Sustainability E-Book

Dorothea Ernst

• Herausgeber: GABAL Verlag
• Kategorie: Wissenschaft und neue Technologien
• Serie: 30 Minuten
• Sprache: Deutsch
• Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2022

Beschreibung

Nowadays Sustainability is a hot topic. It is therefore all the more surprising that so few people know what Sustainability really means and how it can be implemented. The transformation towards a truly sustainable economic system is the only way to tackle and successfully solve today's global challenges. This book explains clearly and to the point what is meant by sustainable development, how disruptive technologies enable the necessary transformation, how all of us can doubly contribute to Sustainability through personal development & professional impact.

Leseprobe

Dorothea Ernst

30 Minutes

Sustainability

Bibliographic information from the German National LibraryThe German National Library lists this publication in the German National Bibliography. Detailed bibliographic information can be found online at http://dnb.d-nb.de.

ISBN book edition: 978-3-96739-083-4

ISBN epub: 978-3-96740-239-1

Cover design: die imprimatur, Hainburg

Cover concept: Martin Zech Design, Bremen

Translation: Dr. Bettina von Stamm, München

Copyediting: Anja Hilgarth, Herzogenaurach

Author portrait: Silvia Schulze

Typesetting: Zerosoft, Timisoara

Printing: Print on demand, Germany

First published under the title ‘30 Minuten Nachhaltigkeit’ in 2020 by GABAL Verlag, Germany

© 2021 Dr. Dorothea Ernst, Aachen / GABAL Verlag GmbH, Offenbach, Germany

All rights reserved. Reproduction, including in part, is only permitted with the written permission of the author.

www.linkedin.com/in/dfernst/

Know more in 30 minutes!

This book is designed for you to quickly absorb concise and well-founded information. You will be led through the book with the help of a guidance system, allowing you to capture the essentials within your personal time quota (from 10 to 30 minutes).

Short reading time

You can read the entire book in 30 minutes. If you have less time, you can focus on those sections that contain the most relevant information for you.

Key information is printed in grey.

Numerous summaries within the chapters allow a quick cross-reading.

A fast reader at the end of the book summarises all important points.

Contents

Preface

1. The state of the world

Where we come from

The world today

Systems transformation ahead

2. Sustainable development

The roots of sustainability

The UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)

A change in direction through backcasting

3. Sustainable business

Sustainable day-to-day business

Sustainable innovation

Mindfulness in the organisation

4. New knowledge, new tools

Deep data – sensible goals

Big data – informed decisions

The twin path

Nine do’s from lived practice

Fast Reader

About the author

Further reading

Preface

Today is a time of great change. Corona has slowed down the world, system-relevant institutions and global dependencies are now visible. This book, which was written before Corona, helps to show how good life for all can be possible in the long term.

What is sustainability? Everyone has experienced that money that is spent today will no longer be available tomorrow; that the bread I eat in the morning can no longer fill me up in the evening. Good housekeeping is at the core of sustainability. Sustainable action is moderate and oriented towards the well-being of all, today and tomorrow. But what is ‘moderate’ for you? What is ‘well-being of all’? How long does ‘tomorrow’ last?

There are diverse answers to these questions, and they are as diverse as the people who provide them. Nevertheless, there are some anchor points that humanity has agreed upon. The 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) of the United Nations were drawn up through a long international negotiation process. They were published in 2015, to be achieved by 2030.

The Agenda 2030 goals provide politicians, companies and civil society with a common framework for action.

But how to implement these goals in companies? Can a company be profitable and contribute to the sustainable development of humanity at the same time? Is this the role of business, the task of companies at all?

The answer is: yes! Because no other form of organisation brings new ideas into the world faster and more efficiently than a company. Business is the greatest engine of change. And it is already happening. More and more companies are consciously working on the implementation of the UN Sustainable Development Goals. In this book you will learn:

what is meant by sustainable development,

about the role the United Nations 2030 Agenda plays on the path to sustainable development,

how disruptive technologies could support this transformation,

how you can contribute to sustainable development by walking the twin path of personal development and professional effectiveness.

I have been on this journey for more than 20 years. Discover with me how exciting and rewarding it is.

Dr. Dorothea Ernst

1.The state of the world

Every day we are bombarded with a wide range of information about the precarious state of the world: The impact of Corona, climate change, plastic waste in the ocean, refugees and wars are just some of the problems we face. At the same time, new technologies, such as digitisation, robotics, biotechnology and neuroscience, lead to disruptive changes in our work and personal lives. They offer tremendous innovation potential, but the speed of their development can be deeply unsettling.

The more we know, the less we can predict, this is the knowledge paradox we experience. How can I find my way in a time when knowledge is increasing daily? A look at history helps. It helps us to recognise that humanity has an almost inexhaustible level of crowd creativity. Humanity can create amazing changes as soon as common goals are agreed and we align behind the same story, the same narrative.

1.1Where we come from

For a long time, people struggled with three main problems: hunger, war and disease. Over the millennia, a variety of technologies and organisational forms have been developed to deal with these challenges. But only recently new challenges have been added to the scourges of humanity.

UN Millennium Development Goals

1.Eradicate extreme poverty and hunger

2.Achieve universal primary education for all

3.Promote gender equality and empower women

4.Reduce child mortality

5.Improve maternal health

6.Combat HIV/AIDS, malaria and other diseases

7.Ensure environmental sustainability

8.Develop a global partnership for development

Obesity and hunger

Hunger has not been fully eradicated, but one of the successes of the UN Millennium Goals is that hunger in the world has been reduced by 50% since the year 2000. Did you know that today more people worldwide suffer from obesity than from hunger?

Victims of civilization and war

Every year more people die in car accidents than in war. There are still wars, but their nature has changed.

In the past, power and wealth were linked to the possession of material goods such as land and raw materials. In today’s knowledge society, power and wealth are associated with access to non-material goods such as attention, knowledge, data and energy. This led to new ways of warfare such as cyber war and new sources of criminal exploitation such as data theft.

Individual aggression today also shows in different ways: Did you know that the suicide rate among young people in the UK has almost doubled over the past decade due to bullying on social media?

Health care and sickness

Average life expectancy has doubled from around 40 to more than 80 years over the last century. Well-known and practiced hygiene and the development of health systems are the main reasons for this development. But in the same period, new viruses have been brought in from the animal kingdom and biological anomalies habe been detected creating new risks for humanity. In addition, our fast-paced and hectic modern world is leading to an increase in mental health issues such as depression and ADHD. Many suffer from loneliness or a feeling of insignificance.

Technology is changing the world

The main reasons for the impressive progress of Western societies is the triumph of technology and the associated changes in the way humanity organises itself. The economist Nikolai Kondratjev published his observations of the long waves of the economy in a Berlin magazine in 1926.

One of the hallmarks of these Kondratjev cycles is that readily available resources and skills that have found little or no attention so far now enter the general consciousness and suddenly acquire wider significance. They mark boosts of innovation, triggered by certain inventions, which keep changing the whole of society until their innovation potential is exhausted. Alongside the transition to the next cycle, there is always a profound change in society. The Kondratjev cycles are therefore also processes of social reorganisation. Since the beginning of industrialisation there have been five such long waves or cycles, each triggered by groundbreaking inventions or the spread of so-called basic innovations. A sixth wave is already emerging.

1st wave: steam engine, cotton, textile industry

The first wave was triggered by the invention and use of steam engines and marks the beginning of the first industrial revolution and early mechanisation – in Germany around 1780 to 1842 and in England around 1760.

2nd wave: steelmaking, railway, steamship, telegraphy

The second wave began about 60 years later, taking place between 1843 and 1894 during the so-called ‘Gründerzeit’. The technology drivers here were steam shipping and the invention of the Briton Henry Bessemer