what is the role of business in protecting the environment?

Answer 1

Currently? Horribly enough, as little as they are able to get away with.

What should it be? A hell of a lot more.

Answer 2

As business is largely responsible for the mess that we're in, they have the major share of the responsibility to actively do something to help sort out the mess which we appear to be facing as our future.

There are a couple of techniques that businesses can use to help create a sustainable future for themselves and for us. Check out the link at the bottom of the page.

A much better way to look at this issue is to ask "In what way can I help ensure that my role in our consumer society isn't contributing to the overall problem?" This then places responsibility in your hands and gives you a surprising amount of power. This power is known as "the consumer boycott" and means that if you look at everything that you use through the lens of sustainability, you will discover what companies are doing something and what companies are doing the ostrich thing and ignoring our fate in favour of corporate profit margins. It allows you to buy from businesses which are promoting sustainability and avoid those which aren't.

One small example is the publication put out by Friends of the Earth (FoE) called "the Good Wood Guide". This little book allows you to make informed decisions about where you source your timber products and allows you to actively avoid those companies which are not managing a natural resource sustainably. This campaign has resulted in a couple of big hardware store chains in Australia disallowing a couple of big timber companies from selling their products because they were found to be unsustainable and customers were actively avoiding them...

There's also the McDonalds / McSpotlight campaign from a couple of activists in the UK from a few years ago, highlighting the nasty stuff that this huge corporation were involved in. The negative publicity forced Maccas to go "green" and start supplying their customers with recycled paper wrapping / packaging amongst other things...

Hope this helps!

Love and Light,


Jarrah