After decades of resistance, American business is finally getting greener, and it can’t back down now, argued Holly Kaufman Wednesday in the EcoInnovator blog.
“We have indeed made so much progress, yet the gap between what we are doing and what is needed is huge,” said Kaufman, president of the consulting firm Environment and Enterprise Strategies. “The good news is that we have a choice.”
Gone are the days, she said, of corporate America recklessly pursuing profits at the environment’s expense; today, smart companies have harnessed the potential payoffs associated with supporting sustainability efforts.
Kaufman explained the problem is that business is not yet seeing the full picture needed for good environmental stewarship.
“While corporate environmental practices have improved, they haven’t kept pace with the rate and scale at which humankind has changed the chemistry of the atmosphere, devastated habitats and decimated species,” she said.
U.S. companies still make – and American consumers buy – hazardous, cancer-causing products, such as pesticides, weed killers and air fresheners, with little or no thought, according to Kaufman.
“It’s almost pointless to make these things in a slightly more environmentally-sound way, with renewable energy or in more ‘eco’ packaging,” she said.
Kaufman said to reach the next level the U.S. needs to redefine commerce, and take a concerted, holistic approach in pursuit of corporate sustainability.
The entire system needs to be reshaped, Kaufman added, to support “ecological economics” by rewarding environmentally friendly ventures and penalizing damaging ones.
“Companies can’t solve all the pieces of the problem, but they have done a lot,” she said, “and they can do so much more.”