Monkey Trial - Who's Fault is it Anyhow?

The notion of the US Chamber of Commerce taking the EPA to court on a futile Who’s fault is it anyhow? shows the lack of insight regarding the commercial opportunities climate change offers industrious and innovative companies.

I don’t care if its man made climate change or the recession of the ice age, the fact is the environment is changing and something needs to be done. It’s about time we stopped pointing the finger and laying blame and focus our resources on action.

Find one little thing for consensus and start there.

Dr Lee E J Styger

www.leestyger.com

Consensus for Sustainability

There is no shortage of viable and meaningful technology entering the market to assist in cleaning up the planet and maintaining a sustainable future. The problem, as always appears to be a gap between the developers and the end users and/or the stakeholders. More often than not one side will claim the improvement is not enough and the other will claim the target is too high and that’s when the fight starts.

Overall, the greatest challenge to sustainability is not technical, nor indeed institutional, but rather that of consensus of all interested parties. Unless a consensus can be reached, we face years of further green wash and procrastination.

Do something - change something - one little thing can change our whole environment for the better.

Who will save us from these turbulent times?

In this evermore changing and turbulent world I can’t help thinking that sustainability has many different meanings to many different people. Clearly there is the drive to save the planet, but arguments over green wash or robust technological solutions, will be hotly debated discussions that run for many years.

Today, the argument of current carbon trading methods rages in government and science circles alike and the idea that developing audit or statistical modeling that presupposes that a large company will pollute more than a small company and large company must equate to a large polluter and small company must equate to a small polluter is as perverse as it is blind to the real world.

Fundamentally I would argue that if we were going to have true sustainability in monitoring and indeed trading carbon, then we have to move to real measures in real-time. At this point carbon can be traded within real supply and demand dynamics thereby boosting the confidence of the market.

If you can't measure it... You can't improve it

There is growing hypothesis that, following the current economic crisis, carbon trading will kick start the stock markets once again and that carbon is a new “commodity” albeit now being traded in a traditional way.

This carries several disadvantages; the most pressing being that “if you can’t measure it then you cannot improve it”, rendering any audit meaningless as a real improvement measure and resulting in the view that carbon trading is merely another form of taxation.

Unless commerce, government and the environmental groups can find consensus, we run the risk of continued inactivity and polar argument that will not benefit either the economy or the ecology.

NOT IN MY BEST INTEREST TO KILL YOU

It’s not in my best business interest to kill you - it's just not a sustainable thing.

Let me explain; if I provide you with an unsafe work area, and you end up dead, then I have a problem - no not all that legal stuff, I can always blame one of my managers - but rather it's now going to cost me money. I have to hire someone (money), train them (money), accept that there will be a learning curve, and therefore, lower productivity / increased quality issues (money), possible cultural issues with the rest of the team (money) and your replacement might not stay and then I will have to do it all over again (money). After all of this I would still have to attend your funeral - lost production and opportunity for me (money) and send flowers (more money).

No, on reflection it is just not sustainable to kill you. A much more cost effective solution is to provide you with a safe and happy environment, where you have the right tools and working environment to do the job and make me money. I like that idea, its a sustainable alternative for my business.

BUSINESS SUSTAINABILITY

Much has been talked about the sustainability of business and sustainability of activities across the planet.

In the present economic downturn, the challenges for sustainability are to be able to rise to the twin challenges of a financial climate that is in melt down, and a planetary climate that has been induced into meltdown by decades of neglect and an irresponsible attitude of blaming it on someone else.

As a business manager, whether public sector, private sector or in pubic/private partnership, it is in my best interest to produce an environment of well being. By safeguarding my environment and my resources (people, materials, time and money) I can maintain a dialogue with stakeholders to ensure that the environment is safeguarded and still generate the profits that my business demands.

So how do I safeguard my environment?

If I provide an area of ill being (strategic, financial and environmental) then I drive costs up and that is not sustainable. To make it sustainable, I need to look at the whole process chain, drive costs down, drive value up and thereby deliver a sustainable business and socially responsible environment for all.