This pinstripes discussion has earmarks of a new problem domain. There
is no consensus on terminology or language
(SIM/ONE/CSR/Sustainability?). Stakeholders and roles are confused.
Relationships among actors are not normalized. Boundaries, and sub
boundaries, are not well established (separate environment and social
content areas, or teach complexity?).
Perhaps rankings and metrics are premature. Simply counting does not
seem to do justice, for example, to the impact of one professor at U
Penn who touches 200-300 students each year in a single, wildly popular
course on basic environmental literacy. Perhaps a more valuable service
would be mapping the current state of the domain, using a
pinstripes-like survey. Such a survey could be more inclusive, taking
stock of those left out parties who have spoken up in this discussion.
Trudy
Trudy Heller, Ph.D.
Executive Education for the Environment
610 543 0499
heller@execed-environent.com
www.execed-environment.com
-----Original Message-----
From: Organizations and the Natural Environment Discussion
[mailto:
ONE-L@AOMLISTS.PACE.EDU] On Behalf Of Joseph Sarkis
Sent: Thursday, November 10, 2005 9:00 AM
To:
ONE-L@AOMLISTS.PACE.EDU
Subject: Re: Pinstripes
Dinah,
I will keep this short.
I cannot AGREE with you more.
1. EPA is anthropocentrically focused.
2. Organizations are anthropocentrically focused.
3. More systemic analysis and research is needed.
My concern is that with so much anthropocentric focused ideals and
philosophy (SIM and Pinstripes, and sustainability) the environment is
bound
to lose when push comes to shove and a choice has to be made between
economics, social issues (other than environment), and the natural
environment.
Anthropocentric perspectives do take into consideration environmental
issues, but as one of many many variables, thus, the marginalization.
EPA
may not marginalize as much as other institutions and organizations, but
sustainability allows organizations to aid in the marginalization.
I do not say we should not consider other dimensions, I am just saying
let
us put the environment at the focus, dare I say, on the ONE-list a
biocentric/ecocentric view?
Otherwise, what makes us different than SIM as a research group?
In terms of research, unfortunately we live in a tradition of
reductionist
scientific research controlling for many variables, but unable to
consider
the influences of every factor. That is how we do research, that is the
best model we have. Even various elements of systems modeling makes
simplifying assumptions. I think for our group, the simplifying
assumptions
should not assume away the centrality of the environmental issues.
In terms of the Pinstripes survey (and why Andy King originally asked
the
questions), I agree with a lot of Alfie Marcus's comments about the
process.
Also, do we even need rankings?
-Joe S.
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Organizations and the Natural Environment Discussion
> [mailto:
ONE-L@AOMLISTS.PACE.EDU]On Behalf Of
>
Koehler.Dinah@EPAMAIL.EPA.GOV
> Sent: Wednesday, November 09, 2005 10:17 AM
> To:
ONE-L@AOMLISTS.PACE.EDU
> Subject: Re: Pinstripes
>
>
> I cannot disagree more.
>
> Environmental issues are social issues, as society (writ large)
suffers
> from pollution. Consider the huge impacts of particulate matter
> emissions on lung function and premature death. These were the main
> source of social benefits in cost benefit analysis of the 1990 Clean
Air
> Act Amendments. When ecosystems break down, water quality decreases,
and
> thus drinking water and/or fisheries are affected, among other
impacts.
> Mercury emissions from power plants end up in water, and because they
> cannot be broken down readily are passed up the foodchain
> (bioaccumulate) to high human health threatening concentrations in
tuna.
> Thus, the human system (say "society") and the environment are tightly
> interlinked. ONE, by its name, addresses questions of anthropocentric
> nature.
>
> Now, the question to the ONE community is, do you measure
environmental
> performance in terms of pollution/emissions? Concentrations of
> pollutants in the environment? Ecosystem disfunction? And/or adverse
> human health outcomes? (Or is ONE research limited by available
> databases or availabe knowledge?) These are questions for society, and
> for social/human quality of life. It has seemed to me for a long time,
> that the outcome of concern with the most traction for our human
species
> is to determine adverse human health outcomes, as we are
(biologically,
> emotionally and politically) most concerned with the survival and
> well-being of our species. As a species on top of the food chain, if
we
> suffer, no doubt other species suffer too.
>
> I think the ONE community is better served by applying systems
thinking
> and focusing on integrated systems which underlie environmental
problems
> - many if not most of which have social causes. EPA has for many
years
> focused on single media problems, but solutions need to be
multi-media.
> There is a gradual shift in the agency to apply more multi-media
> policies. ONE should also think along disciplines, not within
> disciplines.
>
> Dinah Koehler, Sc.D.
> Economics and Decision Sciences Research
> National Center for Environmental Research
> 8722F, 1200 Pennsylvania Avenue, NW
> Washington, DC 20460
> 202-343-9687
> 202-233-0678 (fax)
>
> Courier Delivery Address:
> USEPA, NCER
> Room 3319E Woodies Bldg
> 1025 F Street NW
> Washington, DC 20004-1409
>
>
>
> Joseph Sarkis
> <jsarkis@CLARKU.
> EDU>
To
> Sent by:
ONE-L@AOMLISTS.PACE.EDU
> Organizations
cc
> and the Natural
> Environment
Subject
> Discussion Re: Pinstripes
> <ONE-L@AOMLISTS.
> PACE.EDU>
>
>
> 11/09/2005 07:00
> AM
>
>
> Please respond
> to
> Organizations
> and the Natural
> Environment
> Discussion
> <ONE-L@AOMLISTS.
> PACE.EDU>
>
>
>
>
>
>
> David,
>
> This is one of the concerns I have about the whole issue of the role
> environmental issues should play within sustainability. The
difficulty
> we
> are having is something that was mentioned over a decade ago at one of
> the
> AOM meetings early in ONE's life where the debate was what makes the
> environment different than other SIM issues. We are continuing to
> struggle
> with that and the term sustainability has not been much help on this
> issue
> and has caused a lot of this murkiness. And I know others have argued
> for
> the fact that you can have both and should have both, but it seems to
me
> at
> the expense of environmental issues. Politically (and more generally
> from a
> society perspective) these issues are linked. This could be something
> that
> hinders environmental progress. Because there are those who would
> support
> environmental issues, but may be deterred because of the connotations
of
> being a 'blue state' topic. See a recent article in the New York
Times
> on a
> short example of this:
>
http://www.nytimes.com/2005/11/07/politics/07air.html?emc=eta1
>
>
> Overall, it seems this is a SIM award and not a ONE award. This is a
> marginalization of the environmental issues faced by organizations and
> society. SIM seems, to me, to be focused primarily on anthropocentric
> issues, environmental issues play a role, but a more peripheral one.
> Unfortunately, what I thought was primarily an ecological focus by
> WRI/ASPEN
> is now much more focused on social issues. Isn't money making a social
> issue
> too? It addresses poverty. Thus, all our finance courses are socially
> conscious...let me mark down 8 courses...there I feel better.
>
> -Joe S.
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
> =============================================Joseph Sarkis
> Professor of Operations and Environmental Management
> Graduate School of Management
> Clark University
> 950 Main Street
> Worcester, MA 01610-1477
>
> Phone: 508-793-7659
> Fax: 508-793-8822
> URL:
www.clarku.edu/~jsarkis
>
jsarkis@clarku.edu
> ===========================================-----Original Message-----
> From: Organizations and the Natural Environment Discussion
> [mailto:
ONE-L@AOMLISTS.PACE.EDU] On Behalf Of David Levy
> Sent: Tuesday, November 08, 2005 10:16 PM
> To:
ONE-L@AOMLISTS.PACE.EDU
> Subject: Re: Pinstripes
>
> Rankings can always be useful to push schools in a good direction, but
I
>
> find the new system is weaker and less useful in the way that it puts
> environmental and social content together. I have a lot of students
ask
> about environmental content in MBA programs, and I used to point them
to
>
> the Pinstripes reports, but it's lost its value for this. The new
report
>
> tends to neglect the niche players in enviro mgt - or at least, hard
to
> identify them. With a broader view of social responsibility, I also
> would be a bit concerned about the potential to massage the numbers -
I
> think about our courses, and the temptation to emphasize the social
> content for particular reporting purposes.
> For next time, they should go back to reporting environmental programs
> and courses separately from the social issues courses! - at least make
> clear which schools have specialized grad programs, concentrations,
and
> how many dedicated courses in each area.
>
> David
>
> --
> David Levy
> Professor, Department of Management
> University of Massachusetts, Boston
> 100 Morrissey Blvd., Boston, MA 02125, USA
> Tel: 617-287-7860
>
http://www.faculty.umb.edu/david_levy/
>