Talk delivered in Mumbai in the IAMOT 2019 conference.

1. 28th International Conference for
Management of Technology
Managing Technology for Inclusive and Sustainable Growth
Panel discussion on
“Role of Policies that Drive Innovation, Adoption and Diffusion for
Sustainable Growth”
Mumbai, 7-11 April, 2019
In Pursuit of Sustainable Growth
Dr Breno Nunes
Senior Lecturer in Sustainable Operations Management,
Aston Business School, UK

2. Objectives
• Point out the complexity behind the concept of ‘Sustainable
Growth’ and the latest developments in theory and practice
• Raise questions on development, application, and
performance assessment of technological innovations
(policies) from a sustainable growth perspective
Outline
• Sustainable growth – the story of Mr and Mrs Patel
• Key concepts to better understand and plan for a
sustainable growth
• Challenges of innovation policies to promote a sustainable
growth

3. Opposing schools of thought?

4. Decomposing Sustainable Development
The multiple interpretations of ‘Sustainable Development’ and sustainability has
led to high levels of complexity and confusion in measuring sustainability of
products and firms
“Humanity has the ability to make development sustainable to ensure that it
meets the NEEDS of the present without compromising the ability of future
generations to meet their own NEEDS” (WCED, 1987).
“The satisfaction of human needs and aspirations is the major objective of
development. The essential needs of vast numbers of people in developing
countries for food, clothing, shelter, jobs - are not being met, and beyond their
basic needs these people have legitimate aspirations for an improved quality of
life. A world in which poverty and inequity are endemic will always be prone to
ecological and other crises. Sustainable development requires meeting the basic
needs of all and extending to all the opportunity to satisfy their aspirations for a
better life.” (WCED, 1987)

5. Latest developments in the area of
sustainable growth

6. Sustainable development Goals (un.org)

7. Planetary Boundaries (Resource constraints)
•Stratospheric ozone layer
•Biodiversity
•Chemicals dispersion
•Climate Change
•Ocean acidification
•Freshwater consumption and
the global hydrological cycle
•Land system change
•Nitrogen and phosphorus inputs
to the biosphere and ocean
•Atmospheric aerosol loading
The Stockholm Resilience Centre
(Rockstrom et al., 2009a, 2009b)

8. Essentiality Vs Environmental Impacts:
The four basic baskets of consumption
Adverse Environmental Impacts
Essentiality
HighLow
Low
High
Peasant’s basket Knight’s basket
Jester’s basket Noble’s basket
Nunes,B.,Alamino,R.C.,Shaw,D.,&Bennett,D.
(2016).Modellingsustainabilityperformanceto
achieveabsolutereductionsinsocio-ecological
systems.JournalofCleanerProduction,132,32-44.
Nunes et al (2016)

9. Is sustainable growth the one
that simply avoids collapse?
Nunes,B.,Alamino,R.C.,Shaw,D.,&Bennett,D.
(2016).Modellingsustainabilityperformanceto
achieveabsolutereductionsinsocio-ecological
systems.JournalofCleanerProduction,132,32-44.
BalanceofEssentiality
Surplus of resources Surplus of resources
BalanceofEssentiality

10. Sustainable Growth
• Sustainable economic growth?
• ECONOMY – From the Greek οίκος – "household" and νέμoμαι – "manage"
• Economy should get bigger? Economy should get better?
• Sustainable = able to be sustained over long period of time?
• Managing the sustainability of socio-ecological systems:
• Conservation of environmental resources & population growth (Malthus, 1798)
• Limits to growth (Meadows et al, 1970) / Degrowth in regions of developed
countries
• Decouple growth from resource exploitation / Utilitarian vs Naturalist views
• End of poverty – is poverty a static or evolutionary concept?
• More than two thirds of the World population (71%) still live on less than
US$10.00 a day
• What is the threshold of social inequality to cause a societal collapse?
• World Happiness Report and Index (United Nations)

11. Beyond GDP
The Inclusive Wealth Report includes more realistic
measures of wealth using three macro-indicators:
Natural capital (e.g. forests, water reservoirs,
ecosystems services)
Human capital (e.g. level of education, trust, culture)
Produced capital (e.g. IT infra-structure, roads, etc)
SPACE – TIME DIMENSIONS
(UNU-IHDP and UNEP, 2014)

14. Evolution of inclusive wealth of India
1990 2014
$ Billion % share $ Billion % share
Produced Capital 867 7.5 5,049 23.5
Human Capital 7,110 61.4 13,215 61.5
Natural Capital 3,605 31.1 3,242 15.1
TOTAL 11,582 21,505

15. Challenges in developing innovation
policies for sustainable growth

16. Technology,InformationandSustainability
16
Are our socio-ecological
systems robust enough to cope
with uncertainty (variations)
and policy mistakes?
How accurate is the
information we currently
have about these critical
sustainability factors?
Ecological
Economics started
only in 1940s…

17. Athree-capitalmodelofwealthcreation
(UNU-IHDP and UNEP, 2014)
Natural Capital Produced Capital Human Capital
Production
Consumption / Investment
Welfare/ Utility

18. Technology choices,
Policy decisions
Nunes,B.,Alamino,R.C.,Shaw,D.,&Bennett,D.(2019).Corporate
SustainabilityFitness:AnOperationsStrategyPerspective.EurOMA
SustainableOperationsandSupplyChainForum.Gothenbourg2019.

19. Peak minerals

20. Key questions for policy makers?
• How to use regulation or deregulation to favour emerging cleaner
technologies?
• How to incorporate ecological thresholds in the innovation policy?
• Do we have the capabilities to clean up nano-pollution?
• How to motivate inventors/innovators to tackle basic societal needs?
• How to educate future leaders on the pursuit of sustainable growth?
• How seize the benefits of social media and minimise its power to
disseminate fake news, news addiction, teenager anxiety, etc?
• How to speed up technology development and innovation in times of
peace with the same level of urgency of that in times of war?
• How to combine decision making models to reach better policy decisions:
• Democratic + Visionary + Expert / Local + Global
• Tangible/explicit + Latent needs / Root problems + Perceived problems

21. Thank you!
Namaskar!
Dr Breno Nunes
b.nunes@aston.ac.uk