National Perspectives
(Un)Sustainable Reinforcing Loops in a Remote Island Community in Queensland, Australia: Opportunities for Local, Community-Based Solutions View Digital Media
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session Tony Heynen
The sustainability issues at Mornington Island, a remote community in Queensland, Australia, are in many ways of microcosm of the planet as a whole. Here, an unsustainable, one-way supply chain means that resources are transported to the island and consumed, with waste never leaving. In particular, the energy needs of the island are supplied via fossil fuel generators, with fuel barged in from the mainland at high financial and environmental cost – resulting in low levels of energy resilience, security and sustainability. Some practices seem entrenched, which leads to the question: What does a sustainable future look like for Mornington Island, and how might this be achieved? The interconnectedness of sustainability, livelihoods and governance is explored, to begin to answer this question. Through field observations and their interpretation in causal loop diagrams, the reinforcing loops are identified that link poor housing design, energy poverty, social and health issues, and a lack of community trust. In doing so, a number of inputs into the system are identified that could be examined further by community and government to promote increased sustainability and resilience. Local, community-based models are proposed that may play an important role in solving global environmental problems.
Benefit Corporations Leveraging Sustainability: The Case of Forest-based Bioeconomy Enterprise in Brazilian Amazon View Digital Media
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session Miriam Borchardt
Organizations that obtain B certification are known as B Corps (Benefit Corporations). B Corp certification, established by B Lab and aligned with the Sustainable Development Goals, is used by organizations to validate their efforts towards these goals. This study analyzed the business model of a B Corp and how it has been changed to leverage environmental and social sustainability. This study considers the case of the largest enterprise in Latin America that produces babassu coconut-activated carbon and bioproducts for industrial use. Among the indigenous people, more than 300,000 women live off the babassu coconut. This study considers perspectives from internal and external stakeholders to understand the business structure and sustainability practices of the studied enterprise. The main findings indicate that: the B Corp certification is the result of business model alignment for more than 30 years; the technological innovations to the circular economy contributed to rethinking the marketing positioning and, at the same time, amplified the social sustainability strategies; the enterprise´s value proposition includes social and environmental aspects behind the economic issues; and local communities changed their role from land invaders collecting material from the forest to authorized members of the coconut supply chain entering farms for collection. The results reinforce that organizations may positively impact the environment and society while obtaining a competitive advantage.
