Environmental Engineering Reference
In-Depth Information
Fig. 15.1 Virtuous circle of environmentally-friendly businesses and consumers (MOE, 2008 )
• social support for taking prescribed actions;
• trust that there is no manipulation.
Leaders also have to deal with the psychological difference between 'avoidance'
goals and 'approach' goals (Snyder et al. 2006 ). This means that rather than seeking
to avoid something (typically environmental collapse), leaders need to emphasize
a target on which peoples positive thinking can focus. For instance environmental
degradation being restored (ecological regeneration) is a useful concept.
One theoretical framework for environmental leadership was proposed in the
Japanese Government's rationale for establishing the ELIAS and ELTP initiatives
(see Chap. 1). This offered the conceptual model in Fig. 15.1 of a virtuous circle
between environmentally-friendly consumers and green businesses eager to supply
these consumers with more sustainable products and services. Environmental lead-
ers are a mechanism for speeding this process, so that instead of the current small
minority of consumers and businesses who are motivated by sustainability, this
would expand to be the dominant paradigm in the economy. However as mentioned
in Chap. 1, surveys of the state of sustainability in business show that business
solutions to the sustainability challenges are not at a speed and scale necessary to
avert widespread environmental, social and economic disruptions. Moreover, there
is little evidence of rising sustainable consumer behavior since 2008. Furthermore,
public concerns over a range of environmental issues (including climate change)
have stagnated or declined, further reducing pressure for businesses to respond
more actively (Chap. 1, Fig. 1.1).
This situation reinforces a message which has been given by sustainable busi-
nesses ever since the formation of the World Business Council on Sustainable De-
velopment (WBCSD) in 1992- that is to say that business can only become more
sustainable if given appropriate signals by the market. To this end, the WBCSD
has repeatedly called on governments to remove perverse subsidies, apply the pol-
luter pays principle, implement economic reforms (pollution tax, cap and trade,
certification etc.), include resource use in GDP goods and services, and incorporate
the costs of externalities (starting with carbon, ecosystem services and water) into
the structure of the marketplace. Yet over 20 years after the formation of WBCSD,
the majority of these requests remain unanswered and the 2012 Earth Summit
(Rio+20) failed to make progress in resolving such inherent conflicts between
economy and environment.
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