Pursuing a ‘triple bottom line’
CU professor hopes better communication will foster ‘sustainable’ development
Surveying the booming environs of Brazil, Stan Deetz sees both peril and promise. He hopes a better communications strategy can realize the promise.
Brazil has rapid economic growth, which can improve people’s daily lives but can devastate the environment. Deetz, a University of Colorado professor of communication and director of CU’s Peace and Conflict Studies program, wants to foster “sustainable” development by improving the societal dynamics in decision-making.
In a recent trip to the Brazilian city of Bella Horizonte, Deetz worked with academics and major businesses to facilitate greater social, economic and environmental sustainability.
Traditional economics and most business practices, Deetz says, do not account well for “triple bottom line” sustainability. Interests and values of wider publics often affect decision-making only in reactive processes of regulation and public comment.
Creativity and mutual accomplishment, however, arise from proactive involvement in the decision process, Deetz says. To succeed, such participation requires new, often radical, concepts and practices of communication and democracy, he says.
With global climate change and pressures of development, he argues, societies need creative, solution-driven collaborations in which community differences drive new and better economic, social and environmental choices.
Like Australia and New Zealand, Brazil is trying to foster participatory democracy. This pursuit has often been limited by inadequate models of human interaction in decision-making. In the familiar form of democratic negotiation, Deetz notes, representatives of workers, corporations, NGOs and governments meet with fixed positions and seek compromises that weaken diverse goal accomplishment.
The more collaborative, participatory model Deetz espouses uses specific processes of communication to achieve creative mutually beneficial choices.
"Ideally, together we can build models that can be helpful in Brazil and be generalized to other national contexts,” Deetz says. He concedes that the challenge is daunting. As its economy grows, Brazilians face rising pressure to develop pell-mell.
But Brazil is also striving to balance economic development with rainforest- and native-culture preservation. Brazilians understand their special obligations to the rest of the world because of the rainforests, and believe that U.S. and Chinese development is unsustainable. A new approach is needed, and they want to develop that.
Deetz believes the possibility exists in Brazil for new models of decision making that show there is no inherent contradiction among the three bottom lines.
Surveying the booming environs of Brazil, Stan Deetz sees both peril and promise. He hopes a better communications strategy can realize the promise.
Brazil has rapid economic growth, which can improve people’s daily lives but can devastate the environment. Deetz, a University of Colorado professor of communication and director of CU’s Peace and Conflict Studies program, wants to foster “sustainable” development by improving the societal dynamics in decision-making.
In a recent trip to the Brazilian city of Bella Horizonte, Deetz worked with academics and major businesses to facilitate greater social, economic and environmental sustainability.
Rapid development in Brazil contrasts with the pre-existing shanty towns highlight the challenges facing the nation. (Photo: Stan Deetz)
Traditional economics and most business practices, Deetz says, do not account well for “triple bottom line” sustainability. Interests and values of wider publics often affect decision-making only in reactive processes of regulation and public comment.
Creativity and mutual accomplishment, however, arise from proactive involvement in the decision process, Deetz says. To succeed, such participation requires new, often radical, concepts and practices of communication and democracy, he says.
With global climate change and pressures of development, he argues, societies need creative, solution-driven collaborations in which community differences drive new and better economic, social and environmental choices.
Like Australia and New Zealand, Brazil is trying to foster participatory democracy. This pursuit has often been limited by inadequate models of human interaction in decision-making. In the familiar form of democratic negotiation, Deetz notes, representatives of workers, corporations, NGOs and governments meet with fixed positions and seek compromises that weaken diverse goal accomplishment.
The more collaborative, participatory model Deetz espouses uses specific processes of communication to achieve creative mutually beneficial choices.
"Ideally, together we can build models that can be helpful in Brazil and be generalized to other national contexts,” Deetz says. He concedes that the challenge is daunting. As its economy grows, Brazilians face rising pressure to develop pell-mell.
But Brazil is also striving to balance economic development with rainforest- and native-culture preservation. Brazilians understand their special obligations to the rest of the world because of the rainforests, and believe that U.S. and Chinese development is unsustainable. A new approach is needed, and they want to develop that.
Deetz believes the possibility exists in Brazil for new models of decision making that show there is no inherent contradiction among the three bottom lines.