From the "Green gap" Report 1996.GLOBAL CONCERNS HAVE BECOME LOCAL, LOCAL CONCERNS ARE NOW GLOBAL: LEARNING AND RESEARCH IN CYBERSPACE. ®
John Brown-Parker and Michele Gaca
Introduction
Increasingly, at the local and the global level, the first step in many everyday learning and research activities begins in cyberspace. The immediacy and global interconnectivity of the Web provides, (whether in nonformal, informal or formal educational contexts), an affordable and accessible electronic communication: a learning and research tool that transcends traditional barriers of time, space and place. Global and local dialogue is enriched, and new learning can be instantly diffused throughout an emerging and diverse array of electronically networked "communities of interest".
As a consequence of this rapid and mass diffusion of information, a new global awareness and consciousness seems to be emerging: that sum of information and opinions shared by globally networked individuals and groups. Access to the unique power, diversity and information rich capacities of Internet based information sources aided by global search engines are allowing new linkages, relationships, trends and patterns to be more readily identified. Conversely, information inconsistencies, incongruence or contradictions also are more easily recognised. This potential for enlightenment and opportunity for learning and researching in cyberspace brings with it however a dark side and a new suite of learning and research problems and issues.
The complexity, paradoxes and new paradigms of a networked world requires new relationships to be developed, interaction protocols established and the security and privacy of transactions managed. To survive effectively in this unfamiliar virtual environment, it is essential to avoid the debilitating trauma of information overload. A critical success factor becomes the development of a repertoire of skills and abilities to help identify the plausible, the credible and the useful, so the mass of information captured in cyberspace can be applied with confidence in later decision making.
Research Interest
For millions around the world, the Internet is now the preferred electronic research platform to undertake an extraordinary diverse range of online investigation and learning. There is a growing interest in investigating the how, the what, the when, the why, the where and the how much of online learning and research. To avoid being overwhelmed by the magnitude of the task, a number of research questions guided this exploratory study:
Where to Start: constructing boundaries in cyberspace
The first challenge in this investigation was to identify an appropriate "Virtual Population" for study.
An preliminary analysis of the top 50 ranked Web sites visited by Australians in 1998 indicated media sites (usrwww.mpx.com.au) ranked first, finance sites ranked second (eg Australian Stock Exchange (ASX), Stockwatch, Trading Room homepages) and company sites third in importance. With the expertise and shared interest of our multidisciplinary team in e-business and finance, e-communication, with a view to sustainable development, we looked further into the second ranked grouping of finance sites. Within the financial sector, the Australian Stock exchange, (ASX) was identified as the most frequently visited site for information in 1997 and 1998.
The frequency of electronic use of the ASX is better understood when it is realised that with the recent rise of stakeholder capitalism in Australia, around 40 percent of Australians now own shares (money.ninmsn.com.au, 1998). The newly deregulated superannuation market is also requiring "the mums and dads" of Australia to become more individually involved in and responsible for the management of over $279 billion in superannuation and fund management schemes (ABS, 1996).
Coinciding with this trend has been the exponential adoption of the Internet for electronic trading. To save on brokerage fees in the e-trading relationship, the "mum and dad" investors are learning new skills and investigative strategies. The growing popularity and explosion of e-based home stockmarket trading is a global phenomenon. This indicates a great deal of informal, home-based research and learning is occurring in order to facilitate prudent and informed investment decision making.
Identifying a homogeneous sample: a "green" virtual community of interest
Within this population of investors trading online, a "virtual community of interest" has emerged: the green investor, who also demands knowledge about the ethical and ecologically sustainability of investment options (Jenner, 1989). The use of digitally based electronic commerce technologies is allowing these investors to obtain instantaneous access to quality, low cost and extensive global investment information networks (Roth, 1997; Knowles, 1997). Green investors use the Internet to help them "plug" the "green gap"; that is, the discrepancy between the type of information they seek, and that provided by corporates, financial institutions and investment professionals.
"Green"
consumers of investment products and services are now recognised as an emerging force in the electronic market place. In the next decade, a new wave of potential electronic investors will intensify this pressure on organisations to provide, both locally and globally, more authentic and transparently accurate information on their Web sites. This next wave, the tiny-tots and teenagers of to-day's T-Generation (Technology Generation) are already sophisticated and confident in the use of Internet based technologies, their preferred communication and information source. Secondly, the T-Generation also bring with them a new environmental awareness and consciousness that has been accepted into their value system (Burbury, 1997, p.26; Dunphy, 1998, p.185; Murphy, 1998, p.48).The continuing convergence of eBusiness and digital technologies will also provide them with a level and sophistication of interactive communication and research tools that can be barely imagined. For example, third generation technologies are already using wireless e-commerce mobile phones as secure transaction and delivery platforms to side step the Web and allow all digital office equipment to ''talk' to one another (Callaghan, 1999,p.52). To this next generation of online investors with a "green orientation", the idea of trawling the Internet will seem odd. Access to specific portals of investment information incorporating sophisticated quantitative analysis facilities will be as mundane and ubiquitous as that of using water or electricity (Grayson, 1998, p.44, Barclays Global Investors, 1999).
Reviewing literature precedents
A literature review conducted indicated little substantive research on the needs of the online investor. Fewer studies could be identified that addressed the educational issues of how home based investors learn or research on the Internet. However the literature did reveal there still is a large gap between the type of information "green" online investors seek and the quality of information supplied by many Australian institutions and investment professionals.
The extent of the "Green Gap" in Business Reporting
The recent Corporate reporting - the green gap report prepared for the Institute of Chartered Accountants in Australia (Rankin, 1996) confirms two major weaknesses in Corporate Environmental Reporting [CER]. First, only 27% of the 114 companies surveyed included a CER in their annual report, yet 67 % of shareholders wanted to know more about the "greenness" of their investments. Second, and of greater concern, was that only 31 % of stockbrokers and financial analysts realised the importance of this information to their clients. The report suggests that investment professionals do not consider environmental concerns relevant to themselves or their clients (Wood, 1996).
Further analysis of data, taken from this survey on Australian environmental reporting (Rankin, 1996, p. 26-28) as shown in the Figure 1, illustrates the extent of the "green gap" between:
Figure 1
. Types of environmental information and their Importance to users From the "Green gap" Report 1996.
This discrepancy between the three main stakeholders gains greater significance when it is realised that over 38.2 % of money invested by Australian's (see Figure 2) is directed towards equities. (
www.aima.org.au)Figure 2. Breakdown of monies
currently invested in the Australian Managed Funds Market
.
Australian Investment Managers Association's (AIMA)
Rankin (1996) and Deegan (1996) suggest that many investment professionals often do not consider environmental concerns relevant to them or their clients. They still cling to the past notion that the environment is an ethical or community stakeholder concern, not a financial issue. These findings are consistent with two recent studies.
In the NOP Research Group survey of environmental attitudes of financial analysts in the City of London, environmental issues were not seen as opportunities. Rather they were seen as a public relations (PR) need to be "seen as green", or re-actively, as a requirement to comply with existing legislation. (Business in the Environment/Extel Financial Ltd, 1994). A later Australian study by Fayers (1998) indicates only 6.49 % of investment professionals provide clients with guidelines on how to factor environmental considerations into the management process; only 14.29 % think they should; and the top three barriers to environmental reporting were identified as "lack of availability of standards", "the absence of an financial assessment framework" and "the scientific uncertainty of environmental problems."
The United States (US), on the other hand, has more severe environmental legislation and greater ethical investment pressure from their community (Bell, 1997). In contrast,,only 25 % of Australian companies currently disclose environmental information in their annual reports (Environmental Accounting Task Force, 1998).
The steady growth of ethical funds in the UK is illustrated in Figure 3 (Sparkes, 1995). It is anticipated that continued pressure will be put on financial analysts and companies to provide more accurate and comprehensive data (Ghobadian, 1995).
Figure 3. Growth of ethical investment funds and trusts in the United Kingdom.
Methodology
Investigation of a convenience sample drawn form the "green investor" population was used to explore what home based informal learning and research strategies are being adopted and assess the quality of information available to them.
1. Assessing the effectiveness of global search methods
A key skill when learning or researching on the Web is to efficiently manipulate electronic data: its electronic capture, storage, analysis, communication and display
. Over a three month period, an expert information specialist searched using the five most popular search engines accessible in Australia. Criteria for evaluating the efficiency and effectiveness of each search engine used category and keyword approaches to provide relevant and timely "green" investment information were employed. (Courtois, 1996; Missingham, 1996; Hock, 1998)
2. Evaluating the efficacy of "green" and "non-green" investment messages on the Web
A panel of financial analysts were asked to select extracts from a range of Web based financial reports that were reflective of five "green" and five "non-green" equity funds which would offer similar returns at an acceptable level of risk. A Q-sort analysis (Dane, 1990) was carried out with a convenience sample of 84 potential or current information literate investors asking them to:
Kendell's W coefficient of concordance (Dane, 1990) was calculated to measure statistical significance of agreement between rankers and a meta-analysis of responses established choice criteria used for investor decision making.
3. Assessing the quality of "green" investment information available on the Web
A global web based literature review was conducted that indicated little substantive research was available on the needs of the online investor. In particular, attention was paid to the quality of "green" information supplied by many Australian institutions and investment professionals. Through structured interviews a small sample of equity analysts, fund managers, brokers and financial planners were asked to identify i) the most important opportunities offered through Internet trading, ii) their present use of the Internet and iii) its perceived weaknesses.
Response of Investment Professionals
From the sample of investment professionals interviewed, it was found that they were very aware of the transformational influences of electronic business enabling technologies in their industry. Their views on "green" issues mirrored the views reported by Rankin, (1996). Interviewed investment professionals discussed the Internet in terms of influencing:
Surprisingly, there appeared a much lower uptake of electronic business and communication technologies than anticipated within the sample of investment professions interviewed.
Web Based Strategies used to Locate, Capture and Store Data for Analysis
Most home based Internet users rely on search engines to find information on the Web, which at best, only covers about a third of available Web information (Giles and Lawrence, 1998 in Horey, 1998, p.45). To efficiently capture relevant investment data a systematic search approach must be adopted. As illustrated in Table I, most Internet search engines allow for a Keyword approach and a Category approach. The Category approach, as shown in Table 2, was found to be a more efficient retrieval tool for investment related information.
Regardless of the search strategies employed, a number of barriers inhibited efficiency of data capture of reliable investment information on the Web. They were:
Table I. Category & Keyword Searches
.
For a Category Search
For a Keyword Search NB. Shaded area highlights the additional steps required to perform a Keyword search |
.
Table 2.
Strengths of different web search strategies or screens.|
|
AltaVisa |
HotBot |
Lycos |
WebWombat |
Yahoo |
||||
|
CATEGORY SEARCH |
ü |
ü |
ü |
n/a |
ü |
||||
|
No. of levels (minimum clicks) & category heading/s at that level |
5 Green & ethical investment |
5 Green & ethical investment |
2 Environlink- Sustainable Business Network |
n/a |
5 Socially Responsible Funds |
||||
|
Data relevance High, Medium, Low |
High |
High |
High |
n/a |
Medium |
||||
|
Minimum search time in hours |
3 |
3 |
1 |
n/a |
8 |
||||
|
KEYWORD SEARCH |
ü |
ü |
ü |
ü |
ü |
||||
|
Search strings & hit rates (matches) (Variations exist between search engines in search structure, and results display.) |
+screen* & +invest* = 319741 +screen* & +invest* & +environment* = 126370 +screen* & +invest* & +environment* +Australia* = 22211 |
+screen* & +invest* +screen* & +invest* & +environment* +screen* & +invest* & +environment* +Australia* Results are not expressed in hit rate (matches). A list is presented. |
screen = 6372 invest = 341 environ = 59 ethical = 965 screen and invest = matchers indeterminable screen and invest & environment = matches indeterminable invest and environ and ethical |
+screen* & +invest* = 1 category match & 97 sites. |
|||||
|
Relevance High, Medium. Low |
Low |
Low |
High |
Medium |
|||||
|
Minimum search time in hours |
5 |
4 |
2 |
2 |
3 |
||||
|
Assessment |
Identical subject categories used but with different subscriber content due to the inherent commercial pull and push of Internet marketing. Category approach most efficient. Keyword approach, when "Australia " added provided hits more related to the "media" than "investment". |
Most successful search engine. Tailored to towards the social sciences. Inclusion of an Environlink with "investment funds" categories allows more efficient searching |
Australian search engine with no category approach available. Excellent for beginners as it assumes all word stems. Provides good information on investment. . |
Category search provides a diverse range of subject paths. However many links led to inappropriate sites. Using Keyword approach, the term "invest" retrieved many inappropriate sites. |
|||||
NB Shaded area denotes additional steps for Keyword search results.
a)
Comparison of the "most" and the "least" preferred Web sitesAs illustrated in Figure 1 the greatest discrepancies were found in the "non green" equity fund
statements, A-E. Except for F, there was a less extreme divergence of preference in the "green"
statements, F-J.
Figure 1:
Comparison of most favoured and least favoured equity fund statements.A- E "non-green" statements, F- J "green" statements.
Feedback from the potential investors surveyed indicated that some key terms and phrases contained in the opening statements of the five "green" and five "non green" equity fund Web based reports favourably or unfavourably influenced decision making. From a meta-analysis of responses a number of choice criteria were identified:
Non green reporting
|
Unfavourable elements |
Choice criteria |
|
jargon, limiting concepts global currency fluctuations limited spread of investment vague & inflexible contrary to short term |
|
Favourable elements |
Choice criteria |
|
global approach long term approach research based spread of investments tax minimisation
|
Green reporting
Analysis of responses to the extracts from Green Equity Fund reports showed no dominant patterns emerged that favourably or unfavourably influenced investment decisions. Three common choice criteria appeared to underpin a level of skepticism towards the Web based messages regarding a Funds' claims about their depth of experience in sustainable investment:
Conclusion
From an educational perspective, this study offers a useful insight into needs of home based learners and researchers in cyberspace: their need for developing a new repertoire of skills and abilities and their need for access to authentic and reliable information. In real time, such informal research activities, often referred to as major informal learning projects, are characterised by synchronous person to person social and intellectual transactions and interactions. In virtual time, which utilises both synchronous and asynchronous communication opportunities to link local and global communities of interest, new and unfamiliar informal learning and research strategies are emerging. The notion is reinforced that informal learning and systematic inquiry is not typified by learning alone or in isolation, and carrying out these activities in cyberspace in no exception.
From a technological perspective, the exponential adoption of global electronic business and communication technologies has allowed information enabled learners and researchers (in this example, "green investors") to obtain instantaneous access to quality, low cost and extensive environmental investment information. This has resulted in new virtual "communities of interest" to emerge. There appears a trend for the traditional use of short term, reactive, and end-of-pipe type measures to be increasingly questioned by these groups of stakeholders who are using the Net as their preferred global learning and research platform.
In economic terms, and in response to locally and globally networked "electronic communities of interest", some industries are moving away from regarding sustainable development as a "soft" ethical and moral issue. This case study identified such a trend in the growing concern about the "green gap" between the type of information investors seek, and that provided by corporates, financial institutions and investment professionals.
Environmentally, there is a momentum for ecological efficiency to be incorporated into business priorities as reflected in a paradigm shift that is redefining indicators for corporate success. Organisations that are committed to corporate sustainability are including in their strategic business plans a more holistic perspective which endeavours to assist shareholders and stakeholders to better understand that good environmental management is also good business. That is, the consequences of corporate policy can only be adequately costed through the environmental accounting and reporting which recognises the interconnectedness of contemporary enablers of change: Social Progress; Environmental Conservation; Economic Growth and Technological Appropriateness.
From what we have "seen" in this exploratory study, it would appear that in general, current practice in providing timely and quality "green" investment information on the Internet is strong in hype and rhetoric, but weak in substance. Home investors goldmining on the Internet and using this new global learning and research tool are becoming more aware that all that glitters in cyberspace is not gold. Like all successful researchers, prudent home investors must learn to use these new Internet learning and research tools appropriately so as to distinguish fools gold from the real thing.
In this context, it is and will become increasingly difficult for environmentally or ethically destructive businesses to go unnoticed or unreported. There will be few places to hide in the virtual world.
Discussion and Implications
Renewing an academic and professional debate
Within the formal learning and research environment of Academe, the buzz words such as "corporate sustainability", "eco-efficiency" and "value reporting" are cascading down the knowledge chain into the jargon of the business community. A new and subtle paradigm shift in business strategy urging investors and investment professionals to adjust their thinking and practice to meet the uncertainties and challenges of a global financial market. For example, The Environmental Accounting Task Force (EATF) (1998) has recently reopened debate on the impact of environmental matters on the accountancy profession with an emphasis on the benefits and costs of environmental performance evaluation, reporting and auditing issues.
Learning new research skills for home-based Internet investing
Internet commerce represents the future of stock market trading, where investors find the latest prices on their home computer screens, and then through a connection to their broker, are able to place an order to buy or sell. For example E*Trade Australia www.etrade.com.au - launched a new online investment service in April 1998. This US discount brokering house only does business over the Internet. Customers need only to "click " to have access to a comprehensive package of tools and information, including real time quotes for Australian stocks; automatic placement and execution of orders on all CHESS (Clearing House Electronic Sub-Register System) eligible securities; charts; information from ASX company announcements; Australian Associated Press (AAP) news feed and Reuters World Wide News; a personalised market page; company profiles and information; current market news and company specific news for Australian and US companies; watch lists and automatic portfolio updates. (E*TRADE, 1998)
The potential growth of home-based online investing is quite staggering. In the US, there are currently over 70 online investment services, and online brokering has captured 3% of total equity turnover (Value Added Online Investing, 1998 ). It is predicted that globally, financial services using electronic commerce will "grow from $US318 million in 1995 to a $US95 billion in 2000" (ASX (1998); Megalogenis (1998); International Data Corporation (1998).
Learning how to look, where to look and what to look for
Researchers on the Net must learn where and what to look for. The Internet now plays a significant role in disseminating ethical investment information,and strategies (
www.austethical.com.au). Many US investment firms by provide links to other pertinent environmental Web sites such as the National Pollution Register, US Environmental Protection Agency (US EPA), US Food and Drug Agency (FDA). They also offer investors tool kits and screens to provide in depth information on green / ethical investment areas. To effectively conduct key word searches on the Web, home-based investors need to keep in touch with the subtle language shifts has been introduced to the jargon of equity analysts, sharebrokers, investment advisors and financial planners. The terms "high investment portfolios" and "high investment returns" have been complemented by new "green" financial terms such as "bio-diversity portfolios" and "high environmental dividend". (Bernbeck, 1996)Researchers on the Net must learn how to efficiently use new research tools. The key to success in making ethically responsible investment choices resides in the home based investor's ability to differentiate between good and poor corporate environmental performers alongside their ability to analyse others aspect of financial risk. To carry out their investigation effectively and make ecologically prudent investment decisions, the home-based investor must quickly gain competence in the downloading and use of electronic tools such as screens and rating systems. These are essential to assist in deciphering information gathered and establishing a filter or measurement criteria for comparative analysis of ethical or socially responsible investment (Sparkes, 1995; Rake, 1998).
From both an efficiency and strategic perspective, home-based Internet investors, who are part of a globally networked community of interest, need to gain competence in a new range of research skills when operating in cyberspace. While it is assumed that this is mainly accomplished through informal self directed learning in the home, there seems little evidence that the where, the when, the what, the how and the how much of such global learning has been systematically investigated.
Using Web watchdogs to help assess the quality of data
At both the local and global levels the "green" Internet investor now has access to environmental watchdog sites. In the US, online pollution registers and scorecards can be accessed by investors and analysts alike to discover the polluters in the local community.
Environment Australia and the State Environmental Protection Authorities (EPA's) have chosen the Internet as a communication platform through which they can deliver information to the community and thereby influence the community's environmental decision making. For example Environment Australia Online (www.erin.gov.au) host relational databases which integrate information from a number of environmental programs around Australia. Online learners or researchers can access information about hazardous wastes, the National Pollution Inventory (NPI), the Greenhouse Gas Inventory, water discharge permits and more. This site serves as a starting place for investors who wish to research a facility or location.
Learning to effectively track and measure the adequacy of data available from the Web
Tracking corporate environmental performance is emerging from a peripheral emotional and moral issue to one of greater importance in financial reporting and investment decision making. "The four categories of environmental performance - material use, energy consumption, non-product output and pollutant releases - help firms, reach beyond the traditional focus on compliance, turning the spotlight on resource efficiency, pollution prevention and product stewardship." (Ditz, 1997, p. 35)
With cost effective access to sophisticated information technologies that capture, integrate and analyse vast arrays of complex data, ISO 14000 the new series of international standards for Environmental Management and Europe's Eco-Management and Audit Scheme (EMAS) are stimulating interest in corporate environmental management auditing, reporting, certification and third party verification. There is however some scepticism that these information based strategies for public accountability, transparency and comparability tend to dilute compliance to minimum global standards. Hawken (1996) and Henderson (1998) suggests some 90% of global industrial companies lobby to capture control of environmental standards in order to dilute, or at least, keep them at their current regulatory levels.
Despite this suspicion and the lack of acceptance of an international framework for measuring and reporting environmental performance there seems a growing consensus (Wright & Keegan cited in 'Value reporting', 1997; Cornell, 1998; Phillips, 1998) that there are fundamental systemic deficiencies with out dated reporting models which rely on short term measures of value creation. Building this concept of "value creation", Henderson (1998) offers a compelling argument that a subtle disintermediation has occurred in what government and financial institutions have chosen to view as valuable in their gross national product (GNP) driven growth policies. She sees the devaluation of employment, caring work, parents, social services and safety nets as the expense of over valuing financial systems themselves. For example - the paper asset shuffling on today's deregulated and electronic global financial casino.
Without some global measurement standards for financial environmental reporting on the Web, learners and researchers are continually confronted with "quick and dirty" corporate response in the form of persuasive "greenwashed" Web sites. Presently "greenwashed" sites range from warm glow statements, about printing the report on recycled paper, to public announcements of donations towards "save the whales" to some substantive reporting of ecologically sound and socially responsible processes and practices that are integrated as part of the organisation's business strategy.
Emergence of new virtual communities of interest: electronically and globally enabled learners and researchers
During the last few frenetic decades of this millennium there has been an unexpected alignment of social, economic, technological and environmental drivers and enablers that have had some very observable but unintended and unanticipated global consequences. Advanced electronic information technology break throughs have, along with the deregulation of capital markets, facilitated globalisation. For the learner and researcher in cyberspace, relatively unrestricted electronic diffusion of information allows them to transcend national and geographic boundaries. A new reality, the new dimension of cyberspace, confronts the global learner and researcher with unfamiliar paradigms of time, space, place, relationships and transactions.
Information rich, electronic images and explanations continuously challenge the comfortable worldviews, values, norms and perceived relationships and interconnectedness of the past. Previously esoteric global issues are being concreted at the local and individual level. For example the visual impact of graphics showing extreme fluctuations in weather patterns during Web based discussions reinforce understanding of the consequences of global warming. Locally and regionally, the concept of social progress becomes very real through comparisons of the number of family or friends touched by downsizing, retrenchment or the rising suicide rate of alienated youth.
In everyday living the financial investigations and projects undertaken also continually pose questions of ethics, competitive advantage and compatibility - whether deciding to trade off economic development with cultural heritage concerns or simply choosing what brand of tomatoes to buy, imported or local. In short, global issues have become local, and local concerns can be, and are being seen as part of larger national and global issues.
Appendix: Technology and Sustainable Development
A direct but quite unanticipated outcome of this exploratory study resulted in a re-examination of some of our basic assumptions underpinning the role of technology and notions of sustainable development. We hope to further explore these proposed models in later papers.
The reality and the rhetoric of sustainable development
The emerging public awareness of the linkages between the economic, environmental, social and technological systems has not been lost on the corporate world. The notion of "balanced" or "sustainable" development is being embraced by those who wish to be winners in the increasingly competitive business environment of the next century. For example, when introducing the BHP 1998 environmental report, the new managing director warned that the company's environmental performance needed improving. He said that "markets today are enabling cleaner products, regulatory authorities are raising their minimum standards, and the environmental expectations of the global community are rising." (Lunn, 1998, p. 54). In contrast, Western Mining Corporation (WMC) seems to have embraced the "triple bottom line" approach of Elkington (1998). This very progressive Australian resource company promotes a set of ethics and values, which serve as their three pillars of sustainable development:
This industry based model, as with many "sustainable development" approaches tends to omit two important factors. First, a fundamental paradigm shift has occurred that underpins contemporary emphasis on future oriented "corporate sustainability" or "sustainable development". That is, the enabling IT technologies of e-commerce have changed how, when and where we do business. Money and information have become equivalent, time has become as important as money, electronic trading networks use the ubiquitous global Internet backbone allowing cashless or "barter" global trading, transaction costs are minimal and tax collection regulation is in its infancy.
Patterson (1998) identifies the key drivers of the knowledge based industries of the next century:
Second, many "development" scholars fail to adequately acknowledge that over time, human groups may move through cycles of underdevelopment, sustainable or balanced development, overdevelopment, back to sustainable development. The rate of change is not static but varies from periods of rapid change to periods when little to no change seems apparent. (Axinn, 1978)
A "Four Pillars" Model for Sustainable Development
In this period of rapid and turbulent change the following two models are offered as the starting point for discussion. The first model, Figure A, is based on the World Business Council for Sustainable Development (WBCSD, 1997) with the addition of "technological appropriateness" as an essential foundation for management of sustainable development in the electronic age.
Figure A. Adaptation of WBCSD's pillars of sustainable
A consequence model for the development cycle
The second model attempts to illustrate the more systemic, dynamic and iterative reciprocity between the drivers and enablers of change on the four pillars of sustainable development and resultant equilibrium or disequilibrium in the development cycle. It is agued the consequences of an inability to integrate the four pillars of sustainable development has lead to an over development of the global financial system that is showing signs of disequilibrium.
Past corporate and financial reporting has tended to view corporate environmental spending as a liability. Today the positive connections between environmental (a driver of change) and financial performance (an enabler of change) are being more widely discussed and recognised. Organisations now use sophisticated integrated information systems, which are now possible through the availability of electronic commerce enabling technologies, to measure the complex interconnectiveness of variables needed to calculate useful financial indicators of environmental performance. This allows financial reporting to go beyond mere compliance. This de-emphasises present focus on end-of-pipe topics such as emission reductions, which have been used as traditional financial reporting indicators.
As shown in Figure B, electronic business and communication technologies have become not only important enabling tools to capture, measure, analyse and manage data, but also become part of the drivers of and momentum for change.
Development is seen in terms of short, medium and long term consequences that are either
1. Intended and anticipated,
2. Intended and unanticipated,
3. Unintended and anticipated or
4. Unintended and unanticipated.
The four interconnected systems that must considered in development planning include
Economic Growth - eg. Impact on corporate power, e-commerce, shift of global markets.
Technological Appropriateness - eg. Impact of information super highway, Internet, PC power, re-engineering of business systems;
Social Progress - eg. Impact on breakdown community / nation state, information rich / poor, local v global tension, democratisation;
Environmental Conservation - eg. Impact of global warming, ozone depletion, soil erosion.
Figure B. A Consequence Model of Sustainable Development
Drivers and enablers of change
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