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Preface | September 2013

Planet, People, & Profits

Dr. Eloisa Perez

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Dr. J. W. Grant MacEwan, educator, environmentalist, politician and MacEwan University’s namesake once said… 

…about the planet,

 “Thou shalt love and cherish the Great World of Nature, God’s House on loan to us for a season. Conscientious tenants should aspire to nothing less the lofty, practical and moral roles of caretakership. Good citizens should be grateful for the privilege and honor of answering to the challenge of those roles commonly known as conservation and environmental protection.” 

…about the people,

 “Thou shalt despise the sins of extravagance and waste in the lives of both individuals and nations. In a world with limited resources and soaring populations, both breed hunger and misery.” 

…and, about profits…

“Consider well thy regard for money. In the lives of young people, exercises in making and saving money may be good but when wealth becomes a object of worship for wealth’s sake or is accumulated in greedy and dishonest ways, there is not much to be said for it and there are many better shapes for a lifetime purpose. ” 

Although these assertions were made more than 40 years ago, they could not be more contemporary. The world has reached a tipping point and a new business model, focused on the triple bottom line (planet, people and profits), is rapidly emerging. A clear sign of change is the growing number of businesses that have subscribed to the United Nations Global Compact (UNGC) initiative. These businesses are committed to practices that are bounded by the ten UNGC principles, which include guaranteeing human and labor rights, protecting the environment and adopting concrete measures to avoid corruption. Similarly, business schools around the world have signed the Principles for Responsible Management Education (PRME), a United Nations initiative that is intended to promote responsible management education based on the same principles as the UNGC. The main objective of PRME is to transform business students into responsible global leaders capable of creatively shaping the business landscape of the 21st century. 

The 1^st PRME Canada Regional Meeting was held at MacEwan University in June 2013 and gathered academics, students and business leaders from Canada and abroad. The best papers presented at the conference are now published in this Special Issue of Earth Common Journal. The theme of this issue “e3=earth, education, economics” emphasizes the need for integration, with education being the critical factor in the equation. The papers presented at the conference and now published at this special issue discuss important topics such as ecological education, climate change and insurance risk analysis, gender equality, sustainable business models, and fair value accounting. The breadth of such contributions shows the engagement and commitment of this new generation of future leaders to PRME principles and what they represent. 

I want to thank all members of the scientific committee for their support and collaboration in reviewing the papers and, in special, to the Editorial Board of Earth Common Journal, for their inestimable support and hard work. 

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About the Author

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