Abstract
In his latest book John Elkington has challenged us to stake out our position on American-style capitalism and the role it plays in how we think about sustainability into the future. Elkington has a good deal to say about its place and how it might be transformed to what he calls “regenerative capitalism.” He argues that we’ll have to go way beyond the rather tame notion that sustainability is simply reducing the amount of harm we are doing to the environment. Confronted with this most students in our business undergraduate classes reply “yes, but…” The costs are too high, they say, the disadvantages too great, the path too uncharted. Moving incrementally, with no wholesale paradigm shifts, no radical moves that might upset the markets, is the rational course. Yes, business should change, but not too much, too fast. The challenge, then becomes one of wedding science to vision, the practical to the “impossibly possible.” The future is scary to most of them, and the cognitive dissonance great between what they hope for and what they come to learn about climate change. In this workshop we examine the role moral and behavioral psychologies might play in helping students overcome denial. paralysis, and despair as they confront a world where “security” - financial and environmental - is very much called into question.
Presenters
Michael De WildeDirector, Koeze Business Ethics Initiative; Professor, Management, Grand Valley State University, Michigan, United States
Details
Presentation Type
Theme
Education, Assessment and Policy
KEYWORDS
Education; Sustainability; Classrooms; Moral Psychology; Regenerative Capitalism
