A Systems Perspective on Sustainability

In view of the increasing public awareness for
sustainability issues, insufficient or failed corporate
sustainability-measures bear a serious risk of
backfiring on the corporations, for example in form of
increased Greenwashing accusations, social costs or
environmental risks. This book aims to discuss the
potential of a systems perspective (systems thinking,
systems science) to improve the success of corporate
sustainability measures. The book argues that measures
of corporate sustainability often fall short, not primarily
through individual failures of corporations, but rather
due to unsustainable systemic structures arising from
the interaction between a corporation and its shareholders
and driven by dynamics unfolding in the process. The pitfall
of these structures is that they remain undetected due to a
lack of a systems perspective and run the risk of backfiring
on the corporation itself. These structures constitute
Sustainability Traps: Reoccurring dynamic patterns of failed
sustainability measures that backfire on corporations.
The book aims to discuss why and how a systems perspective
(systems thinking) as an organizational learning discipline,
can be used to address Sustainability Traps and thus to
improve success of corporate sustainability measures.