To Main Proceedings Document
Educating business on sustainability- why most attempts limit their own success.
Presented to the International System Dynamics Society 2000 Conference, held in Bergen
Norway, 6-10 August 2000. By Jodi Smith, jodi.smith@ au.pwcglobal.com or
jsmith00@ hotmail.com
Summary:
Many traditional education programs on business sustainability involving provision of
pamphlets and case studies have resulted in only minor improvements in the businesses
targetted, despite the energy and enthusiasm of Project Officers and the willingness of
business to be involved. This paper explores why this is the case and shows that many
programs have unintentionally limited their own success. Suggestions of how systems
approaches can help prevent this are highlighted. (For further information on the redesign
of education programs see related paper presented).
Contents:
° Benefits to business of becoming sustainable
° Traditional Education Programs
. Case Study: Changing Streams Pollution Reduction Project- what was it, what
was achieved and why didn’t we receive larger changes
° Limits to success archetype
° How systems tools can help
bd Conclusions
There are many benefits to business if they become sustainable these include:
Economic and Regulatory Benefits:
° enhanced competitiveness and efficiency
° reduced waste treatment and disposal costs
° reduced compliance costs of permits, monitoring and enforcement
° reduced production costs through better management
° increased income derived through sale or reuse of waste
° enhanced knowledge of how to stay in compliance
° reduced forced regulatory requirements
° reduce occupational health and safety costs
Liability and Public Image Benefits:
. reduced liability for environmental problems at onsite and offsite treatment,
storage and disposal facilities
. reduced risk of spills, accidents and emergencies
. improved public awareness of environmental hazards and prevention measures
° improved image, seen as environmentally friendly.
Environmental and Health Benefits:
° protection of the environment from further degradation
. prevention of irreversable environmental problems
° increased longevity of natural resource supply
° reduced risks to human health and safety
° reduced worker exposure to toxic chemicals
There are so many benefits to business of becoming sustainable they should be jumping
to come on board. But they’re not, why not?
Traditional education programs usually focus on providing brochures and case studies,
offering training and advice, site visits and sometimes grants for improvement. Such
programs should in theory be effective. Y et the outcomes of such projects are minimal -
why? Before giving you my opinions on part of the reasons we'll go through a case
study.
The Changing Streams Pollution Reduction Project was a joint project between local
government, the environment protection authority and a local catchment water
management board. I managed the project which involved 2 000 businesses, and 56 000
households. It was designed to educate the community and business on sustainability and
to reduce pollution into the environment.
Case Study: Changing Streams
Pollution Reduction Project
Community Activities:
Education kits to all
households
* Competitions
* Olympic Champion-
Kate Slatter, Gold
Medal Rower
* Displays
School visits
Field Days / Cycle
Tours
Case Study: Changing Streams
Pollution Reduction Project
Industry Activities:
* Education kits to all businesses
+ Industrial resource exchange
* Grants for improvement
Demonstration Sites
* Site visits
* Displays
* Field Days
* Training
a
Outcomes of the C hanging Streams Pollution Reduction Project:
. awareness increases
° minor changes to business
s reduced pollution levels into waterways
all parties feel it was worthwhile and want it to continue
enables legislative teeth in future as natural justice fulfilled
but could we have achieved more?
Why didn’t we receive larger changes to business sustainability levels?
Project Officers could only advise on generic, simple improvements so this is
what was achieved
Project Officers did not have business backgrounds or qualifications and talked in
green language
while we did highlight benefits to business of changing we didn’t specifically
address their mental models and the barriers these presented
we didn’t help business address the internal change management issues
the system surrounding business affected their ability to change eg: competitor
actions, laws, lack of enforcement
people didn’t understand the system and blamed each other
Limits to success archetype:
Many of these kinds of projects use new graduates from the environmental sciences to
tun the projects. The project officers generally aren’ t trained in business issues and do
not understand business needs and speak in green language, this reduces their credibility
with business and limits the success of the projects. Being new to the working world they
don’t have detailed knowledge of what business can do and can only advise on generic,
simple improvements, so naturally this is what is achieved in the project.
Similarly the projects focus on telling business what to do but not helping them with the
change. Change is very difficult in business and many who understand the need to
become sustainable and want to, fail because of poor change management skills.
If one does not understand the whole system at play it is tempting to think that the way to
improve the success of such programs is to simply spend more money on them, send out
more case studies and information to business. | believe, that this is unlikely to result in
significant improvements as it is the barriers to change, the system surrounding the
project and the businesses that is affecting the success level and we need to change the
design of our programs to better assist business.
Systems tools provide many ways to help improve such situations. Even if it is just
identifying all the needs of the various stakeholders and their mental models. This allows
you to design your educational material accordingly and to avoid the conflict that may
occur when mental models clash.
There were many mental models of business managers identified during the project, some
of these included:
° If I change before my competitors I’ll go out of business
is I don’t need to do it as the Government isn’t enforcing the laws yet
° It’s just another management fad that will come and go
° My business isn’t polluting, its not relevant to me
. The world’s not falling apart, this isn’t really important
° Becoming sustainable means altering my business completely
. It’s just too hard, too expensive
. You're hypocritical telling us to change, when the laws still allow brown
activities, we can’t change until they do
The mental model of the manager involved will effect how they respond to your efforts
and material. For many of the mental models above providing them with details of the
benefits of becoming sustainable and case studies is not going to result in action. Y et this
is what many of our traditional programs do.
The use of group model building, influence diagramming, learning environments, the
systems thinking pyramid and other tools all offer ways to help improve the outcomes
achieved by such programs through increasing understanding and allowing managers to
explore the situation on their own. (Further information on how ST/SD can help is
presented in a related paper at this conference.)
Conclusion:
Traditional education programs for business sustainability have resulted in minimal
improvements. Often the conditions that they operate in limit their own success. Systems
tools give us an opportunity to improve the design of such programs and hopefully gain
further improvements. A link to change management is also required.
For more information: J odi Smith
jodi.smith@ au.pwcglobal.com or jmsmith00@ hotmail.com
