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The G-word: Do Businesses Touting Green Practice?
The G-word: Do Businesses Touting Green Really Practice What They Preach? For many years, management theory and practice had not taken into account the environmental impact that businesses' activities may have. This was first captured by Paul Shrivastava, professor of management at Bucknell University, with the metaphor of "castration[1] ." His theory supports the fact that organizational theories should be forced to look at the environment and nature as a requirement for the development of organizational activities. Indeed, Galdwin mentions many examples of management theory that lack environmental concerns (of a non-human nature): strategic management literature (Hosmer; Pauchant and Fortier; Throop, Starik, and Rands), stakeholder theory (Starik), and business ethics (Hoffman)[2] . This calls for a review of existing business practices. And yet today, environmental concerns are everywhere. Everyone seems to be going green—especially businesses. However, how are we to know if these environmental concerns are in fact what really moves businesses towards lowering their environmental impact? Furthermore, are these so called "green practices" actually legitimate and focused truly towards the protection of the environment, or are they just profit-driven and for image perception? Is society being green-washed? Offer responds to demand. The more the general population is sensitive to and informed about offer, the more products will be available to meet its needs. In fact, consumers play a big role in lowering production's environmental impact. This is one of the main reasons why it's important to know what impact our consumption habits have on the environment and on society. Unfortunately, the price we usually pay for goods and services does not reflect the overall cost that these products represent (mainly the ecological impact costs which will be paid by future generations). We know our planet has scarce resources. According to the Footprint Network, our current consumption rhythm and waste production needs a total of 1.3 planet Earths in order to work. This is completely unachievable. The study estimates that if consumption continues as it is now, by 2030 we'll need two planets in order to satisfy our consumption needs. Organizations' Need to Be Responsive In order to slow the deterioration of our ecosystems, essential changes need to be made to our consumption habits, our values, the prices of products we buy, and the technologies used to produce them. Even though the main consumption trend is quite strong, its shocking results should force society into action. And without a doubt, the environmental crises we're currently going through are accelerating these attitudinal changes. Undeniably, "green" goals cannot be achieved without mobilizing key sectors such as public administrations, non-governmental organizations (NGOs), and industries. At the end of the day, however, it's the end consumer that is still the decisive stakeholder for profound transformation. According to a survey conducted by McKinsey consultants in 2007, 87 percent of consumers say they are concerned by the social and environmental products they buy[3] . In addition, one third of the surveyed population state they are willing to buy more environmentally friendly products—yet they don't know how to translate these motivations into concrete consumption habits. For example, when it comes to actually buying "greener" products, no more than 33 percent of all the people surveyed actually buy low-environmental-impact products. The same study found several barriers to the consumption of environmentally-friendly products, such as lack of awareness, negative perceptions, high costs, and poor availability. In order to better market greener products, companies need to find a way to overcome these obstacles. Here are just a few questions that consumers can ask themselves when purchasing products[4] that can help to lower their environmental impacts.
And Yet, Most Undertaken Strategies Are Still Reactive. Is It Really That Bad? A crisis is usually defined as the accumulation of serious incidents that represent major risks and that demand crucial decisions in an uncertain context and can usually lead to catastrophe. Nonetheless, for companies, major risks are difficult to anticipate and are rarely frequent. In an industrial context, major risks become crises (e.g., Bhopal, Exxon Valdez). These risks are often characterized by being systemic—given the difficulty of identifying the one soul responsible. Moreover, the main components of crises are human mistakes, incongruous decisions, unconsciousness, apathy (or lack of action), and lack of time for prevention practices. In his book Crisis Management, Planning for the Inevitable, Steven Fink expands on the Webster's Dictionary definition of a crisis as a "turning point for better or worse"; as a "decisive moment" or "crucial time"[8]. Fink further explains crisis management as "the art of removing much of the risk and uncertainty to allow you to achieve more control over your own destiny" . Thus, the importance of crisis management in establishing preventive actions in companies. These can be carried out through the alignment of environmental concerns on a company's culture, values, products, technologies, and most of all, strategies. Although they are crucial factors for change, physical and financial investments alone are not enough to assure pro-environmental changes in organizations. Contrary to popular belief, workers' and managers' knowledge play crucial roles in green initiatives, since they are the ones who know their companies' business processes the best. Strategic planning in organizations demands deep changes that can often be seen as negative to existing business practices. However, these practices can help companies differentiate themselves from others by better placing themselves in highly competitive markets. Undeniably, these winning practices—along with companies' learning capacities (learning organizations), become imperatives for the development of their adaptation abilities and survival assurance. The main framework for the integration of greener actions with a long-term impact should begin with the following points among its main components[10]:
Furthermore, these strategic initiatives have higher chances of success through the daily commitment of employees and other qualitative changes[11], like organizational culture. As a society, we are clearly in front of an enormous challenge. For businesses, the framework for future change should include the ecological impacts of their activities in its daily actions. Due to the fact that technology has been evolving rapidly to minimize the environmental impact of industrial activities, companies now have a larger choice of means and tools that can be used to control pollution in order to find the needed equilibrium for sustainable development. Thus, in order to achieve truly sustainable environmental solutions, managers must concentrate on finding smarter and finer tradeoffs between business and environmental concerns, while acknowledging the fact that in most cases, it is impossible to get something for nothing[12]. By working with the stakeholders, it can be possible to find a way to merge all economic, social, and ecological challenges into concrete strategies. When referring to green initiatives, we could think about responsible production as an example of organizations' engagement towards the protection of the environment. Even if corporations are not meant to save the world from environmental catastrophes, they should indeed be taken as agents of change and report on the impact of their activities. In fact, many of them have already started to do so (through International Organization for Standardization [ISO] standards, for example) and have included many pro-environment values into their activities. Paloma Somohano works on special projects for various departments at Technology Evaluation Centers. She has a BBA in management and is currently pursuing an MBA in corporate social and environmental responsibility. Her areas of interest include corporate strategy, the environment, and international trade
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