Business in a strongly sustainable society

Abstract

This chapter investigates the relationship between business and a strongly sustainable society by framing it as a question. It argues that even though such a relationship is far from straightforward, in simple yes-and-no terms, the answer to the question of whether business and a strongly sustainable society can co-exist is ‘no’. This is because business, as an inherently capitalist mode of production, existing for the purpose of capital accumulation, is not compatible with a truly strongly sustainable society, which opposes material growth and capital accumulation. Not only is ‘business as usual’ impossible in a strongly sustainable society, but so is reformed business (i.e., improved but not fully transformed), which retains at its core the imperative of profit-making and maximisation, while simultaneously attempting to supplement it with consideration of the environment and of people. This chapter argues that only after undergoing a radical, all-encompassing transformation will businesses, as social entities, become suitable for a strongly sustainable society. Such a transformation means going beyond business; each business becoming an alternative economic organisation. Going beyond business requires a significant change in the way we are in and relate to the world, rather than knowledge of concrete organisational forms and practices.