Sustainable business
Outcome: New Zealand industries and organisations have increased ability to develop within environmental limits and meet market and community requirements
Rationale
To achieve sustainable economic development, New Zealand must work within environmental limits and be responsive to the needs of local communities (licence to operate), the cultural context of Māori world views, and commercial markets (licence to sell and being competitive). These challenges are increasingly complex with no ‘right answer’ for resolving high–risk and polarised viewpoints. They bring together the community, the public sector as regulators and policymakers, the private sector as the economic engine, and the science sector as the provider of trusted evidence and innovation on which policies, strategies and solutions may be built.
Research is needed to better understand the factors required to resolve complex environmental issues, adapt to global change, and reduce vulnerability to resource scarcity. Solutions need to integrate economic, social, cultural and environmental dimensions; and they may be applied within communities, marketplaces, governance structures or individual organisations.
Our capability and collaborations have developed over the last decade in response to the changing role of science in society, and the growing interests of society in the global issues of climate change, food security and competition for natural resources and biodiversity loss.
Impacts
- Approaches to resolving complex environmental issues are understood, and opportunities recognised for adapting to global change and reducing vulnerability to resource scarcity.
- Integrated economic, social, cultural and environmental initiatives for business and industry are effective in maintaining or enhancing their international competitiveness, market access and social licence to operate.
Core Expertise
- Strategic foresight thinking in government and business
- Sustainability as a factor in business competitiveness
- Managing wildlife vectors of human and livestock diseases
- Biocontrol of productive–sector weeds
- Integrating economy, society, culture and environment in policymaking
- Mātauranga Māori in Māori business development
- Resilience, adaptiveness and eco–innovation in communities and infrastructure
- Strategies for social and organisational adaptation to climate change