All of us are worried, anxious, and probably very skeptical of what can happen in Copenhagen this month. The early pontiffs were very negative on the prospective outcome, particularly with the US and China not committing to anything concrete before hand. It almost makes you believe the scenario in Ultimatum, the book by Matthew Glass, that the only solutions will be employed when mega disasters hit in 2030 time frame and the US and China have to agree.
But there is a new trend growing and strong. Corporations are leading the charge. They are becoming long term thinkers because they realize that the viability of their business is at stake in the not too distant future. This realization is occurring both at the board level and increasingly shareholder level. An insightful Op-Ed piece in the New York Times, “Will Big Business save the Earth” points out some of the massive movement that is occurring. Jared Diamond writes about “a few examples involving three corporations — Wal-Mart, Coca-Cola and Chevron — that many critics of business love to hate, in my opinion, unjustly.”
Wal-Mart the biggest retailer in the world, is working hard to reduce its waste and impact throughout their entire supply chain. A monumental effort which will reach deep into every process from packaging waste to the green House gases emitted from the farmers whose food then sell. Coca Cola is really worried about Water. Arguably the next next commodity to cause Global unrest. It will need clean fresh sources close to its customers and will have to restore and enhance the environment to continue to extract the water it needs. Then there is Chevron, whose environmental practices are becoming a model for the working in highly environmentally sensitive areas, that the author goes on to site ” Not even in any national park have I seen such rigorous environmental protection as I encountered in five visits to new Chevron-managed oil fields in Papua New Guinea.”
The future might well lie in the economics of the corporations who need a viable sustainable world to survive and grow rather then the politics of the world.
