when socio-environmental responsibility becomes part of profitable business
practice.
I discern three business-style ‘certainties’ to new-age life in
settler societies. The firstis that new-age technology is certain –
the solar-powered car will be followed by the hydrogen-powered
car – and these new technologies will be as profitable to new-age
business as the steam engine was to George Stephenson and the
combustion engine was to Henry Ford. The secondis that the
bottom-line purpose of business will remain business for profit.
Thethirdis that new-age democratic governments will decree,
variously, against energy use profligacy, the exploitative hollow-
ing out of finite resources, the dumping of reusable waste, and
the exposure of toxic residues to the biosphere.
Incorporating Fernando-Armesto’s epilogic collation
(Millennium1995) adds in these additional ‘certainties’. Four:
population growth will be contained. Five: totalitarianism will
return.Six: big states will continue to fragment.^2 Seven: cities will wither (!).
Eight: initiatives will continue to shift.
And here are two more ‘certainties’ rounding up the set to ten. Nine:that
domestic investing and government taxation will always outweigh the economic
significance of international investments. Ten:that settler society governments will
always be more powerful than corporations.
My point, the point, is that the means to achieve
environmental responsibility and social responsibility – better
lifestyles – amounts to considerably more than moral
browbeating and polemic grandstanding; what it calls for
is a getting from ‘here – living heavily’ to ‘there – living
lightly’.^3
Different administrations of varying complexion have
diverse objectives. Different nations, and different regions
within larger nations, have varying standards. Business,
though, has one objective and one standard – stakeholder
profits – and the generation of stakeholder profits conditions
their make-up, now and in the future, within every open
democracy. Governments can tax and legislate business as they
variously see fit – but they will always ensure that legitimate
enterprise is never put out of business. Indeed it is the job of
government to fashion situations in which business can
operate and profit. Business-based laws can be also passed to
prohibit the dumping of toxins, to limit rates of non-renewable
resource extraction, to achieve efficiencies in the use of renew-
able resources, and to observe the socio-environmental bench-
marks and achieve socio-economic outcomes.
But a dilemma confronts. First there is the morality angle about which we hear
a great deal; and then there is the matter of ethics (and philosophy) which has a
covert objective, to ensure that the mistakes of a free-for-all past, and the desire10 Principles
‘The complex
environmental problems
that challenge our future
are the direct result of
human, political, social
and economic judgments
exercised by nature and
on other peopleduring
the preceding industrial
age.’
Robert Collin and Robin
Morris Collin,
‘Sustainability and
Environmental Justice’,
2001 (Italics added)LIVING HEAVILY
Economic growth the
objective
Dysfunctional
suburbanism
Environmentally
exploitative
Energy profligate
Waste disposing
Toxic dumping
LIVING LIGHTLY
Social harmony a
priority
Balanced growth
an ideal
Conservation with
development
Energy efficient
Waste reused, reduced,
recycled
Toxins closed-off from
biosphere
Even-handed standards