Richard Welford - Hijacking Environmentalism: Corporate Responses to Sustainable Development

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Hijacking Environmentalism

Hijacking Environmentalism

Corporate Responses to Sustainable Development

Richard Welford

with contributions from:
Eloy Casagrande Jr
David jones
Tarja Ketola
Nick Mayhew
Pall Rikhardsson

First published by Earthscan in the UK and USA in 1997

For a full list of publications please contact:
Earthscan
2 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon OX14 4RN
711 Third Avenue, New York, NY 10017

Earthscan is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an informa business

Copyright Richard Welford, 1997. Published by Taylor & Francis.

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or utilized in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, nowknown or hereafter invented, including photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publishers.

Notices
Practitioners and researchers must always rely on their own experience and knowledge in evaluating and using any information, methods, compounds, or experiments described herein. In using such information or methods they should be mindful of their own safety and the safety of others, including parties for whom they have a professional responsibility.

Product or corporate names may be trademarks or registered trademarks,and are used only for identification and explanation without intent to infringe.

A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library

ISBN 13: 978-1-85383-398-4 (hbk) 978-1-85383-399-1 (pbk)

Typesetting by JS Typesetting, Wellingborough, Northants

Cover design by Andrew Corbett

This we know.
The Earth does not belong to man;
man belongs to the Earth.
This we know.
All things are connected
like the blood which unites one family.
All things are connected.
Whatever befalls the Earth
befalls the sons of the Earth.
Man did not weave the web of life,
he is merely a strand in it.
Whatever he does to the web
he does to himself.

Chief Sealth
Puget Sound, 1854

For Jason

During the past few decades almost every ecosystem and primal culture on Earth has been disrupted, and in many cases totally ruined, by aggressive human beings (mostly men) and the institutional structures which we have created. The massive deforestation, associated species extinction, the replacement of complex animal communities with monocultures of cereal grain or tree plantation, intensive cruel animal farming practices, the poisoning of water supplies, the displacement of many indigenous populations and the murder of protesters who get in the way of progress are all the result of human greed and the organization of the worlds resources to serve private capital.

Our world is now caught up in a vicious circle. The more growth there is the more problems appear. The technocrats cannot stop the spiralling monster associated with the large corporation and private capital because they are afraid that if they do, everything will come to a standstill, the system will fall apart and we in the West will be plunged into financial ruin. Of course, the powerful corporate interests in the system, at the root of the crisis, tell us that there is nothing to worry about because they are leading the move towards environmental responsibility. This book demonstrates that this is another corporate lie.

The culture of consumption, materialism and greed which now dominates human behaviour in the West is, of course, a very comfortable one, and one which separates us (for now at least) from the havoc which such a culture brings. Even though we are aware of poverty, hunger, torture, suffering and injustices we do not get too excited about them because they rarely touch us too deeply. In any case as individuals we either feel powerless to do anything about them or feel that it is simply not our responsibility to sort them out. To try to tackle the issues might also put ourselves and our way of life at risk. Such is the extent of our selfishness.

One of the things we must realize is that the growth which we have come to expect and the increasing standards of material living which we have seen over the past decades cannot go on for ever. Infinite growth with a finite pool of resources is impossible. As we exploit our Earth more and more, the consequence is simply further loss of biodiversity, more pollution, increased problems with human health and a widening of the divide which exists between rich and poor.

Awareness of these issues is key. As awareness increases so openness to new ideas expands. The 1990s have seen a growth in awareness and a search by more and more individuals for answers to more and more unsolved issues. Some people are coming to realize the despair which materialism causes, both by those who have consumed but have been left unsatisfied and also amongst those who have been alienated by the inability to consume at all.

There is a recognition that the environmental crisis exists but a great deal of helplessness about what to do about it. On the other hand there are a lot of people (and businesses) who profess to know a lot about environmental issues and claim to have the answers. We must be very wary of those who offer simplistic solutions to complex problems, especially when their wider agendas are unclear.

This book therefore examines the way in which industry has, to date, attempted to deal with the challenge of sustainable development. It argues that progress has been poor because of the lack of a real commitment to all the aspects of that concept. It challenges business to change, to recognize its potential for leadership and to go beyond mere lip-service to the environmental and social crises which are mounting.

The book is divided into three parts. The first, on defining the problem, demonstrates that whilst modernist versions of environmental management have received some attention, the wider ecological, ethical and social aspects of sustainable development have been ignored and usurped. In brief, industry has hijacked the more radical environmental debate taking it out of its traditional discourses and placing it in a liberal-productivist frame of reference. The book shows how senior executives and their business clubs have achieved this by reconstructing the environmental agenda.

In the second part of the book we examine some fundamental underlying tensions between the protection of the environment and the nature of modern businesses. The arguments here show how businesses continue to operate outside of the ecological carrying capacity of the environment. In addition it challenges the sacred tenet of international trade arguing that there remain strong underlying conflicts between sustainable development and free trade. It is also argued that business puts too much emphasis on hierarchical organizational forms which stifle participation (a key aspect of sustainable development) inside the organization.

The final part of the book examines the way forward for the more sustainable business. It presents new models of the sustainable organization which place greater emphasis on issues such as equity and ethics. It calls for an ecological and spiritual awakening amongst business leaders and it ends with a call for more critical research on business activities, abandoning both the restrictive positivist and traditional interpretive paradigms of analysis.

The contributions in this book are best read as a set of related essays. Although there is a structure to the book and I try to move from defining the problem to offering some solutions, each chapter can easily be read and understood in isolation. It also means that the chapters of the book can be read in any order. For the new researcher, for example, starting with the final chapter on research methodology would be a useful way to proceed. Equally the contribution by Tarja Ketola (Chapter 5) mapping out how business operates outside of natural ecological boundaries is a good starting point for people new to this subject area.

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