an asia-pacific approach to teaching sustainability entrepreneurship
DESCRIPTION
Two entrepreneurs (Henry Ford and Thomas Edison) 'caused' part of Earth’s precarious climate today by accelerating our dependence on fossil fuels. Our hope is that it will be an en-trepreneur – perhaps one that develops the hydrogen-powered automobile – who will save it. Business educators have the opportunity to create a cohort of moral, ethical and sustainable entrepreneurs who can solve the world’s major problems. Gifford Pinchot once rightly pointed out, 'Business is the dominant institution of our time. It’s also the biggest leverage point.' Another way of saying this is that without business, we cannot save the planet, and without saving the planet there can be no business. It is time to create a cohort of gaiapreneurs (after the Greek goddess of Earth, Gaia), whom I define as 'marked by imagination, initiative and readiness to undertake projects to save the planet'. Ours is an Asia-Pacific approach to teaching sustainability entrepreneurship based on the inter-disciplinarity of entrepreneurship. There are many 'entrepreneurships' (with an emphasis on the plural). Business entrepreneurship is well known. Science and engineering entre-preneurship probably rank second in student popularity behind business entrepreneurship. But we can also mention arts, music, biomedical, sports, nursing and humanities entrepre-neurship. The big difference is that the fate of an entire planet is at stake, and they have contributions to make. That’s what leads us to sustainability entrepreneurship. The process of transforming creative ideas into commercially viable businesses in support of healing the earth is a major challenge for entrepreneurs. Education is key for many entre-preneurs to commercialise their ideas. Drawing upon the theory of experiential, entre-preneurs, in their unique teachable moments, require active and concrete pedagogical interventions that can be enhanced through a blended learning environment of online and face-to-face modalities leading them step-by-step through deepening learning in the theory, process and practice of entrepreneurship on behalf of people, profits and planet. That about sums it up.TRANSCRIPT
An Asia-Pacific approach to teaching sustainability entrepreneurship
Howard Frederick Deakin University, Melbourne
Silent Spring by Carson (1962) Spaceship Earth by Boulding (1966) Tragedy of the Commons by Hardin (1968) Earth Day (1970)/Zero Population Growth (1971) Limits to Growth by Club of Rome (1972) Our Common Future by Brundtland (1987) Changing Course by WBCSD (1992) Ecology of Commerce by Hawkin (1993) Green and Competitive by Porter (1995) Love Canal, Acid Rain, Chernobyl, Bhopal, Three
Mile Island, Climate Change, Global Warming
Influences on my climate change pedagogy
Sustainable entrepreneurship curriculum This is the first entrepreneurship
textbook of the 21st century with people, planet and profits (3Ps) at its base.
Every chapter – from performance measures to marketing, from strategy to start-up, from ethics to family business – is related the 3Ps.
This is a course in “entrepreneurship as if the planet mattered”.
All of this is linked to entrepreneurship through the Pathways in a person’s life.
Entrepreneurs contribute to the planetary crisis
Negative Entrepreneurs are continuously disturbing the Earth’s balance.
Increasing demandDemand for resources and eco-system services
Declining supplyResources and ecosystem services
Sustainable supply
Sustainable demand
Entrepreneurs must help us travel through the ‘funnel’
Sustainable
futureMargin for action is narrowing
The present The future
Industrial entrepreneurship 1800-2000• Did not consider environment in planning and design. • Focused on extraction of resources • Did not prevent negative effects• Entrepreneurs had a negative impact on the environment and
society.
Principles of ‘entrepreneurial ecology’
Sustainable entrepreneurship from 2000+• Focus on biosphere and limiting waste embodied in products. • Take into account the living dimension of the products and
services that we produce. • Create net positive entrepreneurial impact loops
Industrial entrepreneurship 1800-2000• Did not consider environment in planning and design. • Focused on extraction of resources • Did not prevent negative effects• Entrepreneurs had a negative impact on the environment and
society.
Principles of ‘entrepreneurial ecology’
The study of the interactions of living organisms (including businesses) with each other and with their environment.
Sum of all living matter on Earth
Every product after its useful life will be waste
A proportion of an entrepreneur’s product or service is returned (looped back) to nature. It can have positive or negative impacts.
Doing something with the long term in mind
Sustainable entrepreneurship from 2000+• Focus on biosphere and limiting waste embodied in products. • Take into account the living dimension of the products and
services that we produce. • Create net positive entrepreneurial impact loops
Econosphere
Sociosphere
Biosphere
. . . located in the econosphere and surrounded by the biosphere
Entrepreneurs are . . .
Biosphere
Sociosphere
Econosphere
• Planet• Climate & energy• Water, soil, flora & fauna• Atmosphere & topography
• People• Human enterprise• Knowledge, labour & capital• Opportunity and value
• Profit• Entrepreneurs operate here• Business environment• Entrepreneurial factor
conditions
(+)
Negativeentrepre-neurship
Positiveentrepre-neurship
(0)(-)
Negative entrepreneurship
Entrepreneurs undervalue biodiversity, energy, water, and materials.
Rather than adding value to living materials we only aim to reduce (e.g. through recycling) the quantity of dead resources.
In the end, society penalises entrepreneurs through regulation.
Positive entrepreneurship • Generates positive value-
adding impacts • Eliminate waste, duplication,
and planned obsolescence. • Creates net positive-impact
loop systems and innovations that create levers for biophysical improvements and social transformation.
What are disvalue and disinnovation? Hindle (2009):
Innovation is the combination of an inventive process and an entrepreneurial process to create new economic value for defined stakeholders.
Disvalue and disinnovation in negative entrepreneurship Hindle (2009):
Innovation is the combination of an inventive process and an entrepreneurial process to create new economic value for defined stakeholders.
Innovation has a sibling named disinnovation.
You disinnovate by making something looking innovative when it merely reframes exploitative processes, economic dominance, or both either without adding value or by extracting value.
Disvalue and disinnovation in negative entrepreneurship Hindle (2009):
Innovation is the combination of an inventive process and an entrepreneurial process to create new economic value for defined stakeholders.
The word inventive has its dark sibling called disinventive. We disinvent when we erode the narrow niche of temperature, oxygen, sunlight that sustain life.
Disvalue and disinnovation in negative entrepreneurship Hindle (2009):
Innovation is the combination of an inventive process and an entrepreneurial process to create new economic value for defined stakeholders.
Is it positive or negative? Entrepreneurs can disvalue nature as a living ecosystem.
Disvalue and disinnovation in negative entrepreneurship Hindle (2009):
Innovation is the combination of an inventive process and an entrepreneurial process to create new economic value for defined stakeholders.
Hindle definition is limited to financial capital without considering the other forms of capital, which may lose value due to innovation and invention, e.g. Human Capital, Social Capital, or Natural capital
Disvalue and disinnovation in negative entrepreneurship Hindle (2009):
Innovation is the combination of an inventive process and an entrepreneurial process to create new economic value for defined stakeholders.
Innovation can devalue, or create disvalue. It can deform. Negative ecological footprint could be called the “devalue chain”
Disvalue and disinnovation in negative entrepreneurship Hindle (2009):
Innovation is the combination of an inventive process and an entrepreneurial process to create new economic value for defined stakeholders.
Be sure we define stakeholder to include cultures, animals and earth features who are influenced, either directly or indirectly, by the actions of the firm.
Entrepreneurship Theory AndProcessPractice for the Environment’
Romance root ‘etappe’, which means ‘a step in a journey or a competition’ pathway
Etappe™ Approach to Entrepreneurial Learning
Experiential, learner-centred and practical Allows students to teach themselves Support for the educator Learning through active behaviour ‘Reasonable adventurer’ Pathways approach Pedagogy matches the content Learning for sustainability, not learning
about sustainability
Hallmarks of approach
Student thought exercise:Can you give the business case for removing human life on Earth?
Student thought exercise:Can you give the business case for removing human life on Earth?
Stern Report has made the case for the “business of climate change”
Why not simply remove humans and make Earth into a protein factory?
First species capable of effectively eliminating life on Earth.
The planet would prefer that we leave so that it can recover.
We seem like an alien come from space with the mission of eliminating life on earth.
Entrepreneurs too if they are not careful.
Can you give the business case for removing human life on Earth?