainable development: a first test based on secondary data 203

8.6 Conclusion 207

8.7 Bibliography 208

Chapter 9 Our Actions and Projects, their Risks and Impact on the Environment: using the Weak Signal Concept to Explore Unforeseen and Unexpected Possibilities 213

Nicolas LESCA 9.1 Introduction 213

9.2 The future: a field of possibilities 215

9.2.1 People, their actions and their responsibilities 215

9.2.2 Limitations of “forecast” methods to anticipate 219

9.2.3 The future: a field of possibilities 224

9.3 Detecting weak signals and early (warning) signs in order to explore unexpected possibilities 229

9.3.1 Signals 229

9.3.2 Signs 233

9.3.3 Weak signals and early (warning) signs 236

9.3.4 Strength of signals and signs and trajectory of a possibility 239

9.4 Conclusion 244

9.5 Bibliography 244

Chapter 10 Sustainable Chemistry and Weak Signals: CO 2 as a Raw Material to Value 249

Humbert LESCA 10.1 Introduction 249

10.1.1 Context of the intervention and hypothesis of the approach 250

10.1.2 The challenges of the intervention 251

10.1.3 Modalities of the intervention 253

10.2 First step: lead the committee to discover the field of sustainable chemistry themselves 253

10.2.1 Phase 1: choice of a field in which to carry out the experiment 253

10.2.2 Preparation of information to be used during the collective session 254

10.2.3 Session of collective creation of meaning within the committee 259

10.3 Collective construction of puzzles during the session concluding the four-month delay 262

10.3.1 Characteristics of the experimental anticipative strategic scanning device 263

10.3.2 Learning to detect potential weak signals 264

10.3.3 Access to field information 266

10.3.4 Preparation of information in order to construct the puzzle 266

10.4 Example of a puzzle constructed towards the end of the final collective creation of meaning 267

10.5 Conclusion 269

10.6 Bibliography 269

Glossary 271

List of Authors 285

Index 287

Strategic scanning and sustainable development are two notions that are

seemingly quite distinct Nonetheless they have certain striking commonalities, as much in their purpose as in their history

The two notions appeared simultaneously around the 1970s The concept of strategic scanning first appeared in 1967 with the publication of the founding work

by Aguilar entitled Scanning the Business Environment The origin of the idea of

sustainable development dates back to 1970, when first Ignacy Sachs and then the international conference of Stockholm (in 1972) proposed the concept of ecodevelopment This was finally replaced with “sustainable development”, in a

work entitled World Conservation Strategy, presented in 1980 by the International

Union for the Conservation of Nature The Brundtland report, published in 1987, picked up on the concept of sustainable development, which became firmly established shortly afterwards by the Earth Summit in Rio in 1992

The two notions represent an increased awareness for the intensification of interactions between economic activity and its external environment Strategic scanning appears to be a managerial requirement, at least for certain authors, such as Ansoff for example, as well as a strategic requirement in order to cope with globalization The complexification of the economic environment and the intensification of competition between companies, or between States – which can be

a source of turbulence – surprises and can cause possible ruptures Sustainable development is a public and political reaction to the devastation that economic growth wreaked on the ecological environment during the “Trente Glorieuses” (The Thirty Glorious Years) and the dangers that the economy is generally exposing society to

Introduction written by Nicolas L ESCA

Today, their respective developments are official and institutional “strategic” and political priorities In France, the development of sustainable scanning is part of the assignments of the “senior competitive intelligence officer” – a position created

at the end of 2003 that is under the supervision of the Prime Minister, and was then changed to the Interministerial Delegate for Economic Intelligence, created by decree in September 2009 This time the post was placed under the supervision of the Elysee and Bercy

Sustainable development has been at the center of all debates on the Grenelle environment, in particular, where it was officially recognized as a national priority with the creation of the National Committee for Sustainable Development in 2003 This was followed by the Ministry of Ecology, Energy, Sustainable Development and the Sea

The purpose of sustainable development is to define viable plans bringing together the three following fundamental principles:

– An economic principle that underlies a carefully planned use of financial,

human and natural resources It consists of the conditions of the economic development of companies, but also includes all the aspects of territories where they are located, all the while ensuring a decent standard of living for people, without putting future generations in jeopardy

– A social principle that underlies the fact that everyone must be treated equally

This therefore relates to the social consequences of the activity of a company on all corporate levels: employees (for example, work conditions, rate of pay, equality of chances, etc.), suppliers, customers, local communities and society in general

– An environmental principle that underlies the fact that civil society and

organizations must equally protect natural resources This involves the search for compatibility between the economic and social activity of a company and maintenance of the natural milieu, biodiversity and various ecosystems It includes

an analysis of the impact of the social development of companies and their externalities in terms of flow, consumption of renewable resources that are difficult

to obtain or slow to produce, as well as in terms of the production of waste and polluting emissions

The objectives of strategic scanning are to develop the ability of organizations to acquire and use information concerning events, trends, and the dynamics of the external environment, the knowledge of which would help managers adjust their current decisions and the course of their future actions In other words, strategic scanning is an informative process in which the company is receptive to its environment, with the creative aim of discovering opportunities, reducing uncertainties and perhaps even anticipating threats By way of analogy, strategic

scanning is sometimes compared to radar It is to people and organizations what radar is for boats and planes It is a system for helping decision making and coordination, the aim of which is to detect signals and signs that are precursors of the external and sometimes internal environment in terms of events, risks and actual

or potential opportunities The knowledge of this is important to people and

organizations in order to adapt, anticipate, react before the fact and sometimes also

to innovate Like radar, strategic scanning is an information system In contrast to

radar, which is generally automatic, it is a human and organizational system that is more analogous to the “watchmen” on submarines The sensors are men and women, often the members of an organization The acquisition, diffusion, interpretation and processing as well as the use of information is carried out by people, within a framework of more or less structured and formal processes Indeed, such processes are often relatively unstructured

The dictionary defines the environment as “the totality of natural and cultural conditions in which living organisms develop” and this definition is the one that most easily comes to mind when the word “environment” is used in everyday speech Despite this, the ecological, social and cultural environment seems to have been long forgotten or neglected by practitioners and researchers in management science There is no reference to sustainable development in management science before 2000, at least to our knowledge, and there does not yet seem to be a reference

to sustainable development in academic publications on strategic scanning

This book therefore explores the relationship between strategic scanning and sustainable development It questions the utility, characteristics and implementation

of a sustainable scanning, i.e orientated towards sustainable development

The first six chapters explore the concepts and characteristics of the notion of sustainable scanning:

– its definition;

– its aim and objectives;

– its outlines and content;

– the associated practices;

– the underlying motivations; and

– the difficulties the players involved in the construction and implementation of sustainable scanning practices will face along the way

These chapters all offer answers to the questions: “what is sustainable scanning?”, “what new issues does it raise in terms of practice and management science?”, “who is involved?”, and “what forms can it take?”

In Chapter 1, Yvon Pesqueux provides us with an outline, reminds us what is at stake and outlines sustainable development projects, all the while highlighting the gray areas and ambiguities The author questions the aim and the role of sustainable scanning for the purposes of immediate economic concerns, which have been the focus of attention of those involved in strategic scanning He thus lays down new principles, in line with the objectives of sustainable development, which can guide the discussion of collective action and elaborate on sustainable scanning

In Chapter 2, Marie-Laurence Caron-Fasan takes on the task of describing the outlines of strategic scanning orientated towards sustainable development By basing her chapter on works relative to the activity of traditional strategic scanning, she shows that an environmental scanning device orientated towards sustainable development has several characteristics Such a project implies the construction of a global, transversal and systemic vision of the internal and external environment of the company It is a project that relies on the investment of the company, in terms of sustainable development Finally, it is revealed that this is a risky project due to the individual, collective and organizational learning that it implies, the number of players it involves and the extent of the scope for analysis

Chapter 3 deals with the idea of a sustainable company, respectful of the

locations of its operations Alain-Charles Martinet and Marielle Audrey Payaud more precisely question the relations that large service companies have with the

territories they work in and the key role of middle managers in this system of

company-territory interaction The authors present heuristic modeling and formulate

a series of propositions to guide these field strategists in their learning of local characteristics, as well as their management and strategic environmental scanning Chapter 4 leaves the realm of the big companies to look at small businesses (SBs) and the entrepreneur Michel Marchesnay questions the role of SBs in sustainable development and the characteristics of the activity of sustainable scanning when the company is of a very small size or has just one employee The author suggests distinguishing four types of entrepreneur based on their thought processes and actions as well as their personal identity This typology enables a distinction to be made between different practices of sustainable scanning and to help us make recommendations adapted to organizations of very small size

Chapter 5 deals with one side of sustainable scanning: human resources

scanning (HRS) Marie-Christine Chalus-Sauvannet questions the links between the

notions of sustainable development and HRS The author explores the reasons that some companies adapt their practices of strategic scanning to encompass sustainable development She shows, on the one hand, that HRS – both internal and external – can be useful to motivate and involve the stakeholders in a process of sustainable development On the other hand, she shows the possible impact of HRS in the

creation and implementation of new practices that are more respectful of man and the environment

Chapter 6 widens the field of investigation of sustainable scanning by giving it a

more systemic and complex dimension that takes into account the societal, economic

and ecological environment all at once Magalie Marais, Solange Hernandez and Olivier Keramidas question the outlines, content, possible significance and process

of sustainable scanning The authors put forward a definition that specifies both the stakes and sub-themes of surveillance They show how and why interorganizational

sustainable scanning is built and implemented in the PRIDES, regional relay

structures, the end goal of which is to favor innovation, cooperation and mutualization of means and competencies between companies in the same territory and same business sector Along the way, they specify certain difficulties encountered by the players involved when taking on board the notion of sustainable scanning and translating it into concrete actions and devices

The four following chapters explore the concepts, tools and methods that could

be useful to players wishing to develop their sustainable scanning ability These chapters all try to offer a few answers to the question “how can we carry out sustainable scanning?”

Chapter 7 suggests using the greenhouse gas report as a tool to fight climate change Odile Blanchard shows how the inventory of emissions of greenhouse gases,

initially conceived as a reporting and diagnostic tool, can also be a useful source of

information for sustainable scanning This is the case both internally, for the entity that is building it, and externally, for the entities that are seeking information on emissions and what actions their competitors and partners are taking to tackle climate change Implicitly, this chapter raises the issue of the usage, appropriation and new uses of current management tools in a process of sustainable scanning and anticipation It also raises the issue of identification of useful and perhaps specific sources of information for sustainable scanning

Chapter 8 deals with the targeting of sustainable scanning when its objective is

to favor the global understanding of complex phenomena in order to develop the ability of organizations to anticipate and construct new solutions and strategic pathways for the future Nathalie Fabbe-Costes, Christine Roussat and Jacques Colin suggest a processual systemic approach to help people define and isolate the field of investigation for sustainable scanning and identify the associated information to

transform them into intelligent products This is in view of building a vision of the

future that guides strategic coordination and collective action The authors base their

methodological construct on their experience in the logistic and supply chain

domain, labeled as one of the main causes of greenhouse gas emissions and global warming Implicitly, this chapter shows that the strategic scanning and local

solutions are no longer adapted to address the complex task of global warming New management tools must be thought of, implemented, and built to apprehend this complexity and suggest more relevant solutions to reduce greenhouse gas emissions throughout the lifecycle of products

Chapter 9 deals with the anticipation of unknown and unexpected risks, which forecast and “classic” risk analysis tools do not always detect Nicolas Lesca

suggests a theoretical and conceptual framework for strategic anticipative strategic

scanning that is based on the detection of signals and (warning) signs – sometimes

weak, but early – that can manifest themselves in the peripheral vision of people

With the help of many examples, the author shows that actions, events and their possible impacts are often manifested by natural signs and human signals that are

qualitative and sometimes not linguistic The author pays special attention to the need to develop the people’s ability to perceive these clues and question their

significance in order to explore the field of possibilities that they could reveal This

chapter raises the issue of individual and collective competency, heuristics and the management tools that need to be identified and built with the aim of developing

people’s perceptive ability, to interpret signs and make sense out of them in order to anticipate and act before the fact

Finally, Chapter 10 deals with the detection and use of sporadic information, some of which can be in the form of weak signals, playing the role of stimuli causing the construction of an anticipative vision of the future Humbert Lesca

presents two stages of an anticipative strategic scanning device in warning mode – the preparation of information and the collective creation of meaning The aim of

this is to begin a collective discussion in a field that is still unclear and uncertain, with a view to seeing a new strategic axis of innovation The author illustrates this

approach for the issue of green/sustainable chemistry, in the context of an

organization that is asking itself questions regarding the future of its business and

the direction in which it should aim its governance for the next 10 or 12 years He

shows that a learning process is necessary to develop people’s ability to detect weak signals that can cause warnings and collectively build meaning based on these stimuli This chapter highlights the need to conceive new management tools and information systems adapted to support and allow for signal detection in various organizational contexts and the collective creation of meaning Implicitly, this chapter also highlights that organizations should dedicate time and resources to these stages in the process of strategic scanning if the goal is to develop the ability to anticipate

Sustainable Development: a Vague and

Ambiguous “Theory”

1.1 Introduction

The notion of sustainable development appeared in the social sciences in the

1970s with the realization that the growth during the economic boom, dubbed the

“30 glorious years”, had a destructive effect on the environment Since then it has had a very brief and somewhat turbulent history It includes the idea of taking a step back from economic reductionism by putting forward a multidimensional aspect and

a pluridisciplinary way of dealing with the questions in its field It includes an intersection between the social objectives of economic development, the solidarity between present generations, the environmental conditionality of future generations and the viability of economic progress It is therefore both a product and a critique

of the technique It is also a project that allows the rethinking of capitalism based on the idea of a reformed capitalism: in addition to full employment and a protective state, the ideas of environmental objectives, a development negotiated between

partners (that have since become stakeholders) has been added The main partners

are the state, CEOs, workers and civil society Thus it is a kind of “theory” of development

It is therefore important to highlight the specificity of references and their differences compared to those of today: business ethics, the social responsibility of

the company and the doctrinal corpus of the business activity Let us observe that

sustainable development is frequently associated with being just as vague an idea as

Chapter written by Yvon P ESQUEUX

human rights, of which we shall reiterate the three concepts that appear in the universal declaration of 1948: freedom of expression, freedom of opinion and freedom of movement

Let us remember that human rights were developed by the United Nations Commission on Human Rights, which set about giving a practical application to the rights of the universal declaration This declaration, as a matter of fact, contains a fourth concept: the right to own property, the debatable universality of which sets it apart and is the reason it does not figure as a universal right The right to own property has more legal than moral sense and its universality is contingent Anthropology teaches us that numerous societies have lived and do live without property rights, such as the surprising results it has obtained from the study of

“primative” societies Two pacts were adopted in 1966:

– the international pact relative to civil and political rights; and

– the international pact relative to economic, social and cultural rights

The Commission then worked out directives and agreements left, right and center: the independence of justice, the prohibition of torture and cruelty, inhumane

or degrading treatment, the rights of children, rights for migrant workers, protection against abductions, the rights of elderly people, disabled people, etc We can, with regard to this, talk about normative inflation but also about a process of the translation of “Rights” into “rights” This translation process tends to confuse Human Rights, which are institutionalized as such, with the rights of individuals, which are considered political and moral entities in keeping with “theories of justice” [RAW 87] It involves building the right conditions for the possible establishing of a hierarchy of rights Correlating these with the notion of sustainable development largely contributes to people’s lack of clarity This no doubt means that beyond the relationship between man and nature, the notion is fundamentally linked

to that of respect (of ourselves, others and our environment)

1.1.1 The origins of the notion

To put some order into the references to sustainable development, we might suggest distinguishing the people who have made references to it These all appeared separately from each other, essentially in the 1970s, and have various origins:

– a philosophical origin with Jonas [JON 93] and his “responsibility principle”,

his critical conception of technoscience and “the heuristic of fear” that is inherent to him, this being at the origin of the political acceptance of the “precaution principle”,

a European principle;

– an economic origin following the thesis of the Rome Club, which was used as

a base for the prevention policies (of global warming, pollution, etc.) and their

“technical” component;

– an ecological origin – a scientific argument that has led to current

mathematical theories, such as the catastrophe theory and systemic reasoning Nature then becomes a specific object of study in view of its own scientific methods This is the case with the “Gaia hypothesis” proposed by Lovelock [LOV 79], which considers the Earth as a living, autoregulated ensemble;

– a political origin, which is demonstrated by the election of representatives of

“green” parties in different parliaments or by the integration of “green” arguments

by the more traditional parties

There are no references to science in organizations before the year 2000 When the notion appears in speeches and managerial practices, it is most often mentioned under the term “sustainable development” This perspective therefore does not appear to be linked to previous ones There is a delay of three decades for the transition from a macroeconomic and political plain to an organizational one, without mentioning the modification of its layout on the way, in other words reducing the problem to the receptiveness to environmental expectations of company and political leaders It is in this respect that sustainable development has a stake in

environmental scanning with regards to its potential to influence the formulation of

strategy as much in terms of opportunity as of threats This materializes in the media hype dedicated to sustainable development as an aid for the development and commercialization of new products and services and therefore as a new source of profit This is no doubt also what enables the leaders of the largest companies to justify their infatuation with sustainable development This is the case particularly for those whose business depends primarily on an environmental viewpoint (Veolia, the collection of household waste and water distribution, for example) and whose business can lead to direct environmental damage (the chemical industry, for example) We can therefore understand the involvement of the business leaders’ additions to the notion of sustainable development, contributing to its lack of clarity

1.1.2 The extensiveness of the notion

Sustainable development, in its different forms, today concerns business as much

as the state, a given industry, consumers and citizens This extensiveness is a second reason for the lack of clarity of the notion The notion is born out of a collection of different trends: secularist and religious schools of thought, consumerism, movements for the defense of civil liberties and human rights, ecology, investment trust, international organizations, leaders of multinational companies, states and public bodies, etc It is therefore necessary to highlight the falsely consensual aspect

of the notion that is an inherent aspect to its status as a “frontier object” (an object that is common to different domains, the significance of which includes both a common aspect and differences according to each domain) This is a third argument that contributes to the vagueness of the notion The notion of sustainable development brings to light the idea of a consensus on its correlates: solidarity, responsibility, equity, etc It therefore takes on an ethical dimension that acts as a political dimension in view of the collaborationist ideology where the idea of consensus is key (fourth argument) It contributes to the “confusion” (term to be taken as meaning “passive fusion” rather than the general sense of “confused”, i.e deprived of any real meaning) of ethics and politics “Confusion”, which is another aspect of what can be qualified as “ethical evidence” – is evidence that touches as much upon philosophical references (in this case with sustainable development) as applied ethics (the ethics of business, for example) This is the fifth argument Sustainable development covers projects that are already institutionalized including that of literacy and culture (UNESCO) and sanitation (UNICEF, WHO, etc.), which in some respects constitute the conditions that make sustainable development possible The definition given by the UN is as follows: “the capacity of present generations to satisfy their needs while enabling future generations to satisfy their own needs” (and aspirations we should add if one is conforming to the English version of the text) [BRU 87]

Other terms, such as sustainable development and acceptable development, are now appearing Here again, the suggested definition, because it is quite broad, does not facilitate a precise understanding – the fourth argument for the vagueness of the notion

With sustainable development, there are two aspects:

– a development part (of a socio-economic nature);

– an “environmental” part stricto sensu

This is indeed both the strength and the weakness of the notion – the fifth argument for its vagueness

1.1.3 Milestones of the institutionalization of sustainable development

The milestones of institutionalization are as follows:

– 1986: community program of policy and action for the environment and sustainable development (European Union) This program led to the precaution principle being highlighted

– 1987: the World Commission on Environment and Development, called the Brundtland Commission, report put forward the following definition: “sustainable development is development that meets the present needs without compromising the ability of future generations to meet theirs Two concepts are inherent to this notion: the concept of “needs”, and, more precisely, the essential needs of the most impoverished to whom it is appropriate to give absolute priority, and the idea of limitations, which the state of our techniques and social organization impose on the ability of the environment to meet our current and future needs” [BRU 87]

– 1992: the Rio Conference and the elaboration of AGENDA 21 (a program of action for the 21st century) of which the points of discussion were:

- the social and economic dimension: to reduce the disparities in the standard

of living and improve quality of life for people around the world;

- the conservation and management of resources with the aim of development, transfer of knowledge and wealth (including natural wealth) from one generation to the next and the conservation or improvement of the quality of the natural environment;

- reinforce the role of the main groups (for example women, youth, indigenous peoples, non-governmental organizations, local cooperatives, syndicates, commerce, scientific and technical research, farmers, etc.);

- the mobilization of financial, technical, educational, institutional and legal means, as well as means of information

All this was at the origin of the appearance of a supply and demand, which is as political as it is social or economic It is necessary to highlight its emotional dynamic and the ambiguity of the relationship between the notion of sustainable development and the question of technique The notion cannot base itself on being a critique of the technique as it arises out of it – the sixth argument – founding the idea of “vagueness”

This initial approach to the notion of sustainable development clearly shows that

it is now a major stake for businesses; a stake that is ever evolving, thus making it a particularly important subject for environmental scanning

The structure of this chapter will be based around the following arguments: – the presentation of sustainable development as a “vague” theory;

– empirical proof of this lack of clarity and analysis of the ambiguity regarding business actions – actions that find their justification in the notion of sustainable development;

– the ambiguities of the notion

1.2 Sustainable development as a “vague” theory

It is important to note the “catch-all” aspect and its seductive rhetoric This notion indeed goes beyond how natural resources were typically dealt with in economics, from the perspectives of externality and irreversibility, up until now As Allemand [ALL 06] points out, the notion lends itself to an almost unlimited declension of its principles for action (for example: sustainable tourism, sustainable consumerism, sustainable town planning, sustainable agriculture, etc.)

These are different arguments highlighting the confusion between several aspects that will serve to support the “vague” aspect of the notion

1.2.1 Sustainable development and “principles”

The principles of “accountability”, precaution, transparency and independence are curiously intermingled in relation to the business field of the players involved This is particularly noticeable in the awakening of “diffused” stakeholders during ecological disputes (the Shell/Brent Spar affair) or even ecological disasters (“black”

tides, Seveso, Bophal, etc.) Throughout the past decade we have seen a

transformation of the stakes for companies and players involved Is the notion of sustainable development worth anything without a reference to these “principles”

which, stricto sensu, are in fact not principles but more “conventions” or even

“habits”? Moreover, the meaning given to the notion of “principle” tends to be confused with methodology Even if a principle is difficult to debate, this is not the case for convention, habit or methodology This confusion serves to attribute a symbolic value to the principle, even though its transcription will only ever be made

in terms of procedures and by conforming to the principle in terms of verification Above all, reference to the principle serves only to make it an unconditional objective

The same applies to the notion of sustainable development as to globalization It includes a descriptive, historical, economic, geographical, political and dogmatic meaning, but the way it is used mingles these different aspects in different ways This is where the difficulty in comprehension stems from and thus the need to carry out an analysis for each of the ways in which it is used

It is an economic principle (economic science is, literally, a science of scarcity) focused towards the foundation of a “reasonable” quality of life, i.e which will not threaten future generations At the same time it is an ecological principle that is the basis for the need to protect natural resources and a social principle that outlines equitable treatment The generality of the notion and the absence of a legitimate authority to institutionalize it, however, limit its prospects The economic dimension

is equally linked to the notions of “development” and to the unconditional recognition of the existence of “need”

1.2.2 Conceptual dimensions and sustainable development

Talking of sustainable development also means conceiving and establishing a more chronological and linear relationship to time, which is in contrast with its

systemic foundations Let us remember that “system time” is not chronological time

It is the materialization of a kind of project that imposes stability (“sustainability”)

on that which is unstable (“development”) as well as the installation of a term” policy faced with the pressures of the “short-term” impacts

“long-For its part, the ethical dimension of sustainable development is based on the idea of an intergenerational (through time) and intragenerational (through space) responsibility that has its ecological corollary It gives priority to those who are the most impoverished, which links time and space in an orthogonal manner

As Camerini [CAM 03] points out, the epistemological dimension is linked to the development of our knowledge about nature, taking into account the technical contingency and its social corollary in the amalgamation of this knowledge On an epistemological level, the notion covers the idea of the aggregation of heterogeneous elements, the genesis of which depends on sophisticated technical equipment

On a methodological level, as Pinson [PIN 06] points out, the notion combines three principles:

– an equity (intra- and intergenerational) principle;

– an interdependency principle (between what is economic, social and environmental but also between the present and the future); and

– a principle of uncertainty on the effects of the action

This third principle is in tune with the economism, which dominates today, and also the relativism of the actions of each player The two latter principles (interdependency and uncertainty) also make up a “system”, the unilateral action of such-and-such a player (public powers especially), not having value without the others These two principles therefore go hand-in-hand with the dispute of the sovereignty of public forces and the economism of the legitimacy of “cooperative games”

1.2.3 Sustainable development and its indicators

Sustainable development begs the question of its representation in terms of

(gross domestic product [GDP], unemployment rates, inflation level, etc.) Two main schools of thought underlie the publication of indicators for sustainable development:

– the analytical school of thought (or the “dashboard”), which groups together a number of disparate indicators of sustainable development; and

– a concise logic that seeks a single indicator that could be considered coherent The indicators are most often built by taking a “broader” view of GDP-type

issues for economic acceptation or profit-type issues for the company (the triple

bottom line) The difficulty is in covering both parts of sustainable development: the

“development” part (meeting needs and providing intragenerational equality) and the “sustainable” part (ecological efficiency, prudence, ecological resilience and intergenerational equality) The main economic variables taken into account are quite limited, with demography, consumption per unit, the technological and ecological impact We must take care to highlight the fact that an increase in technological efficiency tends to elicit an increase in consumption per unit

The notion of sustainable development in relation to time includes the idea of the uncertainty of relationships between man–economy and society–nature based on parameters that are exogenous to it We must, moreover, highlight the difficult boundary between uncertainty and indeterminism, to which is added the question of

a metaphysical credo according to the vision of science chosen From an ethical point of view, the relationship with uncertainty favors a Western cultural perspective regarding the use of science and techniques applied to nature (considered as a

“means”), when neither science nor techniques offer solutions to the problem that is exposed by the reference to the topic of sustainable development Furthermore, the notion of “collective choice” is implicitly integrated

1.2.4 The organizational dimension of sustainable development

On an organizational level, as Dubigeon [DUB 06] points out, sustainable development is:

– a concept (with regards to the increased representation of the company’s heritage);

– a process of regulation and development (where we find the “principles” – precaution, prevention, responsibility, transparency, participation and subsidiarity [PES 07]);

– a method of management that expresses action principles (relation to the environment and to others);

– a new organizational knowledge;

– a way of working (of strategic analysis, planning and measurement of the impact); and

– a way of doing things based on behaviors that “conform”

If in addition we see it as an argument in favor of best practice, sustainable development tends to be considered the archetype of excellence, despite all the relativity of judgment as to what is “sustainable”

The notion of sustainable development leads us to act on the necessary cooperation (intra- and interorganizational) A different content is given to

continuous improvement and to a territorialization of the implementation, from

which, here again, the numerous dimensions simultaneously tend to result in a lack

of clarity

The dimensions of the vagueness of the notion are significant and render the construction of a structured process of environmental scanning difficult The stakes

of the mission are therefore made more complicated by the “object” stakes

1.3 Company actions justified by reference to the notion of sustainable development: consequentialism tested by modern deontology

As an introduction, let us first of all highlight the existence of a Kantian deontology (which is formalistic and based on the criteria of universality) and a modern deontology, the elements of which are the intrinsic value of actions, respect

of rights, the expression and respect of rules and constraints and the morality of the intention Modern deontology differs from consequentialism, i.e the position that consists of judging the value of an act based on its consequences

Let us highlight, in regard to this, that none of the actions taken by companies in terms of sustainable development can be in any way criticized from a consequentialist point of view (who would willingly call a company “dirty”!) In contrast, deontology constructs a judgment from the primacy of what is right (political domain) on what is good (ethical domain) and therefore gives a political perspective that enables a critique to be constructed

This will be the case for the eco-conception of goods (e.g a digital camera) that,

through their use (thousands of photos are taken and sent to people and printed, even

if only some and not all), ultimately end up being less ecological (let us not forget the analog “cousin” – the cost of which restricted paper printing)

This is why, around the theme of sustainable development, we find positions such as:

– taking advantage (for instance by launching “organic” products);

– caution, which means doing everything to avoid disaster;

– another version of caution, which consists of doing everything possible to be

“forgotten” or overlooked;

– the hypocrisy of transforming vice into a virtue;

– investing in it through a sense of conviction

1.3.1 The chronological stages of taking ecological stakes into account

We can put forward a chronology of the ecological response given by companies through the successive addition of views from different people:

– anti-pollution, of a technico-regulatory kind, that appeared at the beginning of the 1970s as a reaction to the accelerated economic growth during the 30 glorious years;

– prevention, which first centered around the economy of resources and excessive consumption, which appeared following the oil crisis of the mid-1970s; – the integration of environmental stakes into strategic thinking in the mid-1990s with, for example the development of eco-conception and ecological management in response to the growth of ecological protest in political power, which became more radical with the opposition to military and civil nuclear power;

– the requirements for sustainable development that appeared later in the 1990s

As Aggeri et al [AGG 05] highlight: “up to the middle of the 1990s, sustainable

development seemed like a notion which was alien to business”… For this reason, let us point out the sudden and deep infatuation that large corporations have had with it since

1.3.2 The management stakes of sustainable development

The inherent achievements of the growth in power from equitable commerce to industrial ecology within the framework of voluntary initiatives resulting in:

– employees acting in the direction of sustainable development, with this adjustment possibly constituting a new external factor of motivation;

– the integration and internalization of the external perspectives of the notion; – the integration of local communities’ view points in company policies;

– respect for the transparency principal with regards to company actions and therefore the need to be accountable;

– the developing verification by “independent bodies”;

– anticipation and resolution, and not only the avoidance of problems;

– implementation of incentives that are internal to the company

The stake is particularly interesting in the “burying” of environmental viewpoints in management issues This burying operates today in a somewhat disparate fashion (as much on a strategic level as an operational one, the choice of investment to the design of products, etc.) The reference to sustainable development leads to the “confusion” of the “times” of the organization (short and long term, for example) The development of the reference to sustainable development would seem

to mark the desire for a passage from what is profitable to what is viable, equitable and sustainable In practice, sustainable development also appears as a

standardization/normalization (for example, the ISO 14001 standard) and meets the

“conformity – conformism – transgression – deviance” dynamic

The taking into account of these viewpoints is the theme of the work coordinated

by de Tessier called Company and Environment [TES 98] The authors of this work

lay down certain postulates before making their remarks based on facts, investigations, projects, etc They begin from the premise that it is the industrialists,

in a capitalist economy, who are responsible for the poor health of the environment and that they have grown rich by abusing and wasting natural resources by predation, with a kind of declaration of guilt To this, in the spirit of the “welfare state”, is added a necessary involvement of the state, which is at the center of this rescue

The starting hypothesis that is the basis of this book is that the environment is in danger and we must do what is necessary to save it, in an almost disciplinary manner To do this, we must all rally round To support their thesis, the authors used

a well-documented approach They based their work on facts, actions, work in progress, legislation, research, attempted and/or successful experiments They based

it on the “reality” that they tried to render “objective” by basing their work on facts

to limit the bias that they could themselves put on it Being an assessment of what was happening, the authors managed to highlight a phenomenon that could no longer be ignored: the damage done to the environment

In their eyes, sustainable development is based on a conflict of interests based on different rationales:

– the dynamics of standardization (with its advantages and disadvantages); – the criticism of damage done to growth, leading to consequences in terms of the conception of the efficiency and cost of reparation;

– the criticism of the place and company aims: is it really the central institution

of our society? Can it be the base for a new social pact?;

– the criticism of economic development and its methods (in line with the thoughts of Perroux and Sachs);

– political criticism (for example, that of alter-globalization)

The stakes of sustainable development for business would therefore be:

– an innovation that would respect the ecological data (recycling, eco-industrial

business parks, renewable energies, etc.);

– the implementation of fair trade relations with clients and suppliers;

– the definition and implementation of codes of conduct concerning the environmental and social practices of companies dealing with “Southern” countries (clear environmental, social andethical positions with regards to forced labor, child labor, etc.);

– a clear answer to the demands of managers of so-called “green” and “ethical” investment trusts;

– the implementation of social and environmental audits to check whether the

measure of companies’ performance respects the environment (see the triple bottom

line – with reference to an economic, ecological, social result or even the expression

and implementation of strategies built based on the profit–planet–people axis, see

Figure 1.1) and being accountable for it It is also possible to appreciate the stakes with regard to these three aspects:

– the economic externalities and the search for a “real” price taking into account the greater or smaller irreversibility in the consumption of natural resources;

– an ethical heritage based on a conception of heritage broadened to include what

is environmental – a concept that differs from that which serves as a base for the search for a financial optimum;

– the reference to more distant temporal horizons

Figure 1.1 The profit–planet–people trilogy

The policies of sustainable development implemented within companies tend to express different viewpoints, whether related to the economic, social, ecological,

durability aspects of the company and the planet We can note confusion between

the sustainable development and social responsibility of the company, the documents of the company mixing them together It is the same with the creation of

a sustainable development division and/or the social responsibility section of the company These policies somehow enable detailed measures to be put forward in the name of the general rhetoric of “general policy”

It is in this regard that we speak of the ecological “behavior” of the company, which is explained by the pressure applied by:

– the administration (dissuasive through regulation or providing incentives through tax breaks, for example);

– the “stakeholders”;

– an ecological opportunism (for example of marketing);

– the desire of managers or contingency factors (sector, size, etc.)

As Aggeri et al [AGG 05] highlight, from this perspective the company finds

itself confronted with a kind of evaluation and communication injunction With

sustainable development applied to the company, the aim is to define and implement policies that combine economic profitability, respect for the environment and social equity, but are set in a consumerist mentality that is quite contradictory to sustainable development itself

At the end of the day, with the social responsibility of the company, sustainable development has been at the root of an increase in information and communication, both internal and external to the company It has therefore marked the passage from

“publicity communication” and the expression of an agreement based on a declaration of intent (principally by reference to a code of conduct) towards a communication perspective that serves as a base for a “dialog” imposed by the

“stakeholders” who are more often than not self-declared

The term “dialog” is thus put in quotation marks as it constitutes both an objective of these information policies but also a kind of impossibility This is because there is more of an auto-construction of the information than a real dialog This is what highlights the issue of the difficult conjunctions between the communicational doctrine of the company and democracy This is also what complicates the implementation of the process of environmental scanning

1.4 The dimensions of ambiguity of the notion

We will briefly recall that the notion of ambiguity is open to interpretation Ambiguity appears where the meaning is unclear The notion of sustainable development also contains the idea of “leaving a doubt”

1.4.1 The associated references

The notion of sustainable development is representative of a field of tensions in which the main references1 are grouped together in Table 1.1

It is the references to “stakeholders” and “responsible practices” that are the most frequently relayed, the theories of decline being the least so, even if – despite their radically critical aspect – they end up being the most in tune with the notion of sustainable development Their byword is the internalization of external “dice-economies” and the calling into question of consumerist growth as a factor in the development of democracies, which itself is also qualified by consumerists The expression of fundamental aspects, which is given by Latouche [LAT 05] – one of the major authors on the subject – can be summarized in the following way:

1 I thank J Lauriol for the components of this analysis

Make a census and take into

account the value of each

Political and moral criticism Weak political dimension Ethical requirements Political requirements The “acceptable” palliative

Table 1.1 The references associated with sustainable development

It consists of avoiding the economic process leading to increased consumption of natural resources when even the goods in themselves are economical (see micro-computing and the increased consumption of paper due to the astronomical increase

in the number of paper printouts) This is called the “rebound effect” Latouche thinks that if an eco-compatible capitalism is conceivable in theory, it is not currently achievable in practice, in so much as it involves strict regulation of the ecological footprint of economic activity He suggests considering the following specific objectives in terms of decline:

– find an ecological footprint equal to or less than “a” planet, i.e equivalent to that of the years 1960–1970;

– internalize or reduce the transport costs;

– relocate businesses;

– restore agriculture;

– stimulate the production of “relational goods”,

– divide the amount of energy waste by four;

– penalize spending on publicity; and

– implement a moratorium on technological innovation in order to make an report to orientate (or reorientate) it according to the previous objectives

eco-The political consequences are either the apologia of a kind of authoritarian ecocracy, or that of a localist utopia It is indeed the absence of a relay of this third perspective that contributes to the ambiguity of the notion of sustainable development, faced with the benevolent mediatization of the first two It is in this way that the reference to sustainable development oscillates between a Malthusian perspective (that of the Rome Club theses and the theories of decline) and an implicitly progressive techno-scientific position that makes sustainable development

an economic stake and therefore a source of innovation and potential profitability

1.4.2 The “tensions” associated with the notion

The notion of sustainable development also refers to an “in between” At an institutional level, it refers to a social economy that shows solidarity that would be established between the state and the market On a methodological level, it refers to two heuristics: that of fear but also that of hope [LEM 06]

Figure 1.2 The tensions associated with the notion of sustainable development

Hence putting the tensions into perspective with regard to the two axes:

– one that favors the moral and political dimension; and

– the other that favors an answer with a weak or strong impact on the company

1.4.3 Ambiguities of the meaning of sustainable development

Sustainable development can be considered as a slogan (of an ideological nature)

or as eschatology (end of the world theory) This technico-scientific eschatology would then pick up from where that of the atomic bomb left off, with more emphasis

on a finite nature than the previous one, which put an emphasis on destruction Let

us also remind ourselves that eschatology is equally representative of the fears constructed by societies This was the case with the Mayans who sacrificed humans for fear that the sun would not rise again What, therefore, is the underlying fear with reference to sustainable development? Would it not be the impossibility of being able to think outside the framework of economic activity? Sustainable development would then be the new purpose of dark utopias (let us remember that

1984 is the archetype of a dark utopia) where it would consist of a regime that would apprehend society as a whole and would offer it a destiny, or at least a future, as one

of simple survival

We could qualify the notion of sustainable development as an archetype of the United Nations notions – void of meaning, but to which the players have given content little by little, which is both common and divergent based on the positions and opinions of those that refer to it

The rhetoric element of the ambiguity [COR 07] of the notion comes from

bringing together the views of scientific objectivity, the ethos of responsibility and the pathos of honesty based on the following protocol:

– identification and neutralization of all the imaginable environmental risks; – applying an “objective” approach to each of them (allowing some of them to

be considered negligible); and

– elaboration of a non-risk rhetoric

This process is based on the paradox that recognition of the risks leads to construction of the rhetoric of non-risk Still speaking of rhetoric, it is also important

to highlight that the type of views installs the first-order type of risk and therefore, for a given situation, depending on whether the referees are economic or environmental for example, the risks will not be the same (profitability and conservation of the planet, for example) The economic interests and social partners have, in some respect, the ability to directly express themselves In environmental

terms, however, there is a tendency to let nature “talk” (and more often than not rely

on the register of emotion)

It is also important to highlight the place that is currently given to a true industrialist and, more widely, anti-economic “green ideology” It is no doubt the risks of the consequences of this ideology that concern the leaders of multinational companies, who respond to this by putting a sustainable development manager in charge of counter-rhetoric

anti-Sustainable development is one of the elements of the institutionalization of the company, leading towards a reconnection of the company with society, just like with man and nature on the basis of the social preoccupations–energy savings–raw materials trilogy In the radical sense, it consists of a reversal of the economic performance–social performance–ecological performance trilogy The ambiguity comes from the fact that the judgment of efficiency remains based on economic performance

1.4.4 The ambiguity of company attitudes vis-à-vis sustainable development

The attitudes of companies vis-à-vis this repositioning can be determined with

regard to crossing of the two axes (risk–security and opportunity–opportunism)

Figure 1.3 The ambiguity of attitudes

As such, the notion of sustainable development in concreto is often a metaphor

for the innovation based on remarkable and appealing stories [DAR 05]

Mathieu [MAT 06] suggests three possible axes of reflection in this domain:

– An axiologist perspective (which could also be called “teleological”) that deals

with the notion of an ideal to reach or defend It will refer to stakeholders and will put forward a logic of arbitrage and negotiation on the basis of a long-term strategy

– An ontological perspective that makes sustainable development one of the

main elements at the core of company, by extension of logic of the efficiency towards taking into account an ecological efficiency that will refer to managerial voluntarism on the basis of the elaboration and implementation of a long-term strategy

– A utilitarist and opportunist perspective (it benefits and is fashionable), which will refer to short-term financial logic and implement profitable strategies

Métrot [MÉT 06] qualifies the managerial acceptance of sustainable development as “a process of compromise in search of coherence” Therefore what

is sustainable development from a managerial point of view?

Furthermore it is important to highlight the process of institutionalization at work through the display of “sustainable development” in the management teaching

programs of business schools, of which the bias in relation to the interests of

companies must be pointed out It is the same for these modules as it was for those

of cultural studies [MAT 03] in the 1990s In the same way that cultural studies

gave external arguments of consolidation of an acceptable “academic capitalism”, a

guarantor of its extraordinary international expansion in the world of business

schools, it finds culture everywhere within the trading world and in everything In

teaching it, we could ask whether the multiplication of modules dedicated to

“sustainable development” in management teaching programs today is in fact the same issue

It is indeed where the meaning is uncertain that scanning can have a crucial role, but can also cause the most problems in terms of implementation

1.5 Conclusion: calling into question managerial references in relation to sustainable development

The notion of sustainable development raises the issue, but has little debate due

to an apparent consensus with its correlates: solidarity, responsibility, equity, etc It tends to find a protean acceptance of the responsibility of the company, particularly the larger ones:

– economic responsibility (the evaluation of what the company brings to development through allocation of resources, taxes, technology transfers, local employment, etc.);

– social responsibility vis-à-vis the employees (social standards, human rights,

labor rights, social protection);

– societal responsibility (vis-à-vis the environment and society);

– political responsibility (the role of companies in local policies, governance of

subsidiaries, fight against corruption, etc.);

– extraordinary responsibility (in the event of a natural disaster, conflict or emergency situation that would call into question the respect of human rights); and – charitable responsibility (donations to local populations)

It also leads to a dialog that is often optimistic in contrast to the eschatology that

it carries

The most radical protest is in fact carried out in the absence of convincing global effects, particularly in terms of the fight against global warming

1.5.1 Provisional detour via the markets: the “right to pollute”

Let us highlight the no doubt provisional transition (due to the implicit hypothesis of the validity of the dogma of efficiency of underlying markets) through the mediation of markets with that implement mechanisms of the “right to pollute”, through a European system of exchange quotas (SCEQE) on the basis of a constitution of a market of CO2 quotas This mechanism is based on the allocation of

authorizations to emit greenhouse gases for certain industrial sectors (energy

production, heavy industry, aerial transport, etc.) This transition is representative of the tension that is in effect between various sovereign places: the US (with the sovereignty of the State-nation), European Union, (place of one of the supranational sovereignties), big companies (economic domain of an economic sovereignty), and the financial markets (domain of financial sovereignty)

The status of these rights is for the most part unclear Their existence is decreed

by the states that then deal with their distribution to the companies involved, who then negotiate rights with each other Beyond the reference to a distributive justice,

we can also speak of them as if they were assignats This transition also means the

“end” of the voluntary initiative by designating a “price” for CO2 and organizing regulation via a system of quota exchange This is in view of the end reduction of emissions on the basis of the combination of an environmental objective (with a

threshold of emission for “large” installations) and integration logic, from the organizations involved, of these externalities into calculations of resource allocation The issue is knowing to what extent this type of mechanism, totally indebted to the logic of regulation, can (or cannot) be extended to other sectors and activities that globally emit more greenhouse gases The reference to the market is coherent with the ideology that is considered as being the best means of regulation after the fact (contrary to regulation before the fact, which comes from the sovereignty of the Nation-State) Independently of this ideological component, it is also possible to

consider this as a kind of moment of learning, for which the major crisis of the

financial markets of the end of 2007 will no doubt signify the premature end

The political injunction and control of the environmental consequences of economic activity risk largely call into question this element of control in favor of regulation It is indeed the managerial-centrism of the reference to stakeholders that

is called into question It is thus that the political dimension is expressed through the tension that appears between measures destined for the consumer (eco-taxes) and those destined for the civilian (mandatory environmental standards), both kinds of measures affecting individuals as much as companies

1.5.2 The return of politics and regulation

The distinctly political dimension that the notion tends to take on today has important consequences for its usage It is what occurs by calling into question voluntary initiatives (those of leaders of multinational companies) in favor of international standards, of which the political and coercive dimension is

increasingly important as they benefit from the political legitimacy of the bodies that

create them (the United Nations and European Union, for example) and the relay of states

On the theme of company social responsibility, the development of these international standards also signifies the major current and future focus on environmental problems As such, has the social responsibility of business as a theme for management for 2000–2010 been a learning curve for companies to take into account the impact of economic activity? This learning would elicit the development of coercive environmental standards The so-called “ethical” dimension of the theme loses its first-rate ranking to the benefit of the political

dimension As such, environmental issues tend to increasingly escape lobbying

Sustainable development directed at business therefore tends to take on the aspect of a management issue, which risks being a largely perennial recurrence due

to its wider political aspect Global warming due to economic activity that has

occurred since 2006 has been demonstrated by the group of intergovernmental experts on climate evolution (GIEC/IPCC – Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change)

With sustainable development, lifestyle is also an issue and as such it is a major subject for scanning

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