Business and Environmental Sustainability

BUSINESS AND
ENVIRONMENTAL
SUSTAINABILITY
Without environmental sustainability,
economic stability and social cohesion
cannot be achieved.
-Phil Harding
ENVIRONMENTAL ISSUES AND
SUSTAINABILITY
 Business organizations and individuals alike are called to
take part in addressing the pressing environmental issues.
 One of the environmental issues that directly concerns

business organizations is the depletion of natural resources.
6 PERVASIVE FACTORS THAT
CONTRIBUTE TO THE DEPLETION OF
RESOURCES
1. Consumer affluence 4. Population Explosion
2. Materialistic cultural 5. New and Uncontrolled

values technologies
3. Urbanization 6. Industrialization
CONSUMER AFFLUENCE
 The increase in wealth of individual income has led to

increased and indiscriminate spending and consumption,
which produce waste.
 Promotion of consumerism leads to increasing pollution,

resource scarcity, and other forms of environmental
degradation around the word
MATERIALISTIC CULTURAL VALUES
 Consumption over conservation
 “throwaway culture”
 Promotes the practice of overconsumption and excessive

production of disposable or short-lived items
URBANIZATION
 Concentration of people in cities increases pollution.
 More people means more demand for houses, which
pushes the developers to use lands that once were forests
or to reclaim land from bodies of water
POPULATION EXPLOSION
 Population growth means more industrialization, product
consumption, waste, and pollution.
NEW AND UNCONTROLLED
TECHNOLOGIES
 Some companies that prioritize profits, convenience, and
consumption over environmental protection disregard the
impacts of the technologies they used and developed.
INDUSTRIALIZATION
 Industrial activities deplete natural resources and the
destructive use of the environment for economic reasons
causes environmental decay
FARMING AND FISHING
 Major sources of livelihood in rural households
 However, some farming techniques being utilized have

bought unwanted environmental consequences such as:
 1. soil erosion 2. water pollution 3. groundwater

depletion 4. loss of natural habitats 5. loss of biological
diversity
DENR AND MDGs
Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR)
United Nation’s Millennium Development Goals (MDGs)
- various sectors who initiated to mitigate the adverse

environmental impacts of farming systems to protect
agricultural production.
ENVIRONMENTAL VALUES
Why should business organizations be concerned with

environment and value the natural world?
Why does the environment need protection from

degradation?
BACKCASTING
-a process in which it examines what the future will be
when we emerge through the funnel.
STEPS:
1. Begin with the end in mind. “What do we have to do

today in order to be successful in this endeavor?”
2. Move backward from vision to the present
3. Move step by step toward the vision

APPROACHES TO
ENVIRONMENTAL SUSTAINABILITY
Three different approaches to environmental sustainability
that the business organizations can practice:
1. The Market Approach
2. The Regulatory Approach
3. The Sustainability Approach

1) THE MARKET APPROACH
 Focuses on efficient markets that seek profits but allow the

market to allocate resources efficiently.
 Premised on the idea that it is possible to involve

corporations, individual, and government agencies by using
prices that force them to economize.
 The market itself can regulate and decide what is best for
the environment.
2) THE REGULATORY APPROACH
 Every country implements its own laws and regulations on environmental
protection.
 DENR task is to regulate the use of natural resources, issue permits to

business that require use of these resources, and implement policies to
prevent pollution and abuse of natural resources.
 Regulatory standards are establish to prevent the occurrence of

pollution, environmental degradation, and species extinction.
 Laws are considered as the minimum standards to ensure air and water
quality and species preservation
3) THE SUSTAINABILITY APPROACH
Three pillars of sustainability:
1. economic 2. environmental 3. Ethical
Sustainability or sustainable development
“development that meets the needs of the present without

compromising the ability of the future generations to meet their
own needs” (Hartman, DesJardins, MacDonald 2014)
THE CIRCULAR FLOW MODEL
THE SUSTAINABLE MODEL
PRINCIPLES FOR BUSINESS
SUSTAINABILITY
 Eco-efficiency
 “doing more with less” and has been an environmental
guideline for decades
 Biomimicry
 The waste materials of one company are turned into a
resource by another firm.
 Ultimate goal is to eliminate waste instead of just reducing
it.
 Service-based economy
 Shift from goods to services
 This principle produces incentives for product redesigns
that create more durable and more recyclable
products.

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BUSINESS AND

 One of the environmental issues that directly concerns

1. Consumer affluence 4. Population Explosion

2. Materialistic cultural 5. New and Uncontrolled

 The increase in wealth of individual income has led to

 Promotion of consumerism leads to increasing pollution,

 Promotes the practice of overconsumption and excessive

 Major sources of livelihood in rural households

 However, some farming techniques being utilized have

 1. soil erosion 2. water pollution 3. groundwater

Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR)

United Nation’s Millennium Development Goals (MDGs)

- various sectors who initiated to mitigate the adverse

Why should business organizations be concerned with

Why does the environment need protection from

1. Begin with the end in mind. “What do we have to do

2. Move backward from vision to the present

3. Move step by step toward the vision

1. The Market Approach

2. The Regulatory Approach

3. The Sustainability Approach

 Focuses on efficient markets that seek profits but allow the

 Premised on the idea that it is possible to involve

 DENR task is to regulate the use of natural resources, issue permits to

 Regulatory standards are establish to prevent the occurrence of

1. economic 2. environmental 3. Ethical

Sustainability or sustainable development

“development that meets the needs of the present without

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