The Natural Advantage of Nations
, by Hargroves, KarlsonNote: Supplemental materials are not guaranteed with Rental or Used book purchases.
- ISBN: 9781844073405 | 1844073408
- Cover: Paperback
- Copyright: 8/30/2006
This book is more than just a "palliative care" guide for the planet'it is about innovation, solutions, competitiveness and profitability. At work, at home and as members of society, our generation has an obligation'and an exciting opportunity'to be part of the solution in restoring the balance. The authors present a bold vision for the future and demonstrate how we can get there, drawing on lessons of competitive advantage theory and the latest in sustainability, economics, innovation, business and governance theory and practice. The result is nothing less than the most authoritative and comprehensive guide to date, to building the new ecologically sustainable economy. For further information about The Natural Edge Project and to view the book's online companion, visit www.naturaledgeproject.net.
List of Figures and Tables | p. xiii |
Forewords | |
Preface | p. xxxviii |
Acknowledgements | p. xlii |
List of Acronyms and Abbreviations | p. xlvi |
Introduction: Insurmountable Opportunities | p. 1 |
The Need for a New Paradigm | |
Natural Advantage of Nations | p. 7 |
Progress, competitiveness and sustainability | p. 7 |
Significant potential for resource productivity improvements | p. 12 |
Creating competitive advantage of the firm | p. 14 |
A critical mass of enabling technologies | p. 16 |
Externalities: who pays? | p. 22 |
Benefits of valuing nature | p. 24 |
Implications and benefits for global development | p. 25 |
Risks of Inaction on Sustainable Development | p. 34 |
A great transition | p. 34 |
A sense of urgency | p. 36 |
Declining ecosystems: a new limiting factor for growth? | p. 39 |
Can we replicate nature's services? | p. 41 |
Asking the Right Questions | p. 43 |
How should we measure growth? | p. 43 |
What is meant when we speak of 'sustainability' and 'sustainable development'? | p. 45 |
Achieving sustainable genuine progress or sustainable development | p. 46 |
Can we achieve no major trade-offs and win-win opportunities? | p. 47 |
How do nations measure progress? | p. 50 |
How do we design for legacy? | p. 52 |
Can we turn 'vicious cycles' into 'virtuous circles'? | p. 54 |
A Dynamic 'Platform for Change' | p. 57 |
Economic policy: the broader context | p. 57 |
The invisible hand | p. 58 |
Collaborative approaches | p. 60 |
Tripartite world | p. 63 |
Whole of society approach | p. 64 |
Importance of capacity building | p. 67 |
Thinking Locally, Acting Globally | p. 68 |
Natural Advantage: A Business Imperative | |
Natural Advantage and the Firm | p. 75 |
The changing nature of competition | p. 75 |
Achieving competitive advantage through strategic positioning | p. 81 |
What will be the major driver of innovation in the 21st century? | p. 83 |
Moving early to exploit structural change | p. 85 |
Why integrate sustainable development into corporate strategy? | p. 87 |
Downsizing: a strategy that no longer cuts it | p. 88 |
The shifting nature of competition in emerging economies | p. 90 |
Additional drivers for sustainable development | p. 94 |
Achieving radical resource productivity | p. 98 |
New opportunities for product differentiation | p. 101 |
Increasing profitability and minimizing risk (Porter's 5 Forces Model) | p. 104 |
Threats of new entrants | p. 104 |
Threat of substitute products or services | p. 105 |
Bargaining power of buyers | p. 105 |
Power of suppliers | p. 108 |
Innovation and Competitiveness through Industry Cluster Development | p. 109 |
Cocoa beans... and what else? | p. 110 |
The cluster development process | p. 111 |
Government role in promoting cluster competitiveness | p. 116 |
A way forward | p. 117 |
The Political and Social Context: A Sixth Force on Business? | p. 118 |
Consumer demand change: knowing your market | p. 118 |
Human resources: attracting the best people | p. 120 |
Staying ahead of changes to government regulations | p. 121 |
Can market based mechanisms be designed to assist firms to achieve competitive advantage? | p. 121 |
Can regulation be designed to assist firms to achieve competitive advantage? | p. 122 |
Raising the bar: independent certification schemes | p. 123 |
The insurance industry: responding to climate change | p. 124 |
The finance industry: a new paradigm in investment | p. 127 |
The practice of ethical and socially responsible investment | p. 130 |
Accelerating the Sustainability Revolution | p. 135 |
Overcoming short-termism | p. 135 |
Incentives for business leaders | p. 136 |
Reform of fiduciary duty for pension and superannuation funds trustees | p. 137 |
Environmental management accounting in Japan | p. 141 |
Grounds for change: the exciting developments in firm level economics | p. 150 |
Efficiency gains within firms under voluntary environmental initiatives | p. 157 |
Operationalizing Natural Advantage through the Sustainability Helix | p. 161 |
The business case for sustainability | p. 161 |
The management helix for the sustainable organization (Sustainability Helix) | p. 162 |
Sustainable Business Practice: The Fieldguide to Natural Capitalism | p. 163 |
Achieving a Natural Advantage of Nations | |
The Role of Government | p. 171 |
The tragedy of the commons: 35 years on | p. 178 |
Government mechanisms | p. 181 |
The regulatory measure response | p. 182 |
Mental models of voluntary environmental initiatives | p. 188 |
Voluntary agreements: effectiveness analysis - tools, guidelines and checklists | p. 193 |
Allars' characteristics of effective voluntary agreements | p. 193 |
The generic Canadian pro forma for voluntary initiatives | p. 194 |
The United Nations Environment Programme's (UNEP's) Industry and Environment Technical Report | p. 196 |
The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development's (OECD's) approach | p. 199 |
Can regulation be designed to improve competitiveness? | p. 200 |
Effective economic measures to complement either voluntary or regulatory approaches | p. 202 |
Natural resources | p. 205 |
Government-industry partnerships to improve innovation | p. 208 |
From clusters to national systems of innovation | p. 209 |
Managing industry transitions through waves of innovation | p. 212 |
Towards a Deeper Understanding | p. 217 |
Markets and efficiency | p. 217 |
What is a market? | p. 217 |
How do economists define efficiency? | p. 218 |
The classical understanding | p. 218 |
Perfect complete markets | p. 219 |
The economics of information | p. 220 |
Financial markets: what they do and why they are fragile | p. 222 |
Anti-monopoly legislation: competition policy | p. 224 |
Challenges to governments and institutions | p. 226 |
Attributes of policy problems in sustainability | p. 227 |
Clarifying government, governance and institutions | p. 228 |
Available scales of sustainability governance | p. 230 |
Scaling responses | p. 231 |
Principles and elements of policy and institutional reform | p. 233 |
Is there 'credible commitment' to sustainability? | p. 236 |
National Councils for Sustainable Development | p. 238 |
Features of NCSDs | p. 239 |
Specific NCSDs as examples | p. 239 |
NCSDs and international agreements | p. 242 |
General observations | p. 243 |
National Systems of Innovation | p. 244 |
Practice makes perfect | p. 244 |
Innovation systems are part of today's development paradigm | p. 246 |
The challenge to innovation systems | p. 246 |
The Dutch National Sustainable Technology Development programme | p. 253 |
The Netherlands context | p. 255 |
Recent developments | p. 258 |
Lessons from the Dutch and other programmes | p. 260 |
Concluding remarks | p. 264 |
Sustainability in the Wild West (State Government) | p. 271 |
The Fremantle Declaration: 'Passing the Torch to the Regions' | p. 272 |
The Western Australia State Sustainability Strategy: is change happening? | p. 272 |
Process for developing the strategy | p. 276 |
Public engagement | p. 276 |
The policy change process | p. 277 |
What have we learned? | p. 282 |
Delivering Sustainability Through Local Action (Local Government) | p. 285 |
A worldwide movement of local governments | p. 285 |
Sustainability Street: it's a village out there | p. 288 |
Leadership in the local government sector: working from inside out | p. 289 |
Sustainability leadership in the local government sector | p. 290 |
Profile of sustainability leadership | p. 290 |
'When everything is said and done - more is said than done' | p. 293 |
Sector-wide action | p. 294 |
Sustainability advocacy in the local government sector | p. 295 |
Sustainable Cities: The Challenge of the 21st Century | |
Tomorrow's Mega-cities: How Will They Develop? | p. 301 |
Governance of municipalities: a snapshot of sustainable development in China | p. 303 |
The Goa 2100 Project: a breakthrough project from India | p. 306 |
Profitable Greenhouse Solutions | p. 316 |
Energy systems: drivers for change | p. 316 |
Vulnerabilities in the energy system | p. 317 |
Threat of climate change | p. 320 |
Greenhouse solutions that do not cost the earth | p. 326 |
A historic opportunity | p. 337 |
Issues identification | p. 342 |
Greening the Built Environment | p. 346 |
Building positive examples | p. 347 |
The significance of greening the building and development industry | p. 350 |
Perceived barriers to change | p. 352 |
Information failures | p. 352 |
Market failures | p. 352 |
Institutional failures | p. 352 |
From pioneers to systemic change: cultural reform | p. 355 |
Information reform | p. 356 |
Market reform | p. 359 |
Institutional reform | p. 360 |
Rating schemes | p. 361 |
Design practice reform | p. 364 |
Design process elements | p. 364 |
Residential buildings | p. 365 |
The future in design approaches | p. 368 |
Summary | p. 370 |
Sustainable Urban Transport | p. 371 |
Economic impacts of transport choices are significant | p. 371 |
Methodology of the Millennium Cities Database | p. 373 |
Characteristics of urban transport systems | p. 373 |
Sustainable transport systems | p. 380 |
The importance of urban form | p. 381 |
Sustainable urban development | p. 382 |
Designing around the mind: understanding behaviour | p. 383 |
Civil society and business | p. 384 |
Water: Nature's Gold | p. 387 |
Key drivers for change | p. 388 |
Rationale for dams in the past | p. 391 |
Creating a robust foundation and framework for water management | p. 396 |
The Council of Australian Governments Agreements on Water Policy | p. 398 |
The COAG communique to develop a National Water Initiative | p. 399 |
A robust separation framework | p. 401 |
Water access entitlements: allocations and use conditions | p. 401 |
Conclusion | p. 404 |
A National Collaborative Approach: The Bigger Picture - Building Resilience | |
Integrated Approaches to Sustainable Consumption and Cleaner Production | p. 407 |
Consumption and low impact affluence | p. 407 |
Patterns of consumption are a global issue | p. 410 |
Policy approaches and action | p. 411 |
Summary of policy approaches for sustainable consumption | p. 412 |
Industry attention and action | p. 417 |
Strategies for the future | p. 418 |
Clarifying the focus for action on consumption | p. 418 |
Developing better indicators | p. 418 |
An alternative conceptual approach for describing systems of production and consumption | p. 421 |
Enhancing the potential of limited, localized actions | p. 425 |
Improving products and services: the logical focus for production and consumption | p. 426 |
The overall strategic goal: leapfrog to new systems of products and services | p. 427 |
Changing Hearts and Minds: The Role of Education | p. 430 |
The need for critical literacies in sustainability | p. 430 |
Sustainable development in schools | p. 432 |
Constructive environmental education | p. 432 |
Adding value not load | p. 433 |
Key role of higher education and the professions | p. 435 |
Harnessing universities' research capacity | p. 437 |
Partnering with professional bodies to build capacity | p. 440 |
The power of individuals | p. 443 |
Achieving Multi-stakeholder Engagement | p. 445 |
What is multi-stakeholder engagement? | p. 445 |
Where does multi-stakeholder engagement fit in? | p. 446 |
Current issues with multi-stakeholder processes | p. 446 |
Looking forward: multi-stakeholder process design | p. 446 |
Engaging the spirit | p. 447 |
Introducing the Pyramid: a versatile process and planning tool for accelerating sustainable development through multi-stakeholder engagement | p. 447 |
What is the Pyramid? | p. 448 |
How the Pyramid process works | p. 451 |
Building a network around a project: The Natural Edge Project | p. 457 |
Notes | p. 462 |
References | p. 491 |
Index | p. 513 |
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