Sustainable Worldview Research Articles

Identifying transitions in corporate sustainability reporting: a content analysis of JSE/FTSE multinational sustainability reports from 2016 to 2021

The dominant practice governing sustainability reporting in the private sector is that of Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) or Environmental Social Governance (ESG) reporting. CSR has its roots in philanthropy and charitable initiatives, while ESG aims to integrate environmental, social, and governance factors into business practices and decision-making. This paper analyses the transition in sustainability worldviews revealed in corporate sustainability reporting from 2016 to 2021. It uses a longitudinal content analysis methodology applied to a sample of ten multinational companies listed on the South African JSE/FTSE top 40 index. The period for the longitudinal study is framed from when the companies started reporting on ESG. The JSE/FTSE was chosen as the companies listed in the top 40 represent 80% of the value on the JSE (JSE 2020). The qualitative content analysis makes use of the five stages of corporate sustainability model to position companies’ sustainability reports within these five stages (Landrum & Ohsowski, 2018a). The key finding of this paper is that multinational companies have been slow to transition their sustainability reporting practices. The current reports reflect a business-as-usual mindset that is driven by compliance with reporting regulations. There is an absence of reporting that reflects a view of embedding business operations within bounded science-based ecological and social environments.

Vasudaiva Kutumbakam – One Earth, One Family, One Future

India is a civilization, not just a country, nation or government. At a time when the world is grappling with pandemics, wars, energy and climate crises, India assuming the leadership of G20 and restricting resources is appropriate not only politically economically but also socially and culturally. COVID-19 proved that the incredibly diverse world is too complex to be reduced to a utopian framework – a one size fits all idea. However, the fact is that COVID-19 may have only highlighted a crisis that dates back to the latter half of the last century and extends to the present. India's leadership in the G20 is therefore a window of opportunity for a more sustainable worldview because the ideas are coming from a civilization with a long history of accepting the entire world as one family - Vasudaiva Kutumbakam.

A Critical Reflection on Online Teaching for Sustainability

By practicing the scholarship of teaching the authors examine their own practices in teaching online applied to in-service teacher education and education for sustainable development as part of ongoing quality improvement effort and annual course revision. This study focuses on “Planetary Perspectives: Toward a Culture of Peace, Sustainability, and Well-Being” which is the first in a four-course Online Certificate in Education for Sustainable Development organized by the Earth Charter Education Center and the University for Peace. The course explores principles of sustainability and the seventeen Sustainable Development Goals and then goes deeper into the environmental, social, and economic spheres of sustainability. The course emphasizes pedagogical practices, such as systems thinking and developing a sustainability worldview. The course also invites students to be involved in their communities, talking to neighbors and colleagues about sustainability issues like climate change and poverty. This community focus is important to ground participants in the communities where they live and work and make progress toward achieving the Sustainable Development Goals. Working in the local community can be transformative to both students and communities.

Пути обеспечения ментальной безопасности обучающихся вузов системы МВД России в условиях ведения гибридных войн

The article analyzes the social determinants and manifestations of mental security challenges, which are inevitably reflected in the minds of young people studying at the universities of the Ministry of Internal Affairs system of Russia. Introduction. The purpose of the article is to consider the process of formation of sustainable worldview principles among students of higher education institutions of the Ministry of Internal Affairs through the prism of the theory of generations. An assumption is made about the effectiveness of hybrid warfare methods in connection with the mimetic nature of the factors influencing the perception of information. Theoretical analysis. It is established that one of the ways to counter the challenges of mental security is the formation of a “professional identity” even at the stage of studying at a university, as well as the development of mental immunity, which involves the formation of a system of stable spiritual and moral guidelines. Conclusions. The challenges of mental security are in a dynamic state, not only influencing the minds of citizens, but also creating fashion trends. In this regard, it is necessary to form in the new generation worldview principles that are resistant to the methods of conducting hybrid wars. The proposed principles and methods for the formation of professional identity can become the basis for organizing the educational process in departmental educational institutions of the Ministry of Internal Affairs in conditions of mental instability.

Same Same but Different? A Quantitative Exploration of Voluntary Sustainability Standards in Agriculture

Private governance by means of voluntary sustainability standards (VSS) has become ubiquitous, especially for the governance of sustainability issues along global value chains in agriculture. As VSS have multiplied and proliferated, their commonalities and differences are not always easily discernable to value chain participants and their stakeholders. Concurrently, extant research is ambiguous on the degree of harmonization or diversification of standards currently available. Two core aspects have received particular attention: the meaning of sustainability reflected in VSS and the degree of stakeholder inclusion in standard governance. It is the purpose of this study to compare VSS from different types of standard setting initiatives regarding these two core aspects by analyzing their purported sustainability worldview and the inclusiveness of their institutional design. The quantitative exploration covers exemplars offered by inter-governmental organizations, business initiatives, non-governmental organizations as well as multi-stakeholder initiatives. The analysis finds significant ambiguity of sustainability worldviews across the sample, as well as almost universal uptake of design characteristics to enhance inclusiveness irrespective of the type of standard setting initiative. However, there are also significant differences in the way sustainability is understood among VSS offered by different standard setting initiatives.

Aligning digitalisation and sustainable development? Evidence from the analysis of worldviews in sustainability reports

AbstractThe digitalisation of industrial production and the actual positive and negative consequences for sustainable development are not yet sufficiently understood. This study describes and evaluates the linkages between corporate digitalisation and sustainability management based on qualitative data analysis of sustainability reports of DAX 30 companies and applying the concept of sustainability worldviews. The results show a predominate worldview of weak or business‐centred sustainability on digitalisation, which could potentially pose a threat to sustainable development. In particular, the focus on customer demands without stakeholder involvement and the worldview of digitalisation as a way of doing ‘business as‐usual’ but in a more effective way reproduces unsustainable economic patterns. A holistic sustainable approach on digitalisation should also include possible negative impacts like increased resource consumption which is not the case yet in the studied companies. Different types of ‘sustainability worldviews on digitalisation’ can be distinguished. While ‘Pioneer’ companies can inform policy‐making, the other types of ‘Intermediates’, ‘Indecisive’ and ‘Laggards’ could be addressed by information exchange, support and regulation to promote a more sustainable worldview on corporate digitalisation. The ‘Unsustainable’ digitalisation type would be the most difficult to address with soft policy instruments and requires a more regulated approach.

Challenging dominant sustainability worldviews on the energy transition: Lessons from Indigenous communities in Mexico and a plea for pluriversal technologies

• Indigenous worldviews have much to offer regarding the sustainability debate. • Indigenous and modernist visions of sustainability in the energy transition are analyzed. • Different conceptualizations of sustainability must be recognized and integrated to ensure an inclusive and just energy transition. • “Pluriversal technologies” are needed for a fair and sustainable ecological transition. Little research exists on how alternative understandings of sustainability and societal well-being, such as those developed by marginalized Indigenous populations, can enrich and possibly challenge dominant visions of sustainability anchored in Western discourses on sustainable development and ecological modernization. This paper addresses this research gap in the context of the transition towards low-carbon energy sources by addressing the following question: how do Indigenous worldviews contrast with modernist visions of sustainability in the context of the energy transition? To do so, it first builds a conceptual framework contrasting modernist and Indigenous sustainability worldviews. Second, it applies this framework to the case of wind energy developments within the territory of three Zapotec communities located in southern Mexico, with the discussion relying on 103 interviews with key stakeholders, six focus groups and participant observation. Results show that the Zapotec sustainability worldview contrasts strikingly with wind developers’ modernist propositions, which tend to reproduce the region’s past colonial arrangements in terms of cultural domination, non-recognition of Indigenous identities and disrespect for local customs. This contrast has led to many conflicts and misunderstandings around wind energy projects. The paper concludes that different conceptualizations of sustainability must be recognized to ensure an inclusive and just energy transition, and advances the concept of “pluriversal technologies” to emphasize the need for technologies that embrace ontological and epistemological diversity by being co-designed, co-produced and co-owned by the inhabitants of the socio-cultural territory in which they are embedded.

SUSTAINABILITY – ОСНОВНИЙ ТРЕНД СУЧАСНОГО ДИЗАЙНУ

The purpose of the work is to clarify the conceptual apparatus of ecologically oriented design and define the main guidelines for achieving “environmentalism” and ensuring sustainability on the example of clothing design. The methods of philosophical, literary, sociocultural, and art analysis were used. It was determined that the most general and elaborated concept within the framework of environmental topics is “sustainable design”. Sustainable design expresses the concept of creating the closed cycle of coexistence between man and nature. It has been established that the term “design” in combination with “environmentalism” and “sustainable” is used to mean the valuable and visual basis that guides the activities of not only the developer himself, dictating to him formal criteria, strategies and methods of creating products, but also creates conceptual guidelines for the manufacturer’s activities, consumer behavior, society as a whole. While society moves according to the old paradigm of manmade existence, trying to take into account certain aspects and ways of improving the ecological component, a new paradigm has already been formed that changes the original guidelines. Each design decision must first of all meet the sustainable worldview, and only then be guided by certain principles. It is proposed to include: the use of materials with a low level of influence on the environment, minimization of waste products, promotion of longlasting relationships between consumers and products, shifting the consumption method from personal ownership to the provision of temporary ownership services. The key aspect is that all areas should be considered in a complex, and devalue the basis of “sustainability” taken into account separately. Sustainable design can be considered as a way of solving global problems covering the material and spiritual spheres of human activity and an attempt to find a new harmonious environment.

Motorsport Event Attendees: Who are They, What is Their Environmental Worldview, And How Does It Relate to Trip Spending?

The relationship between economics and sustainability within the event industry is becoming increasingly important. Events with a reputation of not being sustainable (i.e., motorsport events) are chronically underserved in the literature. This research incorporated the revised New Ecological Paradigm (NEP) as a theoretical foundation to assess sustainability attitudes of motor racing event attendees at a series of major racing events in Monterey County, California (USA). The NEP assessment created the basis for examining relationships between sustainability attitudes and motorsport event patrons' characteristics including demographic information, tourist patrons' total trip spending, and per-day spending. Interestingly, patrons attending these traditionally nonenvironmentally sustainable events were found to have similar NEP scores to other event and nonevent research. Sustainability attitudes were not significantly different based on demographic variables, including age and income. However, an inverse relationship was found between environmental attitudes and spending. Tourist patrons with a less sustainable environmental worldview spent more per day and more per trip than those with a more sustainable environmental worldview. These surprising results provide a basis for industry and academic discourse within event management, sustainability, and marketing.

Sustainability worldviews of marketing academics: A segmentation analysis and implications for professional development

The epistemology of the business school has been argued to be a large barrier towards the integration of sustainability in education and research. This research aims to shed light on the fundamental marketing and consumption assumptions marketing academics hold. In an international online survey of 437 marketing academics, the research found four clusters of sustainability worldviews and key demographic differences (based upon sex and academic rank) in sustainability, consumption and marketing beliefs. This research provides a reflection of the disciplines’ theoretical and philosophical beliefs in relation to sustainability. Such reflection has implications for the future of sustainability within the marketing academy, as well as an understanding of the conceptualizations of sustainability graduates receive from their education. Based upon the findings, suggestions are provided about how to encourage sustainability research and teaching within marketing departments and how professional development activities in business schools should integrate sustainability content.

Co-evolutionary design concept for urban sustainability based on ‘Regenerative’ design principles: a case study in Salford, United Kingdom

The absence of a clear definition for sustainability in urban development has brought into defining a comprehensive sustainable concept based on urban design practices. The positive sustainable design practices aim at reducing the damage caused by excessive resource use, or less damage to the environment. Meanwhile, the concept of regenerative design has developed to offer true sustainable practice for transition towards a truly sustainable worldview. The purpose of the research is to investigate how and in which ways regenerative design could be applied to define the sustainability in urban design practices. With that, the regenerative design process was adapted for urban design context through integrated and centralised approach. The ultimate regenerative design process, through the research study, articulates which aspect (method/technology/design) is appropriate for each place, what kind of people for, what yield within the frame of co-evolution of the whole system. Especially, the comparative analysis proved the need of why sustainable design should practice in urban design and at what time and in which ways it should be integrated in to the design process. The radically transformed thinking patterns of practicing sustainable design in the urban planning and urban design, creates sustainable living system, which is mutually integrated with humans and the natural environment.

Assessing the sustainability literacy of the Nigerian engineering community

Being the lifeblood of socioeconomic progress, engineering is implicated in the unprecedented challenge of sustainability. The global engineering community devised sustainable engineering as a conceptual departure from conventional engineering practices. However, the extent to which the sustainability worldview has permeated the Nigerian engineering community remains unanswered. This paper is an attempt to answer the question of how sustainability literate are the members of the Nigerian engineering community. The paper undertakes an assessment of the sustainability literacy of the community with the aid of a stakeholder survey and a devised sustainability literacy test. Three criteria that are used to gauge the stakeholders’ sustainability literacy are awareness of the UN Decade of Education for Sustainable Development, score on the sustainability literacy test, and self-assessment of sustainability knowledge. Survey participants were recruited mainly from two federally-run Nigerian higher education institutions, and engineering professional associations. The assessment reveals an unsatisfactory performance of the Nigerian engineering stakeholders on all three sustainability literacy criteria. The results show that the majority of the students (81%), educators (67%), and practitioners (64%) were unaware of the UNDESD. The paper therefore highlights the need to improve the sustainability literacy of the Nigerian engineering community, possibly through a sustainability education intervention.

VALOR COMPARTIDO SOSTENIBLE: UN ENFOQUE MULTIDIMENSIONAL PARA LA GESTIÓN ESTRATÉGICA DE LA EMPRESA

This document proposes a general point of view of the shared value principle from a sustainable worldview through a hermeneutic and reflective analysis towards the consolidation of valuable arguments that reflect in the future the way forward for decision making in the strategic agenda of the companies because today it is common to observe that the organizations of the world are more concerned about their financial returns, than for the moderate use of resources and respect for the environment. Based on the theoretical and epistemological bases of the theory of shared value creation oriented to business management, a new construct is developed: sustainable shared value, which incorporates the sustainable dimension as an object of research, in order to understand the systemic and interdisciplinary relationship of the theories; it also highlights the need to adopt new paradigms that generate current and intergenerational impact results.

Identifying Worldviews on Corporate Sustainability: A Content Analysis of Corporate Sustainability Reports

AbstractCompanies commonly issue sustainability or corporate social responsibility (CSR) reports. This study seeks to understand worldviews of corporate sustainability, or the corporate message conveyed regarding what sustainability or CSR is and how to enact it. Content analysis of corporate sustainability reports is used to position each company report within stages of corporate sustainability. Results reveal that there are multiple coexisting worldviews of corporate sustainability, but the most dominant worldview is focused on the business case for sustainability, a position anchored in the weak sustainability paradigm. We contend that the business case and weak sustainability advanced in corporate sustainability reports and by the Global Reporting Initiative are poor representations of sustainability. Ecological embeddedness, or a locally responsive strategy that is sensitive to local ecosystems, may hold the key to improved ecological sensemaking, which in turn could lead to more mature levels of corporate sustainability worldviews that support strong sustainability and are rooted in environmental science. This must be supported by government regulation. Copyright © 2017 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd and ERP Environment

Quality Education: Cultural Competence and a Sustainability Worldview

The United Nations Sustainable Development Goals tie together equity, justice, and a more inclusive society with ecological sustainability. This article offers teaching strategies for integrating the goal of quality education for sustainability and multicultural education.

Stages of Corporate Sustainability: Integrating the Strong Sustainability Worldview

Businesses are increasingly adopting sustainability, yet the environment continues to decline. This research responds to Dyllick and Muff’s assertion that this paradox is caused by a constricted understanding of the meaning of corporate sustainability, lack of inclusion of constructs from related streams of literature, and failure to integrate micro and macro perspectives of sustainability. The current research addresses these concerns through an integration of 22 micro- and macro-level models of stages of development from literature in corporate sustainability, corporate social responsibility, environmental management, and sustainable development. This integration results in a new unified model of stages of corporate sustainability that broadens the current narrowly constricted understanding of corporate sustainability, extends the paradigm of corporate sustainability beyond the business case and into the realm of ecological science and strong sustainability, and sheds light on the paradox.

СОЦИАЛЬНАЯ КУЛЬТУРА ОБРАЗОВАТЕЛЬНОГО ПРОСТРАНСТВА ВУЗА КАК ФАКТОР ВЛИЯНИЯ НА ПСИХОЭМОЦИОНАЛЬНЫЕ ОСОБЕННОСТИ СТУДЕНТОВ

Цель. В статье рассматривается влияние социально-культурного пространства вуза на формирование и проявления психических и эмоциональных характеристик студентов. Авторы представляют социальную культуру образовательного пространства вуза как значительное жизненное пространство социально-культурной среды, которое оказывает большое влияние на процесс формирования личности студента.Метод или методология проведения работы. Основой исследования являются основополагающие принципы современной психологии, социальной обусловленности развития личности в деятельности, общении и профессиональной подготовке, современные идеи гуманистической психологии и педагогики, системно-структурный подход к анализу личности, роль обучения и профессиональной подготовки в развитии личности явились методологической и теоретической основой работы.Результаты. Результаты этого исследования заключаются в том, что авторы представляют различные типы проектной деятельности, которая в свою очередь позволяет сформировать нравственное сознание, ценностные ориентации и устойчивое мировоззрение, связанных с решением жизненных вопросов. Сделан вывод о прямой зависимости качества образовательного пространства и проявления психоэмоциональных особенностей студентов, развития и саморазвития эмоциональной сферы личности.Область применения результатов. Результаты исследования могут быть применены в сфере образования, работе со студентами, для работы психолого-педагогических служб.

The Method of the Content Selection for Formation of Technological Culture among Students Based on Ethnological Values

The aim of this article is to develop a methodology of the content selection for formation of technological culture among students based on the ethnoaesthetics and the disclosure of its values. The leading idea of the study is the methods of formation of a scientific picture of the world among students, involving the development of ideas in their consciousness of the unity of the subject-spiritual and scientific-technological world, sustainable worldview, ethnoaesthetical worldview, ethnoaesthetical consciousness, etc. In the article there is the methodological tools of the “humanized” content selection of technological, ethnoaesthetical, and professional nature; principles of the content selection are defined; ethnoaesthetical context of the system of approaches to the content selection is justified; methods of the content selection are selected; systems’ priority in the content selection is planned; and levels and criteria of the content selection are identified, the results of implementing of this methodology are shown.

Sustainability, Globalization, and the Mythic Power of Home

We humans are creatures of both reason and myth, for logic alone cannot tell us why we should find anything meaningful. We craft mythic narratives that frame how we address our challenges. Right now, we need a heroic myth for sustainability. Neither a “journey of discovery” nor a “triumph over evil” suffice. We must, instead, discover the heroism of living at home. Unfortunately, home is more compelling as a goal than as a story. Odysseus reclaimed his home, but the Odyssey ended abruptly when it was time to start living there. Thornton Wilder’s Our Town, though, proves that it is possible to tell a compelling story about life at home. While Tolkien’s Lord of the Rings may balance and subvert “the hero story with the gardener story,” as Loren Wilkinson suggested, Our Town omits the warrior’s quest altogether (Wilkinson 73). As such, this play deserves our careful attention. Wilder’s play is not an environmentalist tract, but presents a mythic structure of home that fits sustainability better than the mythic structures of journey or combat. This hearth myth can provide the foundation for a sustainable worldview as we try to fit ourselves to the limits of our planetary home. The myth of home, though, carries its own risks. It can degenerate into chauvinism or passivity. We must go beyond the rural localism of Our Town in order to match the home myth to our world of globalization and migration. Alberto Fuguet’s The Movies of My Life offers insight into how we can do this. Fuguet, the controversial leader of the McCondo literary movement that embraces American pop culture, tells the story of a diasporic young man piecing together his identity and rediscovering a sense of home. This essay will first examine the myth of home and Our Town. Next, it will explore the perspectives of some globalization theorists who will help us understand dimensions absent from Wilder’s play. Finally, we will see how a destabilized myth of home can still take narrative form by looking at Fuguet’s novel The Movies of My Life. By combining the lessons of Wilder and Fuguet, we can craft a sustainable myth of home for our globalized world.

Supporting the Sustainability Journey of Tertiary International Students in Australia

AbstractThis article reports the findings of a pilot Education for Sustainability (EfS) program implemented in 2011 for international students in a multi-campus distributed learning environment at an Australian university. It outlines the context of the pilot EfS program and reports survey findings of the environmental attitudes and sustainability worldviews of international students. The pilot EfS program entailed in-class presentations to students in a variety of Business and IT programs at diploma, undergraduate and postgraduate levels. Students were introduced to sustainability concepts and the role of graduate skills in their future professional practice. Students were also encouraged to adopt personal sustainability behaviours and assisted to connect their individual courses/programs to sustainability outcomes. Surveys consisting of open-ended questions and the Revised NEP (New Environmental Paradigm) questionnaire were conducted in a range of settings in order to develop an understanding of the sustainability attitudes and knowledge of international students. These were conducted in participating and non-participating EfS classes and also in classes with and without sustainability topics in the curriculum. The findings report the impact of these sustainability interventions on students’ environmental views and attitudes. Finally, these findings are contextualised in suggested routes for scaffolding the learning journey of international students towards sustainability.