Sustainable business is mostly hot air!

The Economist Intelligence Unit has made a very revealing survey of business attitudes to climate change worldwide. the result is that business clearly lags behind public opinion (with a few rare exceptions). This could be a comfort for those who are afraid that society overreacts to the climate warning and even think that there is a case of hysteria, but it is less comforting to see that business is not reacting proactively to develop, as the Stern-review pointed out as a chance for the entrepreneurial minds. They instead react defensively to protect their reputation.

Now, these attitudes are in sharp contrast to the messages on sustainable investments from Al Gore and David Blood, but it certainly confirms that their way of thinking is not what gets first to the headlines of the pink papers.

It is also interesting to note that the companies do not expect measures to be costly and seem to expect, in a positive mood, their governments to take the lead. So, their somewhat laid back appearance could shift quickly. Many of them have already appointed high-level managers to be responsible for the job!

A recent change that might indicate that much action is just in preparation, though we have not seen it yet. It is the fact that the second in command in the French government, Msr Alain Juppé, is responsible for sustainability issues. Only a few years ago, such jobs were assigned to the rookies in the governments and not to the heavy-weighters.

Comments

We're getting in shallow waters here, but a recent post on Gristmill, argues that corporate greenwashing is not necessarily all bad, though it can't certainly be all good. A good subsequent discussion with lots of references argues a.o. that we need to get the semantics right - greenwash, greenscam and greenspeak are not necessarily the same thing.

Bottom line: a tiny bit of greenwash can be good, but it also can be dangerous. 

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By Hans De Keulenaer 04/06/2007