Business and Sustainability - Book Report/Review Example

Throughout the book, the two authors argue that neither contemporary governments nor corporate organizations have successfully delivered sustainability. For instance, in total disdain for many of the current ecological baby steps like greening, that often pass for sustainability by creating a false impression of doing good when much more radical solutions are still required, the book particularly calls for a complete overhaul of how we consume and live in relation to the natural world. Firstly, Ehrenfeld and Hoffman (2013) suggest that one of the core cultural facets of our time that has contributed to the current unsustainable social and economic system is our outdated understanding of how the world works which can no longer cope with the highly connected and high-speed reality of today’s world and its inherent complexities.

In addition, it is also suggested that the current collective human behavior is still rooted in the outdated model and this has resulted in the treatment of sustainability as a fashionable idea. As a result, governments and corporations are unknowingly following the wrong path regarding sustainability by simply applying temporary and less sustainable solutions that are unlikely to realize meaningful sustainability for future generations.

Sustainability is increasingly becoming important in nearly all business organizations. With the publication of the Brundtland UN report that effectively defined sustainable development in 1987, sustainability was made a priority in the public sector. Many of the current sustainability efforts have been largely based on eco-efficiency based on the underlying assumption that the world will ultimately become more sustainable as business firms continue to adopt more efficient and ecologically friendly production approaches. However, a major limitation of this approach is that it overlooks that using more efficient strategies does not make up for the increase in output or address the previous inefficient practices.

Finally, in order to achieve a flourishing world, there is an urgent need for the corporate world to rethink its current sustainability approaches in fundamentally different ways by focusing on enabling people to flourish rather than simply creating wealth. Ehrenfeld and Hoffman (2013) particularly shift the pendulum and provide a new dimension to sustainability by suggesting that meaningful sustainability can only be successfully achieved through a transformative cultural shift based on our collective lived experiences and wisdom, promotes caring as opposed to need, and is rooted in the beauty of complexity. The proposed new road to a flourishing future particularly involves a change in our consumption habits as well as developing a new approach to understanding and acting on the matters related to sustainability.

In conclusion, the book “Flourishing” primarily advocates for a major social paradigm shift in dealing with the various negative environmental effects that have resulted from human progress. Using a conversational approach based on a series of dialogue and essays, the researchers have vividly uncovered some of the major facets of contemporary society that have resulted in the current unsustainable and unfair socio-economic machines currently dominating many cultures around the globe. Read More