title: Corporate reports on sustainability and sustainable development: ‘We Have Arrived’

authors: Ihlen, Øyvind

subjects: communication

abstract: This paper analyses how the world's largest corporations communicate about sustainability and sustainable development in their non-financial reports. It investigates the concept use, definitions and attempts at operationalization, and the rationales that corporations give to engage with them. It is concluded that the corporations typically opt to treat sustainability and sustainable development as given and unproblematic instead of addressing the fundamental problems of today's practice or the dilemmas of the concepts. The most striking finding, however, is that so many of the corporations no longer argue that they are on a ‘journey’ towards sustainability, but that they have already integrated sustainability principles and that they have worked like this for years. Such arguments arguably inhibit the change in business models that many commentators call for.

text: Corporate reports on sustainability and sustainable development: ‘We Have Arrived’ This paper analyses how the world's largest corporations communicate about sustainability and sustainable development in their non-financial reports. It investigates the concept use, definitions and attempts at operationalization, and the rationales that corporations give to engage with them. It is concluded that the corporations typically opt to treat sustainability and sustainable development as given and unproblematic instead of addressing the fundamental problems of today's practice or the dilemmas of the concepts. The most striking finding, however, is that so many of the corporations no longer argue that they are on a ‘journey’ towards sustainability, but that they have already integrated sustainability principles and that they have worked like this for years. Such arguments arguably inhibit the change in business models that many commentators call for.

year: 2011

title: Wonder and environmental virtue

authors: van Zyl, Liezl

abstract: Wonder is a familiar human emotion. It involves a feeling of delight, admiration, curiosity, and appreciation and is directed towards something that is beautiful, remarkable, mysterious, or unfamiliar. The objects of wonder can include nature and natural entities, works of art, and other cultural objects. In her essay, “Environmental Virtue Ethics” (2007) Rosalind Hursthouse puts forward the question of whether there could be a virtue of being rightly disposed with respect to wonder. For an Aristotelian, such a virtue would involve a disposition “to feel wonder the right way, towards the right objects, for the right reasons, to the right degree, on the right occasions, in the right manner, and to act accordingly” (2007: 161). Hursthouse further suggests that the putative virtue of being rightly disposed with respect to wonder is explicitly – though not exclusively – concerned with our relations to nature, and could therefore form an important part of an environmental virtue ethic. Many environmentalists appeal to our sense of wonder, and write about the wonders of nature, but the role of wonder in environmental ethics has not been explored in any detail. My aim in this paper, then, is to consider whether there is an environmental virtue (or set of virtues) that involves being rightly disposed with regards to wonder.

text: Wonder and environmental virtue Wonder is a familiar human emotion. It involves a feeling of delight, admiration, curiosity, and appreciation and is directed towards something that is beautiful, remarkable, mysterious, or unfamiliar. The objects of wonder can include nature and natural entities, works of art, and other cultural objects. In her essay, “Environmental Virtue Ethics” (2007) Rosalind Hursthouse puts forward the question of whether there could be a virtue of being rightly disposed with respect to wonder. For an Aristotelian, such a virtue would involve a disposition “to feel wonder the right way, towards the right objects, for the right reasons, to the right degree, on the right occasions, in the right manner, and to act accordingly” (2007: 161). Hursthouse further suggests that the putative virtue of being rightly disposed with respect to wonder is explicitly – though not exclusively – concerned with our relations to nature, and could therefore form an important part of an environmental virtue ethic. Many environmentalists appeal to our sense of wonder, and write about the wonders of nature, but the role of wonder in environmental ethics has not been explored in any detail. My aim in this paper, then, is to consider whether there is an environmental virtue (or set of virtues) that involves being rightly disposed with regards to wonder.

year: 2017

title: Te Arawa – Kaitiaki of the Rotorua Te Arawa Lakes

authors: Curtis, Sir Toby

abstract: I start this morning by reciting what we call a patere talking about Te Arawa's interest and relationship to the lakes and the water. Matawhaura is our mountain on Lake Rotoiti. When I went to school in Auckland we travelled on the New Zealand Road Service
transport bus, returning for the holidays along the Mamaku ranges. Those that came from Lake Rotoiti always looked out to see the lake and the mountain Matawhaura. As soon as we saw it a little touch of emotion welled up in our hearts. Mataatua people living in Whakatane felt the same thing when they travelled back home, descending the Rotoma hill, they looked out for Putauaki (Mt Edgecumbe). It gave them the same feeling of emotion.

text: Te Arawa – Kaitiaki of the Rotorua Te Arawa Lakes I start this morning by reciting what we call a patere talking about Te Arawa's interest and relationship to the lakes and the water. Matawhaura is our mountain on Lake Rotoiti. When I went to school in Auckland we travelled on the New Zealand Road Service
transport bus, returning for the holidays along the Mamaku ranges. Those that came from Lake Rotoiti always looked out to see the lake and the mountain Matawhaura. As soon as we saw it a little touch of emotion welled up in our hearts. Mataatua people living in Whakatane felt the same thing when they travelled back home, descending the Rotoma hill, they looked out for Putauaki (Mt Edgecumbe). It gave them the same feeling of emotion.

year: 2017