An Irish Perspective on Sustainable Development

Abstract

This chapter investigates the current status of sustainable development from an Irish perspective using qualitative analysis on data obtained from semi-structured interviews. The thirteen interviewees were chosen to represent a broad spectrum of influential organisations in Irish society and included private businesses, charity organisations, faith-based organisations, agricultural associations, and government representatives. Analysis of the findings confirmed that the three well-established vital elements that must be considered if organisations are to be developed in a sustainable way, namely, Profit, People, and Planet are still valid. However, this research also found that there were other elements necessary for developing sustainable organisations. To this end, a unique, sustainable organisational development theory emerged from the research findings of this study. This theoretical model identifies four specific vital components that are essential inputs to developing sustainable organisations. These four input components were deemed by the research subjects as critical elements in the ethos and policies of their organisations to maintain sustainability. They included a for-profit ethos, a not-for-profit ethos, an ethical/moral/spiritual ethos and government policy. The study found that organisational leaders guided by a robust moral/ethical compass who incorporate the input components of this model into their organisational vision and strategy maintain a strong focus on sustainable development.