BUSINESS IN A CHANGING ENVIRONMENT

Welcome to the CSIR Business Transitions Research Programme website where we take a closer look at the challenges business face in a rapidly changing environment. The research is being undertaken within the Natural Resource and the Environment (NRE) business unit of the CSIR in the Sustainability Science and Resource Economic Research Group.

With globalisation we live in a truly interconnected world. Many of the grand challenges that confront humanity—problems as diverse as climate change, the instability of markets, the availability of energy and resources, poverty and conflict—are the result of this interconnected web of cause and effect interplayed at the global, national and local scale. Compounded by the unprecedented pace of global change; life and business, as we know it is on the verge of an upset. New and emerging risks stemming from global change will emerge for which we may have insufficient social, ecological and economic resources available to deal with. As such business today is faced with greater difficulty and uncertainty associated with understanding their risks and maintaining sustainability. It is no longer enough for business to be addressing global social and ecological challenges by being less unsustainable there is a need for a transformational change; one that firmly refocuses business within the limits of the system in which they operate.

The research that we undertake in the Business Transitions Research Programme centres on exploring global challenges to the risk and sustainability of a business natural resource from the perspective of the interwoven relationship of the business to the social ecological system in which they exist. We are investigating ways in which business can engage and influence the resilience this system in order to secure and sustain the natural and social resources on which they depend. The research goes beyond reducing or discarding unsustainable practices, but puts forward a new paradigm where business should not see themselves separate, or in competition with, the social ecological system within which they operate.

This website provides a brief overview of the research progress made to date. It provides an overview of the research agenda, the path taken to get here, links to projects and publications and it unpacks the ways in which the research can improve the way business understand the role they need to play to ensure a sustainable tomorrow.