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Engaging Stakeholders For Sustainable Development: January 2016
Engaging Stakeholders For Sustainable Development: January 2016
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Abstract
The engagement of various stakeholders is essential in order to cater for the
implementation of sustainable development. This paper discusses the extent to
which such an engagement takes places, draws some parallel between
universities and companies, and outlines some of the limitations which prevent
it from being more widely practiced.
Keywords
Sustainable development Stakeholders Integration Committment
1 Introduction
Today, the actuality of sustainable development issues asks business one the on
hand, but higher education institutions on the other, to take co-responsibility on the
topic (Cuginotti 2009). Therefore, organisations are required or even enforced to
examine their business practices and determine their long-term social and envi-
ronmental impacts, as well to innovate the business models, products and services
in an attempt to find sustainable solutions for the problems they may cause (Rhodes
et al. 2014).
One of the approaches applied in related decision-making processes is the col-
laboration with stakeholders, i.e. those who have an interest in a particular decision
or course of action, either as individuals or as representatives of a group (Hemmati
2002). This includes any group or anyone who can be affected or is affected by the
achievement of the organization’s objectives (Freeman 2010). Among the groups of
stakeholders, one may mention universities on the one hand, and financial insti-
tutions (e.g. banks, shareholders) government (e.g. regulators, local government),
business (e.g. employees, customers) and/or other groups (e.g. communities,
NGOs) (SustainAbility 2007) on the other.
Complex operating environments and a variety of sustainability issues require
higher education institutions and companies as well, to consider the relationship
with their stakeholders at the strategic level (Cuginotti 2009), since they have the
ability to influence the success or failure of their operations (SustainAbility 2007).
Knowledge sourced from such collaboration affects the sustainable innovation
orientation that may contribute to sustainable development (Ayuso et al. 2011;
Rhodes et al. 2014). Furthermore, stakeholder involvement in environmental
decision-making improves the quality of decisions (Beierle 2002). Therefore, both
universities and companies see it as necessary to engage their respective stake-
holders, in their activities.
The engagement process is the process of exchanging information, listening to
and learning from stakeholders (SustainAbility 2007). The overall purpose of
stakeholder engagement is to drive the strategic direction and operational excel-
lence for organisations, and to contribute to the kind of sustainable development
from which organisations, their stakeholders and wider society can benefit from
(Unerman et al. 2010).
Among the benefits of stakeholder engagement, most experts name the
following:
• it leads to more effective work and production of better results by
decision-makers;
• it can improve the likelihood of equity in decision-making and provide solutions
for conflict situations;
• it allows the ideas to be tried, tested and refined before adoption (Conde et al.
2004).
By engaging stakeholders on sustainability issues for instance, universities may
get an opportunity to better understand the market condition, promote their repu-
tation, build trust and long-term collaborative relationships, as well as better
understand and mitigate the threats and uncertainties related to the business (Bal
Engaging Stakeholders for Sustainable Development 337
being consulted (National Round Table on the Environment and the Economy &
Public Policy Forum 2010).
Some of the experts see multi-stakeholder engagement at the global level as
problematic since voluntary public-private governance arrangement might privilege
more powerful actors e.g. “big business” and consolidate the privatization of
governance. Some argue that partnerships lack accountability and democratic
legitimacy (Biermann et al. 2007).
3 Conclusions
Despite the wide range of challenges and limitation associated with the stakeholder
engagement approach, the well-managed process might decrease negative envi-
ronmental impacts and increase the economic sustainability of an enterprise of
higher education institution (Bal et al. 2013).
Stakeholders can be engaged in many different ways, which goes from infor-
mation sharing to participation in decision-making, following one of five engage-
ment levels: inform, consult, involve, collaborate and empower (Pellicano et al.
340 W. Leal Filho and L. Brandli
ineffective treaties and many other real or perceived current problems (Biermann
et al. 2007), therefore stakeholder engagement should be taken as a core element of
any “sustainable development” plan (Bal et al. 2013).
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Author Biographies
Professor Walter Leal teaches at the Hamburg University of Applied Sciences (Germany) and
Manchester Metropolitan University (UK). He is the founding editor of the International Journal of
Sustainability in Higher Education the world’s leading scientific periodical on sustainability at
universities- is Editor-in-Chief of the book series Environmental Education, Communication and
Sustainable Development (Peter Lang Scientific Publishers) and World Sustainability Series
(Springer), and has over 300 publications to his credit.
Luciana Londero Brandli is Professor in the University of Passo Fundo, Brazil. Her current
research interests include sustainability in higher education and green campus, environment
management, management of urban infrastructure, sustainable cities and green buildings. She
supervises a number of Masters students on engineering, environment and sustainability issues,
and has over than 100 publications.