A System Perspective on Sustainability

In view of the increasing public awareness for sustainability issues, insufficient or failed corporate sustainability-measures bear a serious risk of backfiring on the corporations, for example in form of increased Greenwashing accusations, social costs or environmental risks. This book aims to discuss the potential of a systems perspective (systems thinking, systems science) to improve the success of corporate sustainability measures. The book argues that measures of corporate sustainability often fall short, not primarily through individual failures of corporations, but rather due to unsustainable systemic structures arising from the interaction between a corporation and its shareholders and driven by dynamics unfolding in the process. The pitfall of these structures is that they remain undetected due to a lack of a systems perspective and run the risk of backfiring on the corporation itself. These structures constitute Sustainability Traps: Reoccurring dynamic patterns of failed sustainability measures that backfire on corporations. The book aims to discuss why and how a systems perspective (systems thinking) as an organizational learning discipline, can be used to address Sustainability Traps and thus to improve success of corporate sustainability measures.