Environment and business: how do they get along?
A popular Italian song described an old man and a child taking their hands and going together across the countryside. The immense plain seemed to reach as far as a man’s eye could see. And all around there was no one, only the bleak outline of smoke towers. The old man said, looking far away: “Imagine all that covered with wheat, imagine the fruits, imagine the flowers, and think of the voices and think of the colors. In this plain, the trees grew and everything was green, the rain fell and the sun marked the rhythm of man and the seasons.”
Mankind modifies the environment more than any other living being, taking advantage of its extraordinary biodiversity. The development we all took advance wasn’t without consequences. At first, communities didn’t realize the long term damages the uncontrolled exploitation of Nature could lead. Since few decades, scientists along with supra-national institutions realized and proved that not considering the limits on available resources can, in a short period of time, to catastrophic damage to human beings.
The key point here is a bit more complex than individual accountability. On one side, we shall not regret the evolutions and achievements of mankind. We all benefit today from the goods and services unlocked or enhanced by fossil fuels. Just think about buying products from another continent and delivered to your home. We all benefit from the cheap price of fast fashion or the intensive production of meals. However, this comfort zone threatens future opportunities of enjoying such products.
From the industrial revolution onward, the industrial process changed and new materials appear and became popular. In order to dispose on a large scale of such technologies and products, the Planet was exploited beyond any limit. Plastic is one of them. Its use spreads from medical devices to breakfast brioche we eat in the morning. Plastic has such a large application across various industries but also has some harmful effects if not treated properly when it becomes waste. For instance, the ocean is a victim of plastic not controlled or planned waste management.
So, what do we do now? Do we need to change completely our way of life? Do our little choices really influence the Planet and its equilibrium? Well, at the end of the day a community is nothing more than a person + a person + a person and so on. So, individual actions matter. Consumer choices are driving companies toward sustainable business plans more with consistency more effective than a piece of legislation.
In brief, reduce what we can reduce. Innovate in order to reduce the environmental impact of products throughout the whole industrial chain. Then, for what we can’t reduce, we need to offset to delegate the reduction of the pollution we can’t avoid.
It’s time to orient the progress we achieved, despite the environment, toward a climate-friendly economy so that we can build an economy where business and Planet can be well balanced. This way we can all enjoy a Planet where economic growth goes along with the quality of life.
