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Green Industry: The New Activists
(excerpts from People & Places website by Andrea Spencer-Cooke)
Can industry deliver sustainability? A quick glance at the corporate
track record gives sobering food for thought. While it has undoubtedly
brought improvement in standard of living for many of the world´s
citizens, much of the past half century of economic development and
industrial growth has come at the cost of endangering the very
life-support systems of the planet and its social fabric.
Three decades of environmental activism and human rights campaigning
have helped to highlight major issues, pinpointing corporate
wrongdoing, raising industry awareness and weaving a closer regulatory
framework. But it has also activated some areas of business itself.
It marks a fundamental shift in corporate thinking. At the root of this
new corporate activism is the belief that greater social and
environmental responsibility is good for business. As the chair of
Belgium’s Société Générale, Viscount Davignon, spelled out at a
conference on corporate social responsibility in Brussels in November
2000: “There is no good business in a bad community. We have no choice
but to be responsible.”
Rather than viewing environmental responsibility as a costly ‘add-on’,
such companies are seeing it as an integrated part of doing business.
Managing resources more ‘eco-efficiently’— using fewer inputs and
producing less waste for the same unit of output — benefits the bottom
line.
In keeping with this, American chemical major DuPont has adopted a
company-wide goal of ‘zero waste’ as part of its drive for sustainable
growth. In the words of Paul Tebo, former vice president for safety,
health, environment: “The quicker we get to zero waste, the quicker
we’ll have 100 per cent product.”
Thanks to such initiatives, in the US chemical industry as a whole
during the 1990s, emissions dropped 60 per cent in six years, while
production rose 20 per cent, successfully de-coupling growth in
pollution from growth in production.
With world population estimated by the UN to reach 9.1 billion by 2050,
meeting even the most basic needs of the world’s people will require
quantum leaps in resource efficiency. Harnessing industry’s creativity
and innovation in pursuit of this goal will require governments,
consumers and investors to set the right frameworks and send the right
market signals. For a small handful of companies, doing well by doing
good is reward in itself; for most of industry, the incentive to be
sustainable will simply not exist until markets and regulatory
frameworks actively reward proactive players and make polluters pay.
Cynics will argue that much of the apparent groundswell of change
visible today, along with the assertions so vocally made by large
companies, are mere lip service and that business is ignoring the
really big issues. These include distorting trade subsidies, lobbying,
corruption and the legitimacy of global institutions.
Even the most proactive companies may still be found to be engaging in
controversial practices in different parts of the business — and the
majority of companies probably stand guilty of wanting to keep their
products on the market for as long as possible even once more
sustainable alternatives exist.
Is it fair to sit back and expect industry to deliver sustainability?
The simple answer is no. Companies — and those who campaign for change
within them — are only one part of the equation. They can change, they
can clean up, they can design better products and processes. They can
reach out to all those involved in the business and be a force for
good. But sustainability will require more than that.
It will require market frameworks that make polluters pay and help the
poor to raise their standard of living. It will require international
institutions that empower all and promote level playing fields. It will
require governments that respect human rights and ensure access to
sanitation, education, justice and livelihoods for their citizens. And
it will require discerning investors willing to invest for the long
term and informed consumers willing to pay for change.
Andrea Spencer-Cooke is a freelance sustainable business consultant and former editor of Tomorrow Magazine, a leading global sustainable business publication. |
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