Surviving in the brutal world of business is tough. Keeping your business afloat in the current economic situation is tougher. Business isn’t about making friends, fighting enemies, or saving the world – business is about money. One doesn’t go into business to befriend other people, animals, or the environment, so slapping the environmentally friendly label on products and services is misleading.
The fact of the matter is that if we ask ourselves ‘why’ enough times, 9 times out of 10 we’ll get to the word money. The tenth time we ask ourselves the question, the answer will be because I can. I’m going to avoid sugar-coating the dilemma, we already have an obesity epidemic running through the world; so how about we strip off this child-friendly label and reveal the big picture? It’s not about being friends with Mother Nature, it’s about having a balanced relationship that can be sustained for decades to come. It’s about environmental sustainability.
Coincidentally (or not), environmental sustainability and economic sustainability go hand-in hand. An ideal economic model would be driven by demand and supply, however, many will argue that the reason that we are in the economic crisis that we are in right now is that our model was redefined to be primarily driven by demand as supply took the back seat. Thus, redefining our outlook and moving towards a more sustainable model that considers our most valuable resource on earth (earth itself) as the primary driving force that determines the success and longevity of our economic security is a step forward.
It is true that as the industrial revolution progressed, the health of our planet began to deteriorate heavily. But this did not happen because industrial revolution is a virus infecting our earth, rather because it acted as a cancer, multiplying much faster than we can ever account for or prepare fore. Not enough time or consideration was given before we received the drug, and thus, we suffer.
But as pharmaceutical companies will tell you, every side effect has a cure that can make millions. and just as pharmaceutical companies aren’t friendly, this cure isn’t friendly: this cure is environmental sustainability. This cure is honest. It creates a true job market and a hub for entrepreneurial life-saving spirit.
If we look at the countries that developed most rapidly after the industrial revolution, we’re looking at economic basket cases whose debts run into billions of dollars. Likewise, if we take one of the strongest economies in the world, Japan, and study their economic model, we’ll find that it is very much based on waste-elimination.
Cutting waste isn’t about being friendly, it’s brutal, but it must be done to sustain a lasting economic module that can survive anything, including nuclear and power-plant disasters. There’s no need to fluff things up and claim it’s environmental friendliness. Call it like you see it – call it sustainability
So the question what if we stop fluffing the core issues up and stop trying to sell businesses the idea of being friendly and move towards pushing them to be their true money-making selves, will we achieve true economic and environmental sustainability?
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