The emergence of green theory essay

The emergence of green theory

According to Ken Peattie (1995), green was a buzz word that was used by marketers in the 1980 as a consequence of the increased awareness of the sustainability issues in politics, mass-media and financial groups. More than often the resulting products or services had little to do with marketing and even less with the environment and were just an opportunistic way to respond to consumer needs.

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The United Nations Environment Program’s Millennium Ecosystem Assessment, completed in March 2005, found that approximately 60 per cent of the ecosystem services that support life on Earth are being degraded or used unsustainably (UNEP 2005). Most environmental risks have crept up, as it were, on a rapidly modernizing world as the unforeseen side-effects of otherwise acceptable practices. As Ulrich Beck has put it, ‘they are “piggy-back products” which are inhaled or ingested with other things. They are the stowaways of normal consumption’ (Beck 1992: 40).

It did not take long for radical voices within the environment movement, and critical voices in the social sciences and humanities, to question not just the side-effects of economic growth but also the phenomenon of economic growth itself and the broader processes of modernization. This debate became highly politicized with the ‘limits to growth’ debate of the early 1970s. Influential publications such as the Club of Rome’s The Limits to Growth report (Meadows et al. 1972) and The Ecologist magazine’s Blueprint for Survival (Ecologist 1972), offered dire predictions of impending ecological catastrophe unless exponential economic growth was replaced with ‘steady-state’ economic development. These debates coincided with the first United Nations Stockholm Conference on the Human Environment (1972), which formalized the emergence of the environment as a ‘global issue’.

Sustainability has taken on increased importance in recent years, with increased awareness internationally that sustainability is a top priority for both business and the community (King Sturge, 2007).

The term sustainable development has seen wide use, and is generally defined as a practice “to meet the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs” (WCED, 1987, p. 43).

Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR)
CSR is the main tool to implement sustainable development, is being defined by the European Commissions as a concept whereby companies decide voluntarily to contribute to a better society and a cleaner environment by integrating social and environmental concerns in their business operations and in their interaction with their stakeholders.

There is emerging evidence that effectively implemented, CSR can have significant impact in motivating, developing and retaining staff.

Environmental Sustainability
Environmental sustainability is defined as the ability to maintain the qualities that are valued in the physical environment (Sutton, 2004). Environmental sustainability may often be regarded as only one aspect of sustainability, but for Dobson (1998) it is regarded as the key to understanding sustainability and encompasses sustainable development. Dobson states that sustainable development is one form of environmental sustainability, which, for him, therefore includes social justice.

The emergence of green theory

The emergence of green theory