concept

strong sustainability

Also known as: strong sustainability perspective

Facts (10)

Sources

Does the combination of sustainable business model patterns lead ... link.springer.com Springer Feb 20, 2023 10 facts

referenceAyres, Van den Bergh, and Gowdy (2001) published 'Strong versus weak sustainability: economics, natural sciences, and consilience' in Environmental Ethics, volume 23, issue 2, pages 155–168.

claimProponents of the strong sustainability perspective, such as Victor et al. (1998) and Pelenc et al. (2015), assert that produced capital (including infrastructure, manufactured goods, labor, and knowledge) and natural capital are not interchangeable.

claimThe strong sustainability perspective values the ecological aspect over economic gains and posits that growth in the aggregate stock of natural and man-made capital over time is not necessarily sustainable (Wilson and Wu 2017).

claimThe integrative sustainability model (Wu 2013) demonstrates the principle of strong sustainability by positioning the economic dimension entirely within the social dimension, and the social dimension entirely within the environmental dimension (Wilson and Wu 2017).

perspectiveThe theoretical state of strong sustainability may be idealistic and hardly achievable given the specific context and constraints of businesses.

claimWilson and Wu (2017) proposed a pragmatic interpretation of strong sustainability, which allows for a certain level of substitution between natural and produced capital while suggesting a reasonable threshold for the expense of natural capital.

claimThe inadmissibility of any reduction in natural capital may lead to an 'absurdly strong sustainability' interpretation, which can jeopardize the practical applicability of the strong sustainability perspective (Wilson and Wu 2017).

referencePelenc, Ballet, and Dedeurwaerdere (2015) discussed the concepts of weak sustainability versus strong sustainability in a brief for the United Nations Global Sustainable Development Report.

claimThe definition of a truly sustainable business relates to the strong sustainability perspective (Victor et al. 1998; Ayres et al. 2001) and the concept of the Triple Bottom Line (Elkington 1997).

perspectiveThe authors argue that a truly sustainable business model must value the differentiation between natural and produced capital in accordance with the principles of strong sustainability.