Environment

Most companies have the environment as a policy focus area for corporate community involvement. But sometimes the relevance to the business basics seems pretty obscure - just a green fig leaf, to be seen to be doing something/anything, given the environmental damage being done?

Companies don't set out to pollute and destroy the eco-systems. That is a by-product of their main purpose which is to supply the goods that consumers want to purchase. They can and should minimise the environmental impact and be more responsible in their marketing. They can remember that profit maximisation does not always mean maximising sales. Certainly not enough companies are yet taking these issues seriously enough.

But consumers must alter their buying behaviour, consuming less and paying more, if damaging market dynamics are to change. The key is public education, especially of the next generation. A community involvement programme that makes environmental education in schools a priority is not so much a fig leaf, more a Trojan horse.

The second positive action is to help put right the damage being done. Planting trees, for example, makes a lot of sense for a oil company whose fossil fuels generate carbon dioxide when burnt. But community affairs budgets don't stretch any where near far enough to rebalance that equation.

Which takes us to the third required action, namely lobbying governments to create a level playing field, to stop one company gaining competitive advantage by evading its responsibilities. And here the OECD has a vital role in stopping one country from trying to gain competitive advantage against the rest. Kyoto gives cause for hope.

Corporate Citizenship Briefing, issue no: 37 - December, 1997