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Sustainable
Development
Subject
Area
These activities have been designed for the Grades 11 and 12 Business
Studies curriculum. At the Senior Division level, students have
already been exposed to a survey course in Business Studies and
are specializing in areas of interest. In addition they will have
acquired some expertise in writing, research and presentation
skills. They are familiar with the dynamics of cooperative learning
and team work. Most will have sufficient facility with business
technology to manipulate data.
These activities
have been designed to accompany the curriculum in Marketing, Consumer
Studies, Law, Economics, Management Studies, Entrepreneurship,
Computer Studies and Data Processing.
The package
consists of a number of self-contained activities which include
background information and strategies for implementation. Evaluation
is based on a student’s ability to work with others as well
as an assessment of each individual’s contribution to the
project.
Learning Outcomes
At the senior level students are keenly interested in developing
and offering their own opinions. Teaching, learning and evaluation
will focus on the student’s ability to:
- Develop
problem solving skills through defining environmental problems
clearly and rationally;
- Practice
higher-level thinking skills;
- Improve
skills in group dynamics by working with peers in group situations;
- Improve
communication skills by developing the ability to present opinions
in a persuasive manner in both oral and written presentations;
- Focus
on the analysis and evaluation of an issue and to arrive at
plausible, logical solutions;
- Be proactive
in support of reasoned beliefs.
Understanding
the Problem
For the business enterprise, sustainable development has been
defined as a means of adopting business strategies and activities
that meet the needs of the enterprise and its stakeholders today
while protecting, sustaining, and enhancing the human and natural
resources that will be needed in the future.
Traditional stakeholders have included lenders (banks), shareholders,
and government regulators and policymakers (elected representatives).
However, during the 1990s, new stakeholders are emerging.
Traditional
Stakeholders
- Shareholders
- Lenders
- Regulators
- Policymakers
Emerging
Stakeholders
- Employees
- Universities
- Professional
Institutes
- Customers/Consumers
- Trade
Associations and Coalitions
- Community
and Environmental Groups
Surrogate
Stakeholders for
- Future
Generations
- World
population
- World
Biosphere
Source
Business Strategies for Sustainable Development: Leadership and
Accountability for the ’90s. Winnipeg: International
Institute for Sustainable Development, 1992, p. 50.
Classroom Development
(Jigsaw)
The following activity is a good way to introduce students to
the notion of stakeholders and their influence on decision making
in the new corporate environment of the 1990s. It might be most
suited to OAC classes in Economics and Administrative Studies,
or an integrated unit within the Transition Years or Senior Curriculum.
For this
exercise, it is not necessary to have representatives from each
stakeholder group. Assign at least two students to represent each
of the stakeholders. This will be the student’s home group.
Distribute
the following list entitled “Potential Environmental Policies.”
Have each home group pick the three policies it feels would be
most important to the stakeholder group the students are representing.
Each home group should write down its reasons for its selections.
Once each
group has its top three policies, redivide the class so that there
is one representative of each stakeholder in new (expert) groups.
These new groups would then discuss each stakeholder’s list
and try to arrive at some agreement that all stakeholders could
live with.
Strategies for Change
Have students return to their original stakeholder (home) group.
Each home group will then compare and contrast its original three
choices with the list arrived at in the expert groups. Each home
group should then pick one policy and describe how it would facilitate
the changes necessary to implement this policy.
The list below is adapted from The Environmental Crisis: Opposing
Viewpoints. Neal Bernards (ed.), Greenhaven Press, distributed
in Canada by Nelson, 1992, p. 274-275)
Potential Environmental Policies
(A List of Viewpoints, Positions and Strategies for Stakeholders)
- Preserving
wilderness areas by preventing people from using them for logging
or resource extraction
- Enabling
companies to devise their own pollution reduction strategies
without waiting for the government to regulate them
- Sabotaging
and vandalizing development projects if necessary to protect
the environment
- Passing
laws to force businesses to reduce pollution
- Reducing
the world’s population
- Promoting
environmental awareness among children through educational programs
- Reducing
the amount of materials and energy people in developed countries,
like Canada, consume
- Discouraging
the use of materials that are not biodegradable or easily recycled
- Establishing
international treaties to force countries to protect the rain
forests
- Promoting
citizen movements to fight corporations that cause environmental
damage
- Tax incentives
to promote environmental responsibility
- Non-tarriff
barriers to ensure environmentally appropriate packaging
- Recognition
awards to reward good environmental practices such as preserving
water and air quality
- Using
more undeveloped areas for planting crops, raising cattle, logging,
and other projects to feed and house the world’s population
- Encouraging
banks and governments in the developed world to forgive debts
owed by Third World countries
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