Hmm, don’t really like saying this, but no I don’t think they have a duty to promote sustainable consumption. I think they should as we’re going to start hitting walls (if we haven’t already) that will make life on this planet not very fun, to say the least. The people who run businesses are as mortal as anyone and will face the same consequences, so I hope they (and everyone) will start to think about it more.
However, in an economic system that is based on increasing consumption levels, it’s not practical for most businesses to encourage sustainable consumption as it directly threatens their profits and hence their ability to compete. Indeed, in the case of corporations it could be deemed illegal! For this to change, the system has to change, which means…
…the duty lies with us. In general, as a global society, in particular, on us in the developed world and specifically on the governments we choose to elect. I think it’s a long, complex change and one that isn’t particularly palatable for developed nations as we’re the ones who get the most benefits from the current system. But change is good and more importantly – inevitable!
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Hi Dave,
ReplyDeleteNice said. As I mentioned in my recent post, businesses can not be excluded from ecosystem and that's why they will have to buy sustainability. Earlier the better! No doubt profit margins would go down but I feel it is a natural aspect of sustainability. If this happens, a low profit margin would become a global norm and there would be other (non financial) performance measures to decide company rankings.
It would also help to restore balance between different professions by reducing gap in earnings.
Hi David, great post! I wonder, how do you think we might start to move towards a society where businesses (and others) do what we 'should' rather than what we legally have to? Do you think regulations will be sufficient (or feasible?) or do we need new ecological citizenship ethics to motivate change?
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