Companies push the limits of sustainability

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A new animal welfare label has been the cause of debate. Recently the Danish retailer Coop decided to challenge a proposed government label by launching its own, with even higher standards. The researchers behind the conference at CBS say this is just one example of how the debate on sustainability has shifted.

“Previously, governments pushed companies to get them to act sustainably. But this is an illustration of how things also appear to be moving in the other direction,” explains Mette Morsing, professor at the Department of Intercultural Communication and Management at CBS, founder of the CBS Centre for CSR and current academic co-director of CBS Sustainability Platform. Morsing is also one of the chairs of the “International Conference on Business, Policy and Sustainability”, which will take place at CBS from 16 – 17 June. It is co-hosted by the CBS Sustainability Platform and Velux Professor of Corporate Sustainability and the conference sponsors include: New Carlsberg Foundation, the Danish Society for Education and Business (DSEB), the Danish Ministry of Higher Education and Science, Governing Responsible Business (WCRE) and VELUX FONDEN.
 
Morsing is chairing the conference jointly with Professor Stefano Ponte, CBS, and VELUX Professor Jeremy Moon, CBS. Moon has an idea as to why companies are changing their practices.
 
“Companies see opportunities to enter new markets if they are able to prove that they sell, for example, t-shirts, fish or pork that lives up to the standards of specific consumer groups. Consumers often belong to a niche. In England, big supermarkets now only sell fairtrade bananas, for instance,” explains Moon.
 
The conference brings together a number of high profile scholars and opinion makers, e.g. Connie Hedegaard, the chair of KR Foundation and formerly the European Commissioner for Climate Action in the European Commission; Professor R. Edward Freeman, University of Virginia; and Jonas Haertle, head of the UN Principles for Responsible Management Education secretariat. The conference description states that sustainability is increasingly a complex, global challenge for business and industry, politicians, universities and civil society as they are unable to solve what’s going on alone. The challenges encompass environmental issues such as climate change, increasing CO2 emissions, energy consumption and also social challenges such as poverty, health and working conditions. The organisers are convinced that the researchers and business and industry participating in the conference need to establish the joint efforts that are required.
 
“A conference on sustainability can be directed at business and industry, function on a policy level aimed at legislation or concern how education can help solve the problem. If, however, you look at the significance of education with regard to sustainability and fail to examine how the boss thinks, then an ingredient is missing. The conference at CBS has it all,” concludes Moon.
 
Sign up for the conference and see a more detailed programme
 
Please contact Mette Morsing, Jeremy Moon or the fellow chair, Academic Co-Director of the CBS Sustainability Platform, Stefano Ponte if you have any questions.