Inside Sustainability: Facts, Figures, Bullshit - Part III: Sales/Turnover Figures
_kt75 | reflections 01.3/2013
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Keywords Genuine sustainable development, turnover, sales figures, hype, car makers, China, overhang-effect, overlap-effect.
Figures contained:
_Annual GDP growth in China 2003-2013 (incl. projections till 2015)
_Sales figures of Audi, BMW and VW 2008-2012
_CO2-emissions China 2008-2012
_Ground plan of Chinese expressway network 2010
_Annual road fatalities in China 2008-2012
Summary Corporate sales/turnover figures represent the quantitative and qualitative specification of the impacts of any kind on resources of any type. Also here are ‘facts’ and ‘figures’ vehicles typically used to promote, convey and enforce interests in a more or less reliable way. The car industry, with particular consideration of the so-called ‘emerging economies’ (e.g. China), represents an excellent basis to analyse this issue. In this context the recent series of _kt75 | reflections provides facts and figures on the facts and figures with a particular focus on ‘sustainable development’. Essentially, it aims to put facts and figures in a realistic and reliable context to each other and tries to interpret the rationale behind the facts and figures and the way they are supplied.
Part III of this series of the _kt75 | reflections reasons about the sustainability of sales/turnover figures. It demonstrates the link between drastically growing car sales in China (partly up to +50%), the rapidly growing road construction sector, the in turn related rising bitumen demand (up to +20% until 2020) and the number of road fatalities in one of the most dangerous countries world-wide when it comes to traffic. In addition, this reflection provides a simple but logic theoretical explanation of the dynamics behind sales figures and related effects.
Consequentially, the paper demonstrates that sales figures typically are conversely related to e.g. environmental impacts, i.e. the higher the volumes of sold goods, the more drastic the consequences. It also discusses the most likely shift of energy consumption from e.g. Europe to e.g. Asia (i.e. towards the emerging economies), thus lowering the potential ‘benefit’ of the so-called ‘energy turnaround’ [Scharnhorst, 2013b].
Discussing the above four cases individually (Parts I – IV), summarising them in the final roundup (Part V) and concentrating on the insights gained in the past, this _kt75 | reflection hypothesises that the exclusively technology focussed and quantity based approaches, as widely promoted today, to implement sustainable development have failed (key failure factors are, among others: the human himself, money and information [Scharnhorst, 2013b]). Therefore, a well-balanced turnaround towards genuine and comprehensive sustainable development that takes qualitative and quantitative aspects as well as the technical, the environmental, the economic and the geo-political (societal) dimensions into account is proposed. Read the full paper...
Part III of this series of the _kt75 | reflections reasons about the sustainability of sales/turnover figures. It demonstrates the link between drastically growing car sales in China (partly up to +50%), the rapidly growing road construction sector, the in turn related rising bitumen demand (up to +20% until 2020) and the number of road fatalities in one of the most dangerous countries world-wide when it comes to traffic. In addition, this reflection provides a simple but logic theoretical explanation of the dynamics behind sales figures and related effects.
Consequentially, the paper demonstrates that sales figures typically are conversely related to e.g. environmental impacts, i.e. the higher the volumes of sold goods, the more drastic the consequences. It also discusses the most likely shift of energy consumption from e.g. Europe to e.g. Asia (i.e. towards the emerging economies), thus lowering the potential ‘benefit’ of the so-called ‘energy turnaround’ [Scharnhorst, 2013b].
Discussing the above four cases individually (Parts I – IV), summarising them in the final roundup (Part V) and concentrating on the insights gained in the past, this _kt75 | reflection hypothesises that the exclusively technology focussed and quantity based approaches, as widely promoted today, to implement sustainable development have failed (key failure factors are, among others: the human himself, money and information [Scharnhorst, 2013b]). Therefore, a well-balanced turnaround towards genuine and comprehensive sustainable development that takes qualitative and quantitative aspects as well as the technical, the environmental, the economic and the geo-political (societal) dimensions into account is proposed. Read the full paper...
Read the previous reflections
_01.1/2013: http://goo.gl/bKMfN
_01.2/2013: http://goo.gl/mqFvZ
