The next 4 topic areas look firstly at what it means for there to be a sustainable world, then how this flows through to the way the business sector, and individual firms within in it, might need to act in order for a sustainable world to come about.

The course material provides a lot to think about in this sustainable business space.

It would be true to say though that it is challenging to get the head around how ideas on what might need to be achieved to see a sustainable world materialise might be put into play in our own business setting and for what we do to make a meaningful difference.

We will work through some of these issues but I can’t promise answers for everything – you might instead come out with more questions than answers. There’s nothing wrong with this though. In the sustainable business space we are heading into new areas where it’s probably true to say many people haven’t ventured or, if they have, it has been in only a superficial way.

This isn’t meant to be a criticism as such, but more a claim that as a society we haven’t really got our heads around this issue of sustainable living as yet and have a steep learning curve ahead of us.

I’ll only make two quick points here and leave you to get on with the readings and activities.

The first is that the question of what it means for there to be a sustainable world is disputed space. There is no agreement on what it means and no one definition that clarifies what it means.

There is however a mainstream view, generally termed “sustainable development” and for the most, we look at sustainable business within this mainstream view. This isn’t to say this view presents the way society should go, or that if we followed the sustainable business formula to the letter a sustainable world would come about.

Some claim that in fact this mainstream formula will not work and is doomed to fail – and these counter narratives have a strong and well articulated voice in a number of established academic disciplines.

We do however need to give you things that you can take away with you and apply in your own business setting and this is where the mainstream focus comes in to play.

You will find though that we also present a number of criticisms and alternates to this mainstream view to help broaden your perspective on what sustainability is all about.

The other point is that, as mentioned in the introductory video, the Interface Global case is used over 3 topics that follow.

This is done to give you the opportunity to look closely at a firm that is considered a leader in sustainable business practice and not load you with a number of cases that don’t allow the time to dig into the detail.

The important thing to do here is to look for ideas and lessons that can be used in your own professional life – to take what Interface has done and plans to do, and consider you can learn from the virtues and problems of its sustainable business agenda.

Despite the one major case study being used, you will be presented with a number of other practical examples of firms doing things well, and doing them poorly, to help put a practical face on the subject matter.