The Capacity to Endure: Following Nature’s Lead

Frank Fogarty, Amy Villamagna, Allen Whitley and Kelly Pippins
Additional contact information
Frank Fogarty: Sustainable Development and Conservation Biology Program, University of Maryland, College Park, College Park, MD 20742, USA
Amy Villamagna: Department of Fish and Wildlife Conservation, 100 Cheatham Hall, Virginia Tech, Blacksburg, VA 24061-0321, USA
Allen Whitley: Goodwill Industries of Central Texas, Austin, TX 78753, USA
Kelly Pippins: Sustainable Development and Conservation Biology Program, University of Maryland, College Park, College Park, MD 20742, USA

Sustainability, 2013, vol. 5, issue 6, 1-15

Abstract: Many businesses today are striving to improve their environmental sustainability for a variety of reasons, ranging from consumer demand for “greener” products to potential cost-savings. For many business decision-makers who lack formal environmental training, the process of identifying facets of their organization that can be improved is unclear and challenging. Inspired by the fields of biomimicry, industrial ecology and organizational ecology, this paper draws on the inherent capacity to endure (CTE) of the natural world and recognizes that ecosystem function can be used as a technical advisor to guide business sustainability. We identified major attributes of ecosystems that both contribute to their CTE and can be easily translated into applications for the business world. Each of these attributes (fitness, functional redundancy, keystone species, waste and efficiency) and their applications are discussed at length. While further work is needed to evaluate their effectiveness and appropriateness for individual firms, we hope they can serve as a starting point for businesses seeking to improve their environmental sustainability.

Keywords: sustainability; ecosystem attributes; sustainable business (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: O13 Q Q0 Q2 Q3 Q5 Q56 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2013
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (2)

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