Business Transitions: A Path to Sustainability: The CapSEM Model

This open-access book explores the development of tools and methodologies for environmental management over 3 decades, challenging and supporting existing paradigms. It provides a holistic and overarching model, moving through four levels: Process, Product Value Chain, Organizational, and Systemic. Systems thinking combines Material Flow Analysis, Life Cycle Assessment, Corporate Social Responsibility, and Industrial Ecology principles. The book is divided into four parts and showcases its practical application in various business sectors and stakeholders, exemplifying its use in the European Circular Action Plan.

Format: Paperback / softback
Length: 261 pages
Publication date: 22 February 2023
Publisher: Springer International Publishing AG

This open-access book chronicles the evolution of tools and methodologies over three decades, posing the question of where the future lies. It builds upon seminal work conducted under the auspices of the Capacity building in Sustainability and Environmental Management (CapSEM) project, co-funded by the EU Erasmus program from 2016 to 2019, as well as research projects like IGLO-MP2020, SUSPRO, and SISVI. It consolidates existing paradigms of environmental management within relevant frameworks that have shaped the discipline's development. The book aims to challenge and support the approaches taken by business sectors in the past, offering a more holistic and overarching model that progresses through four distinct levels. It provides not only a different approach but also a different way of thinking.

Systems thinking is characterized by four levels: process, product value chain, organizational, and systemic. These levels integrate Material Flow Analysis (MFA), Life Cycle Assessment (LCA), Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR), and Industrial Ecology (IE) principles. In practice, Corporate Social Responsibility becomes an integral part of a broader business strategy, impacting all business activities and not merely adding value for its own sake but as a valuable component within a broader toolbox. This toolbox evolves, flexes, and develops over time, adapting to changing circumstances and business needs.

The book is structured into four parts: moving from context and background to the theoretical model or toolbox, onto its practical application in case studies, and culminating in a look at the future and potential developments. It represents the multi-disciplinary collaboration at NTNU and beyond, exemplifying its commitment to addressing sustainability and environmental challenges.

Weight: 456g
Dimension: 235 x 155 (mm)
ISBN-13: 9783031222474
Edition number: 1st ed. 2023