Business. Environment. Balance

Long gone are the days of hippies and activists alone protecting the existence of fauna and flora and protesting against the wrongs done to the environment by industry and big business. Our green playing field has changed indeed, with businesses stepping up to the plate and taking charge of their environmental and social responsibility issues.

The global business culture is evolving in order to make provision for and actively get involved in initiatives that mitigate climate change, curb resource consumption and reduce waste generation. This trend is new. It has taken many conversations, publications, research projects and thoughts to drive home the message that our planet is under threat, not from external impacts, but from the very advanced life it sustains. It seems that all this thankless work is finally starting to pay off and as if individuals and organisations have tuned into “Channel Earth”.

I remember watching a documentary about 10 years ago, outlining the activities and protests of NGOs such as Greenpeace, where some brave individuals would tie themselves to trees or sabotage whale hunting activities in the Pacific. These images evoked a very emotional response and some sense of fatalism for all life on the planet. However, a key component was missing, something which could have had much greater impact were it executed with the right motivation to support it.

What then was the missing link? There was a need for an ability to demonstrate the effects not only on the forests or the whale populations, but also on sustainability of life and ultimately business on our planet. Saving the planet is a business consideration, not only an emotive issue.

I am not in the ranks of doomsday disciples, but I do care about my future, which includes a right to food, health, clean environment, energy, freedom of speech and spiritual and sexual conviction for all. It also includes a desire for social development, economic growth, advancement of science and eradication of poverty and dread disease. I am sure I’m not alone in my wishes, but only one speck of dust in the galaxy of humankind all requiring these elements in their personal worlds.

Many of these elements can only exist through collaborative effort by business, government and individuals actively to better the world in which we find ourselves today. As businesses are the mainstays of development, whether economic or social, there exists incredible potential for organisations to take control of sustainable development and capitalise on their efforts in doing so.

South African business has been affected by myriad challenges over decades past. These include black economic empowerment, employment equity, international sanctions and volatile currency performance. However, these challenges and associated target requirements have only served to strengthen organisations through introducing diversity into the workplace and decision-making space. Our country’s people and business have an immense ability to adapt to changing environments, adopt alternative growth and operational models and create value by doing so. We are a step ahead on the corporate evolutionary ladder. It should then come as no insurmountable challenge to adapt to the pressures of ensuring environmental sustainability.

The first flinching response from business may be based on the incorrect assumption that changing behaviour or processes will cost. This is fallacy. Fact is that if businesses do not evolve and adapt to change, they run a real risk of extinction. We cannot afford to have corporate dinosaurs negatively affecting growth and development and ensuring the future presence of the human race.

Businesses that do not adapt to change run the risk of being shut down out of necessity, to curb their effects on our planet and people. It is in the interest of all businesses to review their positioning in terms of business-environment balance and apply corrective measures as early as possible. The consumer world is demanding responsible brand practice and governments are tightening the controls on environmental performance of organisations.

There are a number of real threats to business in the future, should they not accept the challenge of ecologically responsible behaviour now, including: shortfall of resources and raw materials, additional consumption and waste taxes, escalating costs related to environmental clean-up and rehabilitation, potential externality costs related to volumes of resources consumed and waste produced, and conceivably violent sabotage of facilities or costly legal battles. Although there may be some capital expenditure associated with changing corporate behaviour and processes now, these will not approximate the expected costs related to corrective action or operational shutdown in future.

Given the current global awareness of issues such as climate change and biodiversity extinction, as well as immediate threats of contaminated water resources and scarcity, there is a real opportunity for organisations to capitalise on reducing their environmental impacts. Very often it is possible to generate business value through evaluating processes and procedures and redesigning these to consume less or generate less waste. Associated cost reductions directly improve profitability of business. It is more difficult to quantify value creation as a result of brand perception, but the resulting consumer selectivity also has a direct positive effect on business value.

Certain brands that have achieved positive eco-status include Woolworths, BP, Apple and Nedbank. You may ask what these organisations have in common. It is likely only their drive to improve their environmental performance by reducing their overall impacts and ensuring sustainable practices and development.

Evolving business so that it may be in harmony with the environment in a short period of time may seem like an insurmountable challenge. It need not be all that complicated! All it takes is an objective evaluation and quantification of current impacts, identification of impact-reduction opportunities, concrete target setting and implementation of initiatives or projects to enable an organisation to reach its targets and objectives.

These projects may address all activities and impacts of the business, its suppliers and customers and includes all aspects related to impacts on land, water and air. It is the dawn of a new world, on in which businesses take the lead in the race for sustainable energy, water and raw material solutions and where they educate and lead by example the multitude of nations and individuals in need of sustenance, energy and a place in the sun.

We certainly do not measure an individual’s success only over the course of a year, but rather evaluate his life’s contribution. It only stands to reason that the measure of success of a business is not only related to the profits it generated over a financial year or even a few, but rather to the amount of value it added to the lives of its employees, surrounding communities, shareholders and other stakeholders and the future presence of life as we know it.