to help practically achieve sustainable development
by adopting wise policy choices

using beginner's mind / experience

Peoples, nations and states have fundamental roles in the pursuit of sustainable development. They are endowed with rights such as the right of peoples to self-determination and territorial integrity. There are responsibilities corresponding to those rights, as emphasized  by the African Charter on Human and Peoples' Rights (the Banjul Charter). One of the wisest choices of peoples of the world has been to adopt the pursuit of sustainable development as a fundamental priority - emphasized at the UN Conference on Environment and Development in 1992. This choice of peoples gives rise to a binding duty on states under international law to pursue sustainable development.  Current policy interests:  innovative ventures for Native American peoples in the field of publishing, reducing illegal immigration to the US by informing source peoples how their economic prospects may be better at home, and "A Need to Rebuild as an Opportunity to Advance the Pursuit of Sustainable Development".

Local governments and quasi-governmental organizations have key responsibilities in delivering needed services to people.  Their finances are under strain.  Innovative, aggressively inerdisciplinary thinking can come up with good ideas.  For example, many mass transportation systems are in financial difficulty.  Innovative approaches can combine:  partial service cutback by reducing frequencies on some routes, modest (if any) fare increases, negotiating debt moratoria with governmental agencies (e.g., the federal government) perhaps in return for residual claim on future net operating income, recouping operating costs and promoting ridership by selective aggressive pricing (e.g., student passes priced very modestly above marginal cost), attention to operating details (e.g., buses on schedules which allow for non-aggressive acceleration and deceleration), and highly selective new infrastructure investment.

 

Traditional commercial corporations have played a big role in the recent history of western money-based economies. And those economies have had a big influence on how well we achieve sustainable development.  Because corporations are social constructs whose purpose for existing is to advance societal goals, the traditional commercial corporate sector has as a top priority advancing the pursuit of sustainable development.   The mantra popularized by Milton Friedman in 1970 - that the only social responsibility of business is financial profit - represents a better objective than some (e.g., management self-dealing).  But if financial profit endangers society's pursuit of sustainable development, we need to rethink corporate responsibility.   A good way to gauge corporate conduct combines both basic principles and case studies.  Current research interest:  conceptual foundations for corporations to advance the pursuit of sustainable development, practical steps even ostensibly in the corporate interest, and guidance for situations where there are challenging tradeoffs.

Schools have a special responsibility in promoting sustainable development.  Curriculums influence the thinking of students, who have a key role in making the future better.  Schools also have a special opportunity to embody best practice by applying what they teach to their own operations. Current interest:  empowering students, e.g. crafting individualized service learning courses.

 

One key issue facing states (sovereign wealth funds or foreign exchange reserves), commercial corporations (retained earnings) and universities (endowments) is how to raise funds and how to wisely allocate investments among their own core responsibilities / opportunities and alternative investments.  Social responsibility of investments is key.  There are ahead-of-the-curve opportunities to bridge seemingly disparate objectives.   For a brief introduction to university endowments - also relevance to other organizations and states - please see  part 1 (p 5) and part 2 (pp 5-6).