Читать книгу Patty's Industrial Hygiene, Program Management and Specialty Areas of Practice - Группа авторов - Страница 96

The rapid growth of the industrial economies throughout much of the developed world led to significant environmental problems and degradation which became widely recognized in the late 1950s in the United States and in other countries. This included air pollution, solid and hazardous waste issues, and water pollution of various forms. Injuries and illnesses were also increasing being recognized as a societal problem as industry became a major employer with an accompanying increase in the use of new chemicals. In the United States (US), this realization and significant public pressure lead to the creation of a number of new governmental agencies in the 1970s. This included the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA). With these new Agencies, there were a host of new policies and regulations which further helped to define the “problem.” Meanwhile, population growth and the ability of the planet to support that growth also became a point of discussion in Europe, the United States, and other parts of the world.

About this time, a group of industrial experts and scientists that were concerned with the social and ecological impacts of development formed a group called the Club of Rome (it was started by the Italian Aurelio Peccei and their first meeting was held in Rome). Ironically, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) under Jay Forrester developed their first and very highly successful report, Limits to Growth (1). From the introduction to this 1972 publication, the authors state their overall conclusions as follows:

Our conclusions are as follows:

1 If the present growth trends in world population, industrialization, pollution, food production, and resource depletion continue unchanged, the limits to growth on this planet will be reached sometime within the next 100 years. The most probable result will be a rather sudden and uncontrollable decline in both population and industrial capacity.

2 It is possible to alter these growth trends and to establish a condition of ecological and economic stability that is sustainable (italics added) far into the future. The state of global equilibrium could be designed so that the basic material needs of each person on earth are satisfied and each person has an equal opportunity to realize his individual human potential.

3 If the world's people decide to strive for this second outcome rather than the first, the sooner they begin working to attain it, the greater will be their chances of success (2).

This concept of sustainability was further defined by the United Nations in their well‐referenced March, 1987 report titled, Our Common Future (3). This report was written by the World Commission on Environment and Development for the United Nations (UN) which was chaired by Gro Harlem Brundtland and is often referred to as the Brundtland report. The most often quoted part of that report is:

Humanity has the ability to make development sustainable to ensure that it meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs (4).

This statement from the report is often quoted in a simpler fashion to state, “Development that meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs.” This has been used as one of the most common definitions of sustainability.

These activities and others spurred a number of nongovernmental not‐for‐profit organizations that were interested in participating in the sustainability movement. One of these, an organization called the Coalition for Environmentally Responsible Economies (CERES), was formed in Boston in 1989. This organization was founded by Joan Bavaria, an asset manager, who teamed with a number of environmentalists to develop and promote ten principles for public companies:

1 Protection of the biosphere

2 Sustainable use of natural resources

3 Reduction and disposal of wastes

4 Energy conservation

5 Risk reduction

6 Safe products and services

7 Environmental restoration

8 Informing the public

9 Management commitment

10 Audits and reports.

While a relatively small organization, CERES has had a major influence on encouraging companies to adopt and report on their implementation of the CERES principles. Most importantly, their push for public reporting led to the formation of the Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) in 1997 which we will discuss in more detail later.

The next major milestone for sustainability on a global scale was the first UN Conference on Environment and Development (UNCED) held in Rio de Janeiro in 1992 (commonly called the RIO conference). At the conference, a program recognizing the right of nations to pursue social and economic progress was developed. It was called Agenda 21. Agenda 21 specifically spelled out the “…the responsibility of adopting a model of sustainable development” (5). Stated more simply, Agenda 21 promoted economic and social development but done in an environmentally sustainable way.

In the summer of 2000, the United Nations published their Global Compact. The Global Compact was another CSR effort by the United Nations based on asking companies (and other organizations such as cities) to pledge to follow their 10 principles (6). Like the CERES principles, these were voluntary. The Global Compact principles are:

Human Rights

 Principle 1: Support and respect the protection of internationally proclaimed human rights; and

 Principle 2: Make sure that they are not complicit in human rights abuses.

Labor Standards

 Principle 3: the freedom of association and the effective recognition of the right to collective bargaining;

 Principle 4: the elimination of all forms of forced and compulsory labor;

 Principle 5: the effective abolition of child labor; and

 Principle 6: the elimination of discrimination in employment and occupation.

Environment

 Principle 7: support a precautionary approach to environmental challenges;

 Principle 8: undertake initiatives to promote environmental responsibility; and

 Principle 9: encourage the development and diffusion of environmentally friendly technologies.

Anti‐Corruption

 Principle 10: Businesses should work against corruption in all its forms, including extortion and bribery.

In August of 2002, The World Summit on Sustainable Development (WSSD also call RIO+10) was held in Johannesburg, South Africa (7). This was the next major global event for sustainability. This included the second version of the public reporting recommendations from the GRI. From this conference, the concept of the three pillars of sustainability formally emerged. Quoting from just paragraph 5 of the UN Document:

Accordingly, we assume a collective responsibility to advance and strengthen the interdependent and mutually reinforcing pillars of sustainable development ‐ economic development, social development and environmental protection ‐ at the local, national, regional and global levels (8).

FIGURE 1 Three‐legged stool of sustainability.

This promoted the concept of the three‐legged stool of sustainability (Figure 1). While unclear as to the actual origins of this metaphor, it has been used since the very early 1940s to describe three interrelated elements (used to describe social security in the USA). The concept is that each leg is of equal value to the stability of the stool. In our case, this is environmental (protection), social (development), and economic (development). In CSR, this is often stated as People, Planet, and Profits, or the “Triple Bottom Line” and is shown in Figure 2 as three interconnected circles.

There have been additional UN‐sponsored conferences, which grew in importance and attendance as the recognition of sustainability grew. This including the RIO+20 conference held again in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil in June of 2012. This meeting had more than 40 000 attendees from national and local governments, international organizations, businesses, and civil society, as well as more than 50 heads of state and close to 500 ministers according to the UN. From this meeting, the Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC) of the General Assembly (of the UN) and others have developed the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, adopted by Heads of State and Governments in September 2015 and their pledge to issue reports on progress (9). The last UN report issued was the 2016 Global Sustainability Report with the next report due in 2019.

FIGURE 2 CSR triple bottom line.