Cross-Sector Sustainability

Most organizations conceived or reformed to solve 20thcentury problems will face challenges being effective and relevant in a populous, wealthy, globally-connected, climate changed, 21st century world. Glimmers of new organizational arrangements can be seen in cross-sector collaborative efforts such as those attempting to address the sustainable development impacts of global supply chains.  Auret van Heerden, in an oft-cited TED talk,popularized one new type of institution he calls the “Independent Republic of the Supply Chain.”

The reasons for new organizational arrangements are many.  Nations are struggling to keep up with the demands of the global economy.  They are unable to manage what crosses their borders: Goods and services circle the world in long complex supply chains and with them vast quantities of embodied water, land, and pollution (Dalina 2012, Skelton, 2011, Quaing 2013).  Climate changes, ozone holes grow, ocean fisheries collapse, and other global commons degrade with little probable or viable state-sponsored response. Corporations, meanwhile have grown in size and power, and many are now larger than most governments.  Of the 100 largest economic entities in the world, ½ are companies. Public Infrastructure—the bread and butter of government– is being privatized, owned and managed by corporations: highways, ports, and airports…even the Panama Canal. Thirty corporations today control 90% of world internet traffic.  Even national defense is public-private partnership.

The recent Global Trends 2030 National Intelligence Council report includes a scenario titled “Non-State World” in which urbanization, corporations, civil society, and accumulated capital create new institutions that define the future.   Some of the most innovative changes are occurring in this cross-sector space where business, government, civil society overlap. Governments use law and regulation to level the playing field, prevent a race to the bottom, establish markets, and make sure good actors don’t get punished and bad do. Corporations have money and management capacity and motivations for risk reduction. NGOs have moral authority, but perhaps most importantly can look problems outside temporal and spatial limits of business and politics (quarterly profits, election cycles, political boundaries, market jurisdiction).

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R. Bruce Hull writes and teaches about building capacity in sustainability professionals who collaborate at the intersection of business, government, and civil society. The views are his and are not endorsed by any organization with which he is affiliated.
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