INSIDE DOUGLAS COLLEGE / FEBRUARY 20, 1990

 

 

 

A Clean Environment

by The Honourable Tom McMillan, Canadian Consul General to New England

Reprinted from “Inside Guide”,
Winter 1989, a publication of the Busi-
ness Council of British Columbia

Not long ago, environmen-
talists were commonly considered
eccentrics, if not subversives. Now,
everyone wants to be viewed as an
environmentalist.

What has brought about this
marked change in public values?
There is not single answer. Clearly,
the problems themselves are becom-
ing more serious. Environmental
catastrophes — Bhopel in India,
Chernobyl in the Soviet Union,
Three Mile Island in the United
States and the more recent oil spill
in Alaska — have dramatically in-
creased public awareness of en-
vironmental mismanagement.
Moreover, science is steadily ex-
panding people’s knowledge not
only of the problems but also of
their consequences. Increased
public understanding of the link be-
tween the environment and human
health is causing particular concern
— witness the growing market for
bottled water.

Some observers believe that in-
terest in the environment rises with
the Gross National Product and
slumps just as quickly when the
economy flounders; and, of course,
there has been unprecedented
prosperity in recent years. But
anyone who thinks that public con-
cern about the environment is a
mere fad is sorely mistaken. A
much more fundamental change in
public attitudes is taking place.

For their part, business people
have a choice. They can try to ig-
nore the growing concern about the
environment, in which case they’Il
end up being forced by the public
and by government to act respon-

sibly. Or business people can pro-
vide leadership in this area and
help set the rules themselves. Either
way, business is going to find itself
in a whole new ball game. Indeed,
the game is already well underway.

The leadership option for busi-
ness means the environmental bot-
tom line will have to be as impor-
tant to the corporate sector as the
fiscal bottom line. Business will
need to apply the environmental
ethic at all levels, from the
boardroom table to the shop floor.
That, in turn, will require fun-
damental change in the time frame
of planning.

Most businesses run on cycles
of a few months or, at best, a few
years. Environment cycles last
years, decades and even centuries.
The impact of business decisions
will have to be measured on a
much larger time scale if the more
serious long-term planning mis-
takes, such as those that gave rise to
acid rain, are to be prevented.

What does that mean in prac-
tice? It means reducing the amount
of raw materials and waste in-

volved in production. It means recy-

cling materials whenever possible,
it means understanding and avoid-
ing negative impacts through
rigorous environmental assess-
ments at the beginning of the plan-
ning cycle and not after irrevocable
commitments to build and expand
have already been made.

If all this sounds like a prescrip-

tion for bankruptcy in an increas-
ingly competitive world, it
emphatically is not. Since 1973,
when the OPEC oil crises hit, Japan
has slashed by 60 per cent the
amount of energy and raw
materials it uses for each unit of in-
dustrial production. The results, in

increased productivity and com-
petitiveness, speak for themselves.
The Japanese are demonstrating
that good business and good en-
vironmental choices can work
together.

We environmentalists used to
think pollution control meant a
return to harsh and simple life-
styles. Most of us now acknow-
ledge that a clean environment
does not require anyone to wear a
hairshirt. But everyone must match
demands on the environment to
nature’s ability to give. The greater
challenge facing business today is
to show the world how to do just
that. @

SFG REL NAAR PS RA SPT 2,