Still paying for the ring you bought for your Global Engagement? Wish the pictures of your Social Embeddedness never got posted on Facebook? When was the last time you visited the Leveraging Place? Have you ever engaged in Intellectual Fusion?
If you have a blank look on your face right now, you're not alone. I hear extensive use of buzz words and jargon from the professional world and wonder what they really mean.
Regardless of profession, you, too, will have to dig through vapid descriptions and needlessly lengthy explanations to grasp basic concepts.
I'm sure that's why the ASU administration seeks to ensure that students are fluent in Mumbajumbese, the language of Progress and We Want You To Know How Smart And With-It We Are. It's probably why the administration used Mumbajumbese to name their abundance of initiatives for improving ASU in every conceivable way.
While muddling my way through ASU initiatives such as Leveraging Place and Intellectual Fusion, I came to a concept that puzzled me.
Sustainability. The ability to sustain?
What came to mind when you first heard "sustainability?" For me, it was "global warming, blah blah, Greenpeace, yadda yadda, unnecessary expense, etc."
Then I started noticing the word popping up in business schools. Huh? This was where I realized that there was something being lost in translation between Mumbajumbese and colloquial English.
So while I was visiting the Thunderbird School of Global Management in Glendale last weekend, I paid attention during the case study focused on sustainable development. Could this actually make business sense?
It was certainly an innovative look at the concept. What it came down to was considering the future when acting in the present.
What exactly needs to be sustained and developed? Basically, everything related to our quality of life.
Quality of life goes far beyond what we can buy to make ourselves more comfortable. All of our resources - human, natural, environmental - contribute to the quality of our lives now and in the future.
But isn't it expensive to use methods that worry about every little effect an industry or business has on everything else?
Yes. But thinking ahead always has benefits.a
Many businesses have had costly, catastrophic results from inattention to sustaining the very resources they and others rely on. This has a huge impact on a business's ability to be profitable and maintain social legitimacy.
Sustainability is not an issue that has to be bogged down in some policy debate between the fuzzy hearts and minds of activists and politicians. Those most directly concerned with prosperity can benefit from taking the lead.
The innovation of the new sustainability mindset is the idea that businesses and academic institutions can play the major role in developing methods and industry regulations that take all kinds of future concerns into account.
The benefits of taking the lead in sustainability come not only in reducing the risk of future problems but also from being in a position to establish the standards.
It makes sense for companies who know the realities of their own business concerns and appreciate the need to balance them with bigger picture concerns to create the sustainability standards. These leader companies then remain in greater control of their own procedures and stay ahead of others who adopt the practices later.
Am I being deceived in thinking this makes a bit of sense?
Is it possible that sustainability does not always have to be an empty overreaction to things unproven but can be rationally explored and used to create a workable and competitive business model that attempts to avoid problems and reduce risk by thinking ahead?
Don't ask me, I'm just a humble Mumbajumbese student repeating the sentiments of the business world, after all.
Reach the reporter: francesca.vanderfelt@asu.edu.
