Recently in his word President of a world leading manufacturer of copiers and office automations (fax machines, scanners, photocopiers, printers, printer cartridges, toners etc.) stated ‘with the global environment in crisis, the commitment to a sustainable society is stronger than ever.’ This is not a usual rhetoric from the head of a very successful corporation who were recently listed amongst the Global 100 Most Sustainable Companies in the world. It’s a genuine commitment and clear departure from a model of mass production and mass consumption to build a new business model. Such paradigm shift and finally radical changes from the precedent model to a new model has challenged the traditional principles of society and economies that are built on.
Corporations are facing new environmental challenges, trying to achieve things that can make a difference to our society and planet as well as to the businesses environmental performances and its productivity, efficiency and profits. It’s not a trillion-dollar question any more on who will now lead the environmental conservation battle. Economic research has always opposes the strategies on urgent actions to reduce green house gases often misleading, while Stern Review on the Economics of Climate Change has concluded that strong and urgent action in fact good. Beyond the conclusion of array of dubious reports yet there are evidences which strongly suggest that business as usual in not an option anymore, on the contrary big businesses are benefited by tacking the two critical issues – business risks pose from biodiversity and environmental degradation and ethics of the responsibility of current generations for the future generations. Big businesses have come a long way from those days where corporate greed prevailed over the mass degradation of biodiversity and environment. Corporations are now more and more moving towards to create a new society with new values and rules.
Sustainable society said to be built when there is a balance in using the natural raw materials and assimilate waste while maintaining the biodiversity and quality of life. This balance has been increasingly undermined since the Industrial revolution as environmental impact imposed by human has increased, which sequentially destroyed the earth’s self-recovering capabilities. Therefore, it is absolutely vital to adhere the environmental impact reduction goal ensuring both human beings and the environment can coexist; moreover restoring the Earth’s self-recovering capabilities.
Following initiatives may apply for the medium and long-term environmental impact reduction. Firstly, areas of Energy Conservation and Global Warming where reduction of total CO2 emissions throughout the life cycle of products and technologies for better environmental performance and advice for customers greener use. Secondly, Resource Conservation and Recycling in other word reduce new input of resources in view of possible resource depletion. Those elements which are usually dealt with for instance, reduction of new extraction of fossil and mineral resources, smaller size and longer life of product (resource use could be minimum), increase recovery and recycling rates and more use of biomass materials. Thirdly, Pollution Prevention where necessary (management and reduction of chemical substance to minimise environmental-related risks) such as minimise potential damage from chemicals and rigorous management with a traceability system (Ricoh Group Sustainability Report, 2010).
Alongside reducing environmental impacts, more and more business corporations have started to respond by reducing their impacts on biodiversity, which lies at the core of sustainable development. Biodiversity plays an important role to keep our planet and its people healthy, it sustains human life. Failure to conserve biodiversity in a sustainable manner would have far greater negative consequences on all living species on the planet, which will affect us all. For quite sometimes, Multi National Corporations (MNCs) have been engaged in global environmental conservation in maintaining and recovering planet’s intrinsic capabilities to cure itself and also helping to reduce the negative impacts from their business activities.
The obvious connection between business activities and the biodiversity may not seem to be connected at first stance; however the following connections are very important to recognise. For example the procurement of raw materials, using of energy resources in every steps of manufacturing process to logistics, use/maintenance, collection/recycling, environmental protection, ensuring sustainable growth, strengthening supply chain, cost savings, being seen to be green, healthy and happy staff etc. Therefore, there has been a strong business case and principles for the MNCc to integrate biodiversity conservation plan into their core business management to move further closer to the new model.
In order to achieve best biodiversity performance it is necessary that the biodiversity action plan has a co-ordinated approach. First step is to strengthen existing environmental management system. A simple systematic management ‘plan-do-check-act’ cycle could be implemented. Responsible people in management must identify first the projects or activities that they want to carry out. Three levels of biodiversity such as species, genetic and eco system diversity must be protected. Following action examples to restore ecosystem recovery may be considered. 1) Think and Act from creatures’ point of view e.g. creation of natural habitats for the endangered species, restoration of neglected woodland, securing the spots of areas of uniform environmental conditions (biotope) for the flora and fauna e.g. recovering or creating of shallow water areas. 2) Monitoring & evaluation e.g. using the ecological indicators such as counting the number of dragonflies and frogs in an area. 3) Building collaborative and cooperative relationship with local people e.g. contributing to the local community scheme, engage with highly specialised organisations, plan and implement cultural services such as aesthetic, emotional, spiritual inspiration & recreational activities, encouragement to the next generations for future biodiversity conservation activities.
Pursuing a sustainable society would not be fulfilled without the development of innovative environmental technologies. It’s an ongoing task for MNCs yet as the player of ‘Environmental Industrial Revolution’ to continue contributing towards a new society through the development of clean technologies. This would be driving force for corporations which will anticipate lead to a prosperous society and economy as a whole with different values. Innovative environmental technologies would touch the fundamentals of sustainable business practices with the aim of reduced waste, innovative manufacturing processes that requires less energy, minimising green house gas emissions, using more recycled and alternative materials to manufacture the same products. However, stand alone efforts undertaken only by the company wouldn’t be sufficient rather it should be rolled out and continued working with the stakeholders throughout the world including customers, up and down-stream supply chains, investors, NGOs and the public.
A stronger environmental management is even more necessary to incorporate all the elements of new business models. One of the focus strategies of corporation is to strengthening and intensifying sustainable environmental management for their mid and long term plan. Identifying the risks and opportunities that global environmental problems pose, social changes which inevitably resulting from those environmental problems and incorporating all these into decision making process based on finding results have become routine and sustainable environmental management aims to achieve concurrently environmental conservation and profits. In time, successful corporations will be those who recognize and put into practice sustainable environmental management considering their competitive advantage that greening their products and having clean technology in place can help bringing them closer to a sustainable society in the future.
