Felix Dodds comments on sustainable development, coffee & life

By Jacques Prescott, sustainability consultant and associate professor, Chair in eco-advising, Université du Québec à Chicoutimi, Canada. A referenced version of this article is available here: https://www.globalresearch.ca/finance-and-business-enemies-of-sustainable-development/5623325 The economy is seen by sustainable development theorists as a tool, a means to achieve sustainability. Although all UN Member States have adopted in 2015 twenty global sustainable development goals by 2030 "to ensure peace and prosperity for people and the planet",  funding for the actions needed to achieve these goals is slow to materialize. Yet financial resources have never been so abundant in the global economic system. The priorities of the neo-liberal economy centered on the enrichment of a privileged few are in fact contrary to the collective well-being. The main economic actors turn a blind eye to the tragic socio-environmental effects of their practices and act as enemies of ...

Allen L. White is Vice President and Senior Fellow, Tellus Institute; Co-Founder and former CEO of the Global Reporting Initiative;, Co-founder of Corporation 20/20; and Founder of the Global Initiative for Sustainability Ratings.   The first weeks of the Trump presidency have raised profound anxieties among government leaders and citizens alike. A steady stream of ill-prepared executive orders, unnerving tweets and unsettling phone calls have left allies and adversaries alike confused about Mr. Trump’s intentions.  In a matter of days, his bellicose tone has raised serious threats of confrontation with China and Iran, alienated Australia, and rattled relations with Mexico and European allies. Meanwhile, the institutional foundations of post- War stability—e.g. NATO, World Trade Organization, United Nations— face a U.S. hostile to the very notion of international rules of conduct. Disruption for disruption’s sake seems to be the order of the day. And while “America Fi...

Guest blog by Mike Barry the Director of Sustainable Business (Plan A) at Marks and Spencer Republished from the Institute of Business Ethics Congratulations Institute of Business Ethics (IBE) on reaching 30. Born at the time of the City of London’s ‘Big Bang’ and the appearance of the phrase ‘greed is good’ IBE has played an important role in holding a mirror up to the face of business and asking ‘is that how you want to be known’? As we celebrate this anniversary though we all need to reflect on whether we are doing enough to embrace ethics across the business world. Ever since the global financial crash of 2008 and the long, hard road of austerity began, more and more questions have been asked about the behaviour of companies and whether the totality of their efforts, globalisation, is working for the few or the many. Questions about offshore tax havens, CEO pay, pension provision, pollution, corruption, privacy and modern day slavery have all been thrown at ind...