The Business Transitions Research Programme exists within in the Green Economy Solutions Competency Area within the Natural Resources and Environment (NRE) business unit of CSIR. The programme, for which projects have been mainly funded through parliamentary grants, have provided the opportunity to increase NRE’s capacity to respond to business that are grappling with sustainability challenges linked to the dynamics of global changes and natural resources depletion. The NRE is well placed to carry ou
t this research, given its competencies in earth and integrated human-ecological sciences for decision-making.
By means of a project team comprising of sustainability science scientists, resource economists, anthropologists and environmental managers the objective of the programme has been to develop guidance mechanisms to better enable business to assess uncertainty of their natural resource risk landscape by means of a holistic systems approach. In essence the project serves as a mechanism for bridging the divide between sustainability/natural resource sciences and business management through growing knowledge, language 
and understanding specific needs of business.
Research within the programme has primarily been undertaken in the form of a theoretical evaluation of literature and stakeholder engagement and through defined case studies. This two fold approach has enabled the project team to build the business case and clearly communicate the benefits of a social ecological systems approach and resilience theory to risk assessment and corporate sustainability to contribute towards long-term corporate sustainability and decision making. This exciting and emerging area of research is driven by unprecedented pressure on business to better understand the systems in which they operate.
It is our aim, through our good grasp on social ecological systems approaches to build corporate partnerships in which we jointly work towards the development of practical tools to grapple with complexity, uncertainty and resilience of business within the context of achieving sustainability.
