Discourses and Educational Initiatives for Developing Sustainability Competences of the World Business Council for Sustainable Development

Abstract The adoption of the logic of developing sustainable development (SD) competences in the business environment has grown both in the literature in the area and in business initiative programs. One player that emerges with the aim of assuming leadership in this process is the World Business Council for Sustainable Development (WBCSD). This article aims to answer the following research question: Are the WBCSD’s discourses and initiatives for developing sustainability competences spaces of various translations of corporate sustainability or a place for reaffirming logocentric and definitive discourses on the theme? For this, we analyzed the institutional documents (Vision 2050 and Action 2020) and carried out a series of on-site visits at the Brazilian and Portuguese BCSDs. In addition, we conducted a set of in-depth interviews with the managers and participants in the initiatives for developing sustainability competences (DSC). The data were analyzed according to the categories of Derrida’s deconstruction process. The analysis of the educational initiatives of the Brazilian and Portuguese BCSDs showed that they include the various discourses on corporate sustainability in their formative approach; however, logocentric and definitive thinking about the theme is reaffirmed in that the way the Vision 2050 guidelines are carried out is limited to the application of management tools.

摘要 当前，商业环境中可持续发展（Sustainable Development, SD）能力培育逻辑的应用在该领域学术文献与商业倡议项目中均日益普及。在此进程中崭露头角并旨在引领相关实践的主体，当属世界可持续发展工商理事会（World Business Council for Sustainable Development, WBCSD）。本文旨在回应下述研究问题：世界可持续发展工商理事会（WBCSD）围绕可持续发展能力培育所提出的论述与相关举措，究竟是承载企业可持续发展（Corporate Sustainability）多元阐释的话语空间，还是重申该主题下逻各斯中心主义与确定性话语的场域？为此，本研究分析了该机构的官方文件《2050愿景》（Vision 2050）与《2020行动》（Action 2020），并对巴西及葡萄牙的地方可持续发展工商理事会（BCSDs）开展了多轮实地调研；此外，本研究还针对可持续发展能力培育（Developing Sustainability Competences, DSC）相关倡议的管理者与参与者开展了深度访谈，并依照德里达解构主义的分析范畴对采集到的数据展开系统性分析。对巴西与葡萄牙地方可持续发展工商理事会的教育类倡议分析结果显示，其培育路径纳入了企业可持续发展的多元话语，但与此同时，该主题下的逻各斯中心主义与确定性思维仍得到重申——《2050愿景》的落地路径仅局限于管理工具的应用。