BUSNISS AND

ENVIRONMENT

BUSNISS AND
ENVIRONMENT
DR.QURRAT UL AIN

Instructor: Dr.
Qurrat ul ain
• German sociologist Ulrich Beck said that we are living in a ‘global risk
society’

• We have moved into a period of industrialization where risk is omnipresent,

whether from such globally transmitted infection, ecological issues and
associated natural disasters, terrorism or technological innovations.

• As a result we as a society are faced with the extraordinary costs of exploitative

systems of global capitalism.

• Clearly, how humans live on the planet must change and focus on sustainable
development to overcome these issues.
 WHAT IS SUSTAINABILITY?
• The brundtland commission issued its final report “our common future” in
1987.

• In this report sustainability was defined as

“managing resources without depleting them for future generations”. This concept
goes beyond environmental sustainability, which concerns earth’s natural
resources, to include economic and social sustainability, which relate to meeting
people’s current economic and social needs without compromising future
generations”.

• Sustainable development as development that meets the needs of the

present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own
needs.
1.Economic interests define the
framework for making decisions,
the flow of financial capital, and
the facilitation of commerce,
including the knowledge and skills
that are relevant to economic
activity.

2.Environmental aspects
recognize
the diversity and interdependence
within living systems, the goods
and services produced by the
world’s ecosystems, and the
impacts of human wastes.

3.Socio-political refers to
interactions between institutions
 WHAT DOES IT MEAN FOR BUSINESS AND
MANAGEMENT?

• “Corporate sustainability” has become a mainstream area of study in business

schools and accepted in many companies along with the concepts such as
‘corporate citizenship’, ‘sustainable enterprise’ and ‘corporate social responsibility
(csr)’, ‘corporate environmental management’ and ‘corporate responsibility’ .

• It is defined as an approach aiming to create long-term stakeholder value through

the implementation of a business strategy that focuses on the ethical, social,
environmental, cultural, and economic dimensions of doing business.

• Sustainability in business faced three waves

 THE IPAT EQUATION
•
The equation defines the relationship between a human population and its impact
on the environment.

• IPAT expresses a balance among interacting factors. It can be stated as

I=P×A×T
• It expresses the idea that environmental impact (I) is the product of three factors:
1. Population (P),

2. Affluence (A) ,the level of consumption per person and

3. Technology (T), as any human-created invention, system, or organization that

serves to either worsen or uncouple consumption from impact.
How to calculate the environmental impacts with IPAT equation?
Suppose we wish to project future needs for maintaining global environmental quality at present day levels for the mid-twenty-first
century. For this we need to have some projection of human population (P) and an idea of rates of growth in consumption (A).

An annual growth rate of about 3.5% seems

World Population Growth suggests that global
historically accurate (growth at 3.5%, when
population in 2050 will grow from the current 6.8
compounded for forty years, means that the global
billion to about 9.2 billion, an increase of 35%.
economy will be four times as
• If we wish to maintain environmental impacts (I) at their current
levels (i.E. I2050 = I2010), then
P2010 × A2010 × T2010 = P2050 ×
A2050 × T2050

This means that just to maintain current environmental quality

in the face of growing population and levels of affluence, our
technological decoupling will need to reduce impacts by about
a factor of five.
 HUMAN CONSUMPTION PATTERNS AND THE REBOUND
EFFECT

• In 1865 William Jevons14 (1835-1882), a British economist

presented the Jevons paradox principle which states that
“ As technological progress increases the efficiency of
resource utilization, consumption of that resource will
increase. Increased consumption that negates part of the
efficiency gains is referred to as rebound, while
overconsumption is called backfire”.
 CHALLENGES FOR SUSTAINABILITY
• TRADEOFFS

For example, in some instances it may be deemed necessary to degrade a

particular ecosystem in order to facilitate commerce, or food production, or
housing. In reality, however, the extent to which tradeoffs can be made
before irreversible damage results is not always known, and in any case
there are definite limits on how much substitution among the three
elements is wise (to date, humans have treated economic development as
the dominant one of the three).
Strong sustainability, where weak sustainability, where
tradeoffs among natural, tradeoffs are unrestricted or
human, and social capital are have few limits.
not allowed or are very
restricted.
GREENING THE BUSNISS
ENVIRONMENT
GREENING THE BUSINESS
ENVIRONMENT
 THE RISE OF MASS
ENVIRONMENTALISM
The first half of the 20th century was an industrial era marked by the rise of Fordist mass production and consumption. But this
industrialization also brought some negative impacts on environment for example
• The introduction of pesticides such as dichlorodiphenyltrichloroethane (DDT) that seriously damaged water systems (and bird
populations) worldwide.
• The rising volume of industrial effluents was having the same effect, one notorious case being Japan’s Minamata bay disaster,
where mercury outflows from a local factory poisoned local fish stocks, increasing cancer rates and the number of children born
with deformities.
• The end result was the 1962 publication of a book that became a seminal work for the global environmental movement: silent
spring, written by the American marine biologist Rachel Carson.

“The overarching theme of silent spring is the powerful—and often negative—effect humans have on the natural world. Carson's main
argument is that pesticides have detrimental effects on the environment; she says these are more properly termed "biocides" because
their effects are rarely limited to solely targeting pests”.
• Improved economic well-being during much of the late 20th century coincided with growing
acceptance of an ecological imperative and raised two “green” mindsets i.e. Social Ecology
and Deep ecology.

•
 WHAT ARE GREEN BUSINESS??

• Green businesses, also called sustainable businesses, seek to balance profit with the
health of the planet.
• Green businesses incorporate principles of sustainability into their business decisions in
order to reduce their negative impacts on the global or local environment.
• In light of the imminent threat of climate change to our planet, green businesses
endeavor to reduce their greenhouse gas emissions.
• Global research shows a 71% rise in popularity of searches for sustainable goods over
the 2016-2021 period, a trend that is accelerating in low and middle-income countries .
 WHY DO WE NEED TO MOVE TOWARDS GREEN BUSINESS?
WHAT KIND OF MORE STRINGENT ENVIRONMENTAL REGULATION CAN WE EXPECT
OVER THE COMING YEARS?

• Greenhouse gas emissions

Many governments are implementing policies to bring down their greenhouse gas emissions in line with their nationally determined
contributions to the Paris agreement. Some of these policies affect businesses directly, for instance when governments decide to phase out
fossil fuel subsidies or when taxes on electricity, gas or fuel prices increase.
• Waste
In order to manage growing amounts of waste and ensure proper recycling and reuse of materials, many countries place the responsibility
for managing waste on the businesses that manufactured the products in the first place. Under so-called extended producer responsibility
(EPR) schemes, producers become responsible to re-collect the products or packaging materials that they have brought on the market
and/or to cover the cost of disposal.
• Chemicals
There is increased regulation in the area of chemicals control, meaning that producers can either not make use of certain chemicals or
must be able to prove a limited use of certain chemicals. These regulations mostly affect businesses in agriculture, textile, manufacturing
and electronics. Producers in developing or middle-income countries can also be affected by regulations in countries to which they export.
• Water conservation
In countries with water shortages, water use registration, licensing and auditing may become firmer for business, while water usage
restrictions when temporary shortages occur may affect business operations.
 COST SAVING METHODS IN GREEN BUSINESS
• Process efficiency
By optimizing production processes or introducing more efficient processes, enterprises minimize the required inputs and reduce their
waste production.
• Product design
Enterprises can re-design their products in order to reduce the required inputs without sacrificing the product’s utility.
• Waste disposal
In addition to reducing waste by improving process efficiency, enterprises can reuse already generated waste or pass it along to other
companies in a process of industrial symbiosis. This reduces the cost of waste disposal.
• Source of raw material
Enterprises can reduce cost of raw materials by switching to recycled and recyclable materials, applying circularity principles .
• Energy efficiency
Enterprises can generate savings associated with energy-efficiency lighting, building insulation, cooling
and heating systems efficiency.
• Packaging and transportation
Enterprises can reduce costs by reducing the volume of packaging material and by switching to local
suppliers, thereby decreasing shipping distances.
FOUR MAIN ELEMENTS OF GREEN BUSINESS
 APPROACHES TO GREEN BUSINESS
• Enterprises use different approaches to produce green products and services and to green their business
processes. The most important approaches are:
• eco-innovation
• resource efficiency and cleaner production
• life cycle management
• circularity
• Eco-innovation

Innovation is about introducing something new to your business, whether it is a new product, a new market strategy, a
new process or simply a new way of doing things. Eco-innovation is any form of innovation that aims to reduce the
environmental impact of your products or services. Mostly, eco innovation is about the efficient and responsible use of
natural resources, including energy and water.
• Life cycle management
 Life cycle management is about managing the
environmental impacts linked to the whole life cycle of a
product or service, from inputs, manufacturing, packaging,
transport and distribution to consumption and final
disposal.
 Life cycle management is sometimes called the “cradle to
grave” approach, as it looks at the environmental impact of
products all the way from the cradle (where do the raw
materials come from) to the grave (how is the product
disposed of) .
Resource efficiency and cleaner production
Green enterprises apply resource efficiency and cleaner production approaches to reduce
the use of resources in their production processes. As such, they reduce environmental
pollution and save costs. This helps enterprises to increase productivity by applying
preventive environmental practices on a continuous basis.
• Circularity
It is about ways to put products, components, and
materials back into use and to avoid them being
discarded or ending up in landfills. Green businesses,
depending on the sector they are in, apply different
approaches to contribute to the circular economy.
Usually these approaches are based on the circular
economy principles of “eliminate waste and pollution”,
“keep products and materials in use” and “regenerate
natural systems”.