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Sustainability and the evolution of organizational management



Sustainability and the evolution of organizational management

Working in and around the Federal Environmental Protection Agency from 1977 to the 1980s, I was able to make practical use of my two main intellectual interests: 1. Environmental policy and 2. Organizational management. These are two areas that I focused on in graduate school. For a long time, I thought they were relatively distinct areas. In 1988, I wrote a book called effective public manager I later wrote a book on environmental regulation called Learn about Environmental Policy. But then I started thinking about how issues like energy efficiency, waste management, environmental responsibility, and risk became a major concern for organizational managers and a major factor in the cost structures of private, public, and not-for-profit organizations. It seems like my two areas of interest are merging. Organizational management is changing to deal with our more crowded, polluted and developed planet.

The changing nature of organization and management has prompted us to establish a new MSc in Management, which we call Sustainability Management. Together with colleagues at the Earth Institute, I developed the course in 2008 and 2009, and in partnership with the School of Continuing Education (now the School of Professional Studies), we launched Columbia University’s MS in Sustainability Management in 2010. The program’s courses take management, finance, financial management, economics, statistics and the regulatory environment of organizations – in my opinion, key elements of any management degree. But it also requires three courses on the “physical dimensions of sustainability”: organizations’ use of energy, materials, the built environment, and waste management and their impact on the environment. then, sustainability Focus on these physical problems – a new element in management education.in the book Sustainable developmentI wrote at the time, that sustainability is about how environmental concerns are now factored into day-to-day organizational management.

In the thirteen years since we welcomed our first sustainability management students to Columbia, the field has changed. The course I teach to 95 students this semester has changed. Now, I’m teaching one of three parts of the course with many more students than I did in 2010, but the course itself has changed as the field has evolved.What I used to call “Sustainability Management” is what I now call “Environmental Sustainability”—a subfield Sustainability management. We now think of the field as also looking at organizational sustainability and community sustainability. These additional and broader concerns require us to focus on diversity, equity, inclusion, and access, as well as organizational transparency and governance, and finally, an organization’s impact on its host communities and societies.

Well-Managed Organizations for the 21st CenturyYingshi The century requires sustainable development management. In the US, over 80% of GDP is in a service economy, and when we manufacture food, clothing, shelter, and any other good in the US, much of that manufacturing requires automation and other forms of advanced technology. Modern agriculture uses satellite data, automation and artificial intelligence to optimize the use of water, fertilizers and pesticides. Advanced engineering, logistics, targeted marketing, and new communication channels require continuous organizational learning and the constant development and modification of organizational routines and practices. We live in a brain-based economy. Organizations must compete for the best talent if they are to succeed in a competitive marketplace.

If an organization’s culture is gender-biased, racist, xenophobic, xenophobic, or biased in any way that makes it unsuitable for work, then it’s artificially limiting the pool of talent it can hire. In my opinion, this is a form of mismanagement. If its management board meets in secret and does not disclose who makes decisions and why, its governance risk decisions may be short-sighted and not rigorously scrutinized, which is also a sign of mismanagement. If the organization doesn’t consider its impact on local communities, it could find its ability to expand hurt — as Amazon found out when it tried unsuccessfully to locate its second headquarters in Long Island City. A lack of political sensitivity also indicates poor management. Finally, if an organization does not understand and seek to reduce its impact on the planet, it may find itself regulated and regulated, in crisis, bankrupt or non-existent.

What we called sustainability management in 2010 is only part of a more complex management area in 2022. While I’ve never taught in business school, I do teach management classes in public policy schools, and I wonder if any type of organizational management can be taught without paying particular attention to sustainability management these days. The SEC has shown this with its proposed climate disclosure rules.according to Deloitte‘s website:

“On March 21, 2022, the SEC issued its proposed rule This will strengthen and standardize climate-related disclosures provided by listed companies.As SEC Chairman Gary Gensler stated in his statement Regarding the proposed rule, “Today, investors representing trillions of dollars support climate-related disclosures because they recognize that climate risks pose significant financial risks to companies and that investors need reliable information about climate risks in order to do to make informed investment decisions.” Under the proposed rules, registrants would be required to provide disclosures on GHG emissions (and evidence of Scope 1 and Scope 2 disclosures), certain Financial Statement Disclosures and Qualitative and Governance Disclosures-K).

While specific proposals will be revised based on thousands of comments, ideologues in Congress will challenge the SEC in the media, and others will challenge the rules in the courts, the driving force behind the rules is investors, so it is likely that the rule will continue. brian crosswrite on industry website pensions and investments observed:

“The SEC publishes a watershed proposal, which has broad support from institutional investors and asset managers, in March … some stakeholders in the business community and Republicans in Washington said the proposal was outside the SEC’s purview … Overall, asset managers supported the proposal in their comment letters, but many suggested final rule changes. largest money manager, blackrockwith $8.48 trillion in assets under management, in the comment letter said It supports the SEC’s goal of having public companies provide “more comparable and consistent climate-related disclosures” to investors, but has raised concerns about parts of the proposal, including scope 3 emissions reporting.

At a minimum, the new SEC rules will help provide environmental sustainability, in a role similar to the role accounting and financial management play in management education. A CEO must be able to read and understand financial statements. Soon they will also need to know about environmental impact statements. The challenge for management education is that carbon disclosure requires teachers and students to understand the measurement of greenhouse gases. Understanding environmental impact requires a deeper understanding of ecology and environmental science. Management education that ignores environmental and other sustainability issues will be inadequate if all management competent becomes sustainability management. The field of development of sustainability metrics in the 2020s will be similar to the development of generally accepted accounting practices starting in the 1930s and continuing to the present. Sustainability presents challenges to management education similar to those faced by modern practicing managers.

As employment law evolves and environmental disclosures become part of the regulatory environment, the demands on management increase. Modern managers must navigate highly regulated and complex organizational environments. Imagine the wrongful dismissal lawsuits a manager would have to deal with if he upheld Donald Trump’s management practices in The Apprentice. An apprentice who suffers from “you’re fired” in one episode, will be accompanied by her or his employment lawyer in the next. Environmental, social and governance issues are now part of organizational management. The field of management must fully absorb and integrate the field of sustainable development management.




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