Sustaining Environment from Cradle to Cradle
Sustaining Environment From Cradle to Cradle
For the past 30 years environment has been the subject of a multitude of conferences, debates conventions, seminars, declaration and protocols. Yet we seem to be getting nowhere. The threat of global warming, depletion of the ozone layer, contamination of fresh water supplies, flood of toxic pollutants and declining biodiversity is catastrophic. Action can not be delayed.
World Environment Foundation is launching the Indian Sustainability Movement on 5th June followed by the 4th World Congress on Environment Management at Palampur from 7 - 9 June 2002 which aims to generate a mass movement for change in life styles and reorganize patterns of production and consumption that would mimic biological processes and result in zero waste.
An important prerequisite to sustainable development is adoption of good governance practices based on transparency, accountability, equity, integrity and responsibility. The Theme of the Congress therefore is 'Sustainability Through Good Governance'. My belief is that there are enough good people in the world and sufficiently strong public opinion to generate money to seed sustainable development strategies in developing countries. The biggest stumbling block to improving environment is poor governance. It is estimated that of the $ 33 billion of international aid for environment and welfare only 18% reaches the right people. In India itself, the government spends as much as Rs. 30,000 crore a year on rural development and poverty alleviation but only a small proportion of the same reaches those who need it. We need to make the aid more accountable and the process of disbarment more transparent.
Our governance systems are also responsible for wasteful subsidies, which damage the environment without helping the economic well being. Subsidies kill competition and help only the inefficient. A recent study by the International Institute for Sustainable Development estimates that global society spends almost $ 1500 billion a year to subsidize activities that cause significant environmental damage. These subsidies foster in-efficiency through perpetuation of lock-in of old technologies and prevent innovation.
Corruption is another serious impediment for Sustainable Development. Tens of billions of dollars exchange hands in graft and kickbacks worldwide. This results in production of wrong goods and services and increasing the existing burden of the poor who are at the receiving end in all such cases. Good governance practices can ensure better market framework conditions by encouraging freedom of competition. The public policy should focus on the targets, the desired end results rather than specifying the means of achieving the result. This cripples creativity and inhibits businesses to use their innovative ability to reach the target in a most cost-effective manner. Governance structures should be such that they support the entrepreneurial action, and risk-taking or innovation.
For sustainable development to happen we need an explosion of eco-innovation. Eco-innovation is defined as the outstanding implementation of ideas, which meet future needs. We need to challenge, stimulate and harness the phenomenal ingenuity and creativity of our people to conceive and deliver products that require less material, are less energy intensive, have less toxicity, and which can be reused, recycled and valourised in a way that eliminates waste. Eco innovators imagine and implement smarter, lighter, more sustainable means of providing service while enhancing customer value. Eco innovation can make skillful use of technology available today to match needs and wants more closely at a substantially reduced environmental burden, thus, helping us to meet not only factor four but factor ten improvements.
Business has to realize that the markets of 21st century will be driven by the aspirations of sustainability. Irresistible forces of population growth and indiscriminate use of natural resources for ostentatious consumption have already broken the fragility of our planetary systems. The only solution lies in radical shift in our thinking. Incrementalism is not an option. We need a 180 degree shift from current industrial paradigm and change to an economic order which moves from cradle to cradle in a closed loop manner and completely eliminates waste.
Author : Dr Madhav Mehra
Dr Madhav Mehra is the President of World Council for Corporate Governance
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