BUSINESS AND ENVIRONMENT:

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BUSINESS AND ENVIRONMENT PROBLEMS AND
OPPORTUNITIES Professor Norman Myers
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• AGENDA
• Environmental trends and costs
• Sustainable businesses
• Eco-technologies techno-breakthroughs
• Businesses and the "triple bottom line
• Roadblocks "perverse" subsidies
• Decline of materialism?
• Wealth wellbeing?
• Needed a new business vision

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• OUR ENVIRONMENTAL IMPACTS
• We consume over half of available freshwater
• and of net plant growth.
• We have degraded 20 million sq. km. of land ( 2
  x U.S.)
• We are even dislocating our climate.
• In 1960 we exploited 70 of our planet's
  resources,
• in 2000 120.
• During 1992-2002
• People lacking safe drinking water 1.1 billion
  to 1.2 billion
• People in deep poverty rose from 1.1 billion to
  1.3 billion.
• Carbon dioxide emissions increased by 11.
• Annual increase in human numbers fell from
• 90 million to 77 million.

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ECOLOGICAL FOOTPRINTS World average
2.3 Global Hectares (GH) per person, Worlds
biocapacity 1.9 GH, deficit 0.4 GH Japan 4.6 and
0.8, deficit 3.8 GH United States 9.6 and 5.8,
deficit 3.8 GH Russia 4.2 and 5.1, surplus 0.9
GH
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CHEAP/COSTLY FOOD A typical meal item in the
United States travels at least 1500 km before
it reaches a dinner plate. If the full cost of
all fossil fuels for transportation is added onto
the price, a California lettuce on a New
Yorker's table needs tens of times as much
fossil fuel energy as its food energy. During
the last forty years while population has
doubled, the value of international trade in
food has tripled, and the weight of food shipped
between countries has quadrupled.
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HIDDEN COSTS OF CONSUMPTION Over 90 of
materials and resources harvested or displaced
in nature are wasted while producing food,
machines, vehicles, etc. In the United States, a
mere 1 of raw materials end up in products that
are still used six months later, the rest being
junked. The global community needs to cut its
use of natural resources by 50, while allowing
for more people with more demands. Developing
countries lack the technologies for 50, so
developed countries should aim for a 90 cutback.
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SUCCESS STORIES 1 BUSINESSES CUTTING
GHGs During the 1990s, L'Oreal, the world's
largest cosmetics manufacturer, increased
production by 60 but decreased GHG emissions by
44, largely through energy conservation.
Johnson Johnson will cut GHGs by 7 during
2000-2010, Kodak by 20 during 2000-2004, Alcoa
by 25 during 1990-2010, DuPont by 65 during
1990-2010 (45 already). But the United States
as a whole has increased its GHGs by 16, faster
than virtually any other advanced country.
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SUCCESS STORIES 2 BUSINESSES CUTTING CO2 In
1993 a U.S. business lobby set up the Global
Climate Coalition to stop action on climate
change. In 2000 it closed its doors because of
declining support. Toyota, BP Amoco, Shell,
DuPont, Enron and 15 other corporations have
formed a Business Environmental Leadership
Council to tackle global warming. They plan to
reduce GHGs by 15 during 1990-2010.
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SUCCESS STORIES 3 SUSTAINABLE
PRODUCTION Unilever, the world's largest
processor of fish, sells fish products only from
certified sustainable sources. Share of the top
100 corporations producing sustainability
reports Japan 72, UK 49, USA 36, Germany
32, France 21.
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MICROCHIPS In that archetypal product of the
Industrial Age, the car, materials form 40 of
volume. In that strategic product of the
information age, the microchip, they make up
0.03. All today's microchips would fit inside
a jumbo jet, and by e.g. enabling people to work
at home, can eliminate the need to go from here
to there in the first place. The microchip can
form the basis of much future consumption since
it is a key ingredient in low-volume and
high-value products such as computers, videos,
etc.
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FACTOR FOUR Using today's eco-technologies,
everybody could enjoy twice as much material
well-being while using only half as much raw
materials and energy and causing only half as
much pollution and other forms of waste.
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TECHNO-ADVANCES ALREADY HERE

• Fuel-cell cars, with plug-in electric generators
• Buildings that manufacturesolar power, oxygen
  and water
• Weeds supplying powerful pharmaceuticals
• Cellulose-based plastics that are strong, and
  recyclable
• Roofs, windows and roads serving as
  solar-electric collectors
• Wood all our wood needs could be grown in an
  area the size of Honshu

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OUR CONSUMPTION OF MATERIALS We need to cut
materials consumption worldwide by at least
50 To allow developing countries to develop,
advanced economies need to cut by 90
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INTERNET The Internet economy replaces
warehouses with supply-chain software, paper
with electrons, and trucks with fiber-optic
cable. This makes for large energy savings and
a very different type of economic growth.
Every minute of driving to shops uses twenty
times the energy of a minute spent shopping
on-line.
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NEW DEMANDS ON BUSINESS energy
shortages water shortages
changing government policies e.g.
tax shifting global warming
globalization, especially the Internet
major surprises The biggest surprise ahead will
be no surprises. Vision?
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THE NEW CONSUMERS Well over one billion people
in 17 developing and 3 transition countries
have sufficient income to rank as decidedly
middle class. Their aggregate consumption
power, in purchasing power parity, matches that
of the United States. They represent the
biggest consumption outburst ever known --and
hence the biggest new market ever known. The
leader, China, may well become the world's
biggest economy well before 2020.
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U.S. GENUINE PROGRESS INDICATOR 1950-2000

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ROCKY MOUNTAIN INSTITUTE The Institute's house
and office at over 2000 meters/6500 feetare
heated and lighted only by solar power and energy
conservation,even though winter temperatures
often reach -40 degrees C. Inside is warm enough
to grow bananas, and RMI even sells surplus
electricity to the national grid. The building
saves 99 in space/water heating and 90 in
electricity. The 1983 heat-trapping measures
cost less than the boilers and stoves
eliminated, with savings repaid within 10 months.
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MARKET GROWTH FOR CLEAN TECHNOLOGIES,
2000-2010 (billions) Technology 2000 2005 2010
2000-2010 Fuel cells 0.2 2.5 10 50
times Hybrid/ fuel-cell vehicles 2 10 48 24
times Solar photovoltaics 2.5 7.5 24 10
times Wind power 4 13 44 11 times
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THE BIGGEST CHALLENGE AHEAD? Is materialism no
longer so attractive? In 1960 only one third of
Americans were "very happy". Despite a doubling
of per-capita consumption today, The one third
has hardly increased. The Voluntary Simplicity
movement has grown in certain areas to include
28 of local people. More than half of all
Americans agree they must accept "inevitable
changes in lifestyle" and even "reduced
consumption". Consider the scope for sudden
shifts in consumption patterns during a recent
decade, 55 million Americans gave up smoking.
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WEALTH AND WELLBEING Many people in rich
countries increasingly ask if greater wealth must
necessarily lead to greater wellbeing. Two
thirds would rather see the environment improve
than have more economic growth and personal
spending money. Developed-world citizens
favoring less consumption more than 60.
Highest is Japan with 80, then North America
67 and Western Europe 62. Those favoring less
consumption of electricity 83, of paper 81, of
gasoline and other fuels 73, of water 71, and
of food 65.
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• SUSTAINABLE SOCIETIES AND PUBLIC OPINION
• Hopeful signs
• 50 million "cultural creatives" in the United
  States alone.
• Socially Responsible Investment
• from 1 of managed assets
• to 15 in a single decade.
• The Voluntary Simplicity Movement.
• Cutting-edge technologies like clean/renewable
  energy
• and hybrid cars.

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