In this article, Professor Fred Gale from the University of Tasmania argues that our current institutions of government are unable to deliver Sustainability because they are tied to narrow economic thinking about value creation. He explains why we need to build institutionalised multistakeholder governance to ensure that all voices, values, and interests are heard, as we shift to true Sustainability.

In 1987 the World Commission on Environment and Development defined Sustainability as “development that meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs” (WCED 1987).

In modern economic value theory, neither the labour nor the useful goods and services it creates for a community while preserving the natural environment count as economic value unless they exchange for a price.

Sustainability value creation requires a significant upgrading in the meaning of economic value. In place of one-eyed reductionism, creating genuine economic value requires balancing exchange, use, labour, and function value in the pursuit of a fused economic, community, labour, and environmental agenda.

Concepts like ‘triple bottom line’ (TBL), ‘corporate social responsibility’ (CSR), ‘environmental, social and governance’ (ESG), and ‘people, profit, planet’ (PPP) partially capture this new, pluralistic, value proposition.

Buying in to Sustainability Value means that economic value no longer coincides with exchange value.