Place Based Approaches to Sustainability Volume II

Sustainability has become an essential aspect of modern society as we strive to protect the planet and ensure the well-being of future generations. While many sustainability efforts focus on global solutions, it is essential to recognize the unique characteristics and needs of a particular location, including its natural resources, cultural heritage, and social dynamics, in achieving sustainable development. Place-based sustainability is a concept that emphasizes the importance of local ecosystems and communities in promoting sustainable development. It recognizes that each place has unique environmental, economic, cultural, and social characteristics that require tailored solutions to address challenges. This approach prioritizes the involvement of local stakeholders and the integration of traditional knowledge and cultural values.

Place-based sustainability practices try to operationalise Pope Francis's vision, which calls for a new economy, the Economy of Francesco, “one that brings life not death, one that is inclusive and not exclusive, humane and not dehumanizing, one that cares for the environment and does not despoil it”.

Benefit Corporations (BCs) and B-Corps have introduced a new business model, in which organizations can balance altruistic and lucrative purposes and this denotes their characteristic of being hybrid organizations. The Benefit Corporation model in Italy is an evolving phenomenon concerning companies of every size, age, sector, and geographic location. This corporation model is spreading fast in Italy and the world. Italian Benefit Corporations are principally micro and small firms that operate in the service sectors, less in the wholesale and retail, and manufacturing ones, located in the North and Centre of Italy, and they are very young. From the analysis of 236 purposes displayed in the bylaws by Italian Benefit Corporations, some topics emerge as more relevant: attention to the environmental impacts, employees, territory, community, civil society, promoting innovation, and sustainable practices, processes, and technologies, and collaboration and partnership. The common benefit has mostly between two and five declinations for every business.

India, in its developing stage, is facing the pains of development in the form of environmental degradation leading to all types of pollution and disasters. The possible way out of this menace is ‘Frugality.’ Frugal consumption can help reduce the pressure on land that is limited to the unlimited needs of man. It has been observed that economic affluence often succeeded with the scourge of problems mainly because of missing awareness and understanding in the individuals to reach the right and judicious choices. Through this chapter, I wish to present a classification of frugality based on will as forced frugal consumption and voluntary frugal consumption. In 2016, when the capital city of India, Delhi, was troubled by very unhealthy AQI the government came out with an ‘odd-even’ scheme for vehicles where people had to adopt forced frugal consumption of means of transportation in an attempt to curb severe air pollution. On the other hand, due to heavy rainfall when several cities were hit by floods people adopted voluntary frugal consumption as they were unsure of the coming adversities. Similarly, during COVID-19 lockdown restrictions people experienced both forced and voluntary frugality. So the chapter is an attempt to analyse the effect of both the ‘frugal consumptions.’

The chapter also discusses frugality as mentioned in different religious texts. It presents the result of a survey that was conducted post-COVID-19 lockdown restrictions to analyse the implementation of frugality. People not only got a chance to experience frugal living but also got au courant with the perks of this lifestyle. The people who resorted to frugal living agreed that their savings have increased and they were able to invest it for reaping future benefits. It has contributed towards their individual growth and economic growth at the macro level. Limited consumption not only helped them at the monetary level but also helped them gain inner peace and satisfaction. They have lived a much more contended and happy life. It also presents a frugal model and an equation for sustainable economic growth. Frugal consumption not only reduces the competition among the inmates in acquiring resources for their survival but also helps them make judicious choices and contain desires. Thus this chapter aims to highlight frugality not as an option but as a necessity of the contemporary world. The father of the nation Mahatma Gandhi has always emphasised on frugal and simple living. His thoughts have an imperative effect even today and if brought into practice can solve many problems that the nation is facing.

This research outlines information about the latest trends according to the Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) in Azerbaijan. It mainly identifies current opportunities and obstacles for SMEs in the aforementioned country and it also explains the government’s special program concerning the effectiveness of SMEs which clarifies some of the questions like financing, access to funds, and its process (application process, the main criteria, long-term perspectives, collaboration aspects, etc.).

In addition, it also provides possible solutions regarding the improvement and coheres with the global process where SMEs have a significant effect on economic integration. Concerning this procedure, it also has a direct impact on employment, income per capita, and other economic indicators where an expansion of the scope of these businesses enhances this process where it directly affects and boosts these indexes.

According to the result of this study, SMEs haven’t yet evolved effectively in Azerbaijan, some efforts are constantly affected to remedy these actions which were mostly connected to the streamlining of business license requirements and the enhancement of taxation but relies on statistical data. I may conclude that these measures are still insufficient, and it is essential to implement further incentive approaches by calling on international experiences. According to this reason, the institution for the development of SMEs must have a particular impact on this growth path. Additionally, the created roadmap has a crucial influence on the development process of SMEs.

The present research analyzes the evolution of the concept of social responsibility and its influences in corporate strategy, the need to recognize its role in the traditional economy, the relationship between corporate social responsibility and investor behavior and the correspondence between socially responsible strategies and relations with stakeholders. This in order to understand the role that finance plays today, as it should offer new tools to address the global challenges related to economic and social inequalities and climate change, to counter the negative effects produced by the economic models applied so far and to revive the economy after the Covid-19 pandemic.

The discussion will focus on the impact that Corporate Social Responsibility has on economic and financial performance, analyzing the transition of ethics in financial markets. This considering that recent economic crises have traumatically shown the complexity of monitoring and regulating increasingly interconnected markets, of sanctioning deviant behavior and the need to rebuild mutual trust. In this context, it emerged that sustainable finance is gaining more and more credibility and is attracting growing interest among financial agents, both institutional and retail: not only the volume of assets managed from an Environmental, Social, Governance (ESG) perspective appeared to be growing, but the Sustainable Responsible Investment (SRI) community has also shown to be wider, more active and a multi-stakeholder.

Nobel Prize Laureate Prof. Muhammad Yunus defined social business “as a business which is created solely for the purpose of solving a social or environmental problem, and it is a business from which owners do not take any dividend except to recoup their own investment”. By definition, environmental sensitivity and consciousnesses are essential components of the concept of social business. However, realising this function by social businesses also requires the redefinition of the legal and institutional system to allow this particular form of economic aggregation to perform its function fully. The chapter investigates these aspects regarding the Italian legal context.

This study aims to answer the following research question: “Can technologies of industry 4.0 in the society 5.0 paradigm contribute to achieve a sustainable development?” It aims to investigate the relationship between the spirituality of a new economy promoted by Pope Francis and the human-centered approach of Society 5.0. The goal is the construction of a society where everyone can share the same opportunities and it guarantees economic growth and well-being for all without discrimination.

The study is based on a qualitative and explorative approach using “Scopus” and “Web of Science” databases.

The traditional space is changing, it is necessary to merge the cybernetic/virtual space with the physical space. They are already talking about “Super Smart Society”, achievable through current 4.0 technologies including Big Data, Internet of Things (IoT) and Artificial Intelligence (AI). Big Data collected by the IOT and converted by Artificial Intelligence will reach every sector, place and social segments. The lives of all people could be more comfortable and sustainable, people will be provided only with products and services that serve them, in the necessary quantity and at the right time.

The research wants to shed light on the connection between the “Economy of Francis” mission and “Society 5.0” paradigm to realize a sustainable development of society and to identify the related critical aspects.

This chapter aims to answer the research question: “How does the ‘collective’ value co-creation process develop and is represented in place-based purpose-driven companies?” To answer the research question, the research design involves an interdisciplinary approach that connects Management, Business Strategy and Accountability. In consideration of the opportunity to grasp not only the essential elements of the physiognomy of a business model, but also the relationships between them, to verify their consistency, it may be useful to use the Mission-Governance-Accountability framework. As regards methodology, the qualitative approach of the place-based purpose-driven case study is particularly suited to the needs of understanding a complex phenomenon such as that of corporate behavior through empirical method, even in the case of evaluative research.

The model of Circular Economy (CE) encourages the adoption of a broad vision of production and entrepreneurial activities that integrate in their decisions the impacts on the natural environment and on all the stakeholders. The increasing adoption of environmental certifications of process (e.g., the ISO 14001 or the EMAS III), environmental product certifications (e.g., the ISO Environmental Labelling Type I, II, III) and certifications for corporate social responsibility (e.g., ISO 26001) reflects the orientation of companies in adopting a broader vision beyond their conventional economic boundaries. In the last few years SMEs and start-up companies are showing interest in the use of these certification schemes. This study evaluates the implementation of the CE, the adopted certification tools as well as how the aspects of the local environment and local community are considered in a sample of 20 circular start-ups by means of a questionnaire survey and interviews to the founders and managers. The results evidence that depending on the application of the model of CE the circular start-ups can be classified into four clusters (design-based, platform-based, waste-based and nature-based) as well as how they apply in a very innovative way the different principles and aspects of the CE (circular design, reduction, reuse, recycling, use of digital technology). The circular start-ups mainly adopt product certifications but about 35% of the sample consists of certified benefit corporations and benefit corporations. Finally, most of the start-ups (except platform-based) share a particular attachment with the local natural environment and local community showing interesting relations between the research fields of CE and place-based sustainability.

In the future society of knowledge (practices and digital worlds) the fundamental strategic factor is the quality of human capital and the relationships that shape it in a coordinated manner for the well-being of people and organisations, not just the availability of raw materials or advanced technologies as IT or cloud computing. Levers of well-being that represent factors for the integrated enhancement of the interconnections between human capital, social capital and semantic capital. Useful to forge the concrete transition from techno-centric approaches (for rigidity, heaviness and control) to anthropocentric approaches (for lightness, flexibility and self-organisation) towards eco-resilient, motivating and enabling organisations that have at their core the valorisation of emotions, feelings and passions and therefore of people between skills and competences accompanied by spirituality. “Emotional organisational” forms, therefore, insofar as they are engaging and participatory, and constructive of a new Humanism of Work and Enterprise to achieve a shared sense of our inexhaustible learning to learn in order to prosper together with the Other, who is within us and outside too. In the knowledge that within every worker, manager or entrepreneur—as well as in every user—we always find a person attracted by the sense of the limits in our species as living beings, hungry for reflective knowledge of the Other to explore their relentless overcoming between emotions and empathy in search of meaning in some shared happiness. The debate on the crisis of the welfare state and on the relaunch of a second-level (or proximity) welfare as a “complementary” to that delivered to us by the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, which is increasingly fragile and costly in all industrialised countries due to debt sustainability, social changes (family, work, life expectancy, mobility, education, gender gap, migration), technological change and transformation of the relationship with nature (cloning, induced fertility, biotech, neuroscience, etc.), is therefore fundamental.

Structural response to the endemic planetary phenomenon of job dissatisfaction that leads 70–80% of people in workplaces to demotivation (Gallup, USA, 2020) and thus to work poorly or uninterestedly or in depressive forms. Destroying—in this way—sense that will then be transferred also in private life in a vicious circle of relational fragility and malaise and with subtractive effects of creativity and intelligence. The aim of this contribution is, therefore, to try to shed light on organisational and business evolution which, as we shall see, puts the person back at the centre of the processes, in particular, by looking at the relationship between organisations, digitalisation and emotions, to reunite what Fordism had separated and the twentieth century consolidated (also by super-ordinating technology to Man and underestimating the relationship with nature, the environment and the community): machines and man, intellectual and manual, mind body and conscience, intelligence and operativity, decision and action, individual and community, abstract and concrete. This is a transformative trajectory in search of a “well-being without adjectives” that cannot be accompanied by the simple growth of income or luxury consumption, which dynamic organisations can help to support by enhancing the emotional factors and the multiple human and group intelligences, exploring their potential and constructively offering responsibility and collaboration in the awareness between mindfulness and sensemaking, “beyond” control and hierarchy in order to restore productivity (depressed for over 30 years)—and in particular cognitive one—stable positive performance and creative innovation. A transformation that is now necessary in organisations in order to rebuild a sense of corporate belonging as a common good that requires “strong” forms of direct and indirect participation in the generation of value for new forms of creativity at the service of employeeship (“beyond” leadership) for a shared growth of a company as an “ecology of prosperity” for a new “human flowering” in the smart organisation exploring talent in everyone in an emergent composition between competences, virtues and spirituality.