The Three Dimensions of Sustainability Column: Economic Sustainability

Economic Sustainability

Our society has experienced rapid changes in just the past century. Since 1950, the population has more than doubled, global consumption of water has more than tripled, and the use of fossil fuels has quadrupled (Robertson, 2021). The driver of all of this change is economic; namely, the economic growth model that has been core to human economic activity since World War II. This model is linear with resources going in and waste coming out, but this economic system has consumed resources faster than can be replenished and released waste into the environment much faster than the natural system can process. Several ecological economists and other academics have recognized the flaws in the current economic model as not only bad but perhaps physically impossible to maintain (Daly and Farley, 2003).

Economic sustainability generally seeks to responsibly manage the planet’s finite resources in a way that is mutually beneficial to society and the earth system. It acts as the capital connection between the social and environmental pillars of sustainability.  The Oslo Symposium in 1995 defined sustainable consumption and production as:

“The use of goods and services that respond to basic needs and bring a better quality of life, while minimizing the use of natural resources, toxic materials, and emissions of waste and pollutants over the life cycle, so as not to jeopardize the needs of future generations.”

It’s only relatively recently that we have come to recognize the real limitations of our consumption and explored economic alternatives. Therefore, sustainable economic research is new in relation to social or environmental sustainability. It’s often the least understood dimension and most abstract in terms of solutions or action. That is why we have chosen a long-time ecological economist and University of Mississippi professor, Ms. Sharon Hayes to help us contextualize economic sustainability.

Professor Hayes is a full-time online instructor at the University of Mississippi since 2018. She has expertise in environmentally sustainable business, policy, and management with the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), the Dole Food Company, Inc., and the White House Council on Environmental Quality. With this background, we knew Professor Hayes would be the perfect person to ask a few questions about sustainability and the economy.

We first discussed her background and her familiarity with sustainability. She highlighted three work experiences that shaped her understanding of sustainability. First, she described her 23 years working with the EPA and said that her work with the Pollution Prevention Act of 1990 was her first introduction to the notion of sustainability. She explained that this act “really introduced the concept of reducing waste at the source and not generating any residuals at all if you can help it.” Professor Hayes also explained that it wasn’t until the early to mid-2000s that the EPA explicitly decided to “go green” and formed a committee that she sat on to start working towards responsible consumption.

Next, she was the director of Global Social Responsibilities and Environmental Affairs with the Dole Food Company. She described her work there as the perfect integration of all three aspects of sustainability; working to improve the social and environmental aspects of Dole while balancing the economic demands. And last, she discussed two classes she has taught on ecological economics and specifically sustainable economics at Dominican University. It was there that she wrote an article titled “Accounting for Natural Resources and Environmental Sustainability: Linking Ecosystem Services to Human Well-Being,” published in 2010 by Environmental Science and Technology. In sum, she is extremely familiar with sustainability work. Fascinated by her background I had to know how she got started in all of this, she states:

“I was just a champion for the underdog. I actually first got into womens rights and I taught at the University of Maryland when I was getting my graduate degree. I taught the economic problems of women and the economics of poverty and discrimination, and then when I was doing my dissertation, environmental issues interested me more and I kind of got pulled toward that and that was my field.”

She explained that before she was introduced to ecological economics, during her dissertation research she constantly was looking for ways to “draw the natural world into what’s called neoclassical economics, which believes that there are no limits to growth. Ecological economics and sustainability both recognize that the planet is limited.”

With her vast experience in the public and private sector, Ms. Hayes explained that her view of sustainability has grown and it has become more obvious that “the economics, the social, and the environment are all intertwined.” She also learned that we have to give people a chance, “most of the people that worked in the organization [Dole] were just people, just like us, good people. They wanted to do the right thing, they just didn’t know what the right thing was.” It was her job to show Dole what the right thing was. She explained that showing social and environmental benefits of change was simple, but the economic side…” you know all these things had to pass the bottom line.” She had to find ways to quantify the benefits of lowering insecticide use, implementing better child labor laws, or improving working conditions. This is one of the primary topics discussed in subjects like environmental economics: How do we calculate the true costs? Professor Hayes explains that economic sustainability requires “benefits to be described as comprehensively and as completely as they can be, and they are described in quantitative terms.” She describes economic sustainability as: “Making sure all the benefits are described qualitatively, if not quantitatively and described personally, locally, community-wide, statewide, nationally and internationally.”

Throughout the interview, Professor Hayes described benefits as both the solution and the biggest challenge to economic sustainability. In her 2010 article, she attempts to take a stab at this challenge by providing a “relatively easy and cost-free way to measure environmental benefits.” Solving this issue means helping companies meet their bottom line AND raise the standard of living in both an environmentally and economically sustainable way. Not a simple task for anyone. Ms. Hayes did provide one example of how environmental benefits can become easier to quantify, “Actually, in Europe, the better Dole got environmentally, the more revenues went up there. And so, there were grocery stores that would buy Dule products just because we were working on environmental and social stuff.” While this is just an anecdotal example, it is important to remember that each of us has buying power that can be used to create the market we would like to see.

In conclusion, we asked Professor Hayes what we can do to create a more sustainable campus economy and she first and foremost explained, “I have no contacts with other folks in the university that teach environmental issues. I would like to see some interactions, you know. I have my own thoughts, I have no idea what anyone else’s are.” She suggested creating a committee/interest group of students or faculty to discuss and promote environmental research, policies, etc. Sustainability is a diverse topic and people from every field have to work together to come up with sustainable progress. If you’ve felt the same way Ms. Hayes has,  please contact our office with any questions, suggestions, or concerns and we’ll be happy to help get you connected.

About The Three Dimensions of Sustainability Column

Sustainability made its grand entrance into American culture alongside the environmental movement in the 1960s and 1970s. In the past 20 years, we have seen a considerable uptick in publications on ‘sustainability’ (Fig. 1) and it has rapidly transformed into distinct fields of study (i.e. Sustainability Science & Sustainable Development). Within its brief 50 years of study sustainability’s meaning has been highly scrutinized, redefined, and refined.

Sustainability in the broadest sense means the ability of something to maintain or “sustain” itself over time. Academically, its precise definition has varied from person to person, field to field, but by and large, all definitions include three distinct “dimensions”: social, economic, and environmental. Some academics call these dimensions the three pillars, three components, or three aspects and make attempts to diagram this broad topic (Fig. 2). When attempting to define sustainability academics have found themselves teetering back and forth between vagueness and incomprehensibility. It’s no wonder people get confused!

It is important to have a strong understanding of sustainability in order to make meaningful progress towards it. Without fully understanding what sustainability is and is not, we run the risk of trivialization and manipulation by those who have something to gain from its misunderstanding. I am sure we all can recall a company that has used sustainability buzz words to grab our attention while they stand behind their Green Washed curtain perpetuating the unsustainable status quo. This is why for the Spring 2022 semester, the Office of Sustainability will be tackling the meaning behind the three dimensions of sustainability. We will review the key points of each dimension as well as interview professors on campus that we believe will help contextualize each dimension of sustainability. We hope to leave you with resources to learn more, campus-specific examples of each dimension, and actions you can take to work toward sustainability.

Our office defines sustainability as:

A multi-disciplinary, problem-solving approach to creating a social system that meets the needs of the present generation without compromising the needs of future generations or the needs of the ecological system in which huamsn exist.

By fostering education that encourages reponsible and equitable management of our envrionmental, social and economic resources, the sustainability framework challenges our university to consider the interdependent nature of our lives, the natural environment, our communities and the economy and especially the improvement of these relationships.

Key Terms:

1. Sustainable Development-development that meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs (Robertson, 2021)
2. Sustainability Science-a field of study devoted to tackling the challenges of sustainable development in the transition toward sustainability. This field is interdisciplinary, defined by the problems it addresses rather than by the disciplines it employs. (Kates, 2010)

Resources & Recommended Reading:

Kates, Robert W., ed. Readings in Sustainability Science and Technology. CID Working Paper No. 213. Center for International Development, Harvard University, December 2010.

Robertson, Margaret. Sustainability Principles and Practice Third Edition. Routledge, Abingdon, OX & Routledge, New York, NY. 2021