Sustainability and Business

The Natural Step (TNS) is a non-profit-making organization founded in 1989 to encourage business to think about sustainability. The objective is to reduce the long-run costs to society of production and distribution. Great care is taken to avoid using resources which cannot be replaced and creating environmental problems generally.

The organization has offices in nine countries including the UK. It works from within companies to change thinking about sustainability. The Natural step asks business to consider four questions.

Does your organization systematically decrease its economic dependence on:

- underground fossil fuels, metals and minerals?

- long-lived unnatural substances (which become hazardous waste)?

- activities which encroach on productive part of nature?

- using a large amount of resources in relation to added human value?

The TNS philosophy aims to integrate sustainability into corporate culture so that it becomes recognized aim for as many forms as possible in the hope that future generations will have access to the resources they need.

The Natural Step is a method of working with a business in order to educate the workforce and management and ‘fit’ the new approach into the actual ethos of the company. This is the hard part. It is often easier to ignore the negative externalities that occur when pollution or other kinds of environmental degradation place, costs on the community as a whole. Such problems are costly to avoid and can make the product less profitable.

The ultimate aim of any business in the commercial world has to be profit maximization, but a relatively new concern for environmental issues could cause businesses to rethink their short-term aims. The money for putting measures into place, to monitor and stop pollution has to come either directly from the consumer in the form of a price rise, making the product less competitive, or from the profits.

Markets are becoming more competitive and production processes more efficient, but on the other hand, the consumer, as one of the most important stakeholders in a business, is becoming more aware of environmental degradation, Can firms now afford to risk not being environmentally aware?

The word ‘sustainability’ is being used more frequently in the world of business. Modern consumers are aware of the issues but still want cheap, good quality products. Economic theory suggests that in a market economy firms that provide the cheapest, and best quality, products will be the survivors. However, this may not always be the case. Today’s consumers want more, and are often willing to pay more.

Ethical trading is becoming a selling point. Good communication with consumers and the right promotional techniques mean companies can charge more for their products without losing customers. Ethical trading is now one of the recognized ways to gain a competitive advantage in the marketplace.

1) What is the objective of the Natural Step?

2) Now many questions should businesses consider concerning sustainable development?

3) The Natural Step is a method of working with a business in order to educate the workforce and management, isn’t it?

4) What is the ultimate aim of any business?

5) Where does money for putting measures to monitor and stop pollution have to come from?

6) What helps companies to charge more for their products?

2. Give a gist of the contents of the text.

Text 5

1. Read the text and entitle it.

Sustainable development looks at now and the future. It involves the things

taken for granted - such as clean air and a healthy water supply - balanced with a growing society. It is also about leaving enough natural resources, a well-managed economy and a healthy environment for future generations.

Ultimately, sustainable development will result from our individual and collective efforts to find solutions to development challenges, solutions that are good for our communities, good, for the economy, and good for the environment.

To a large extent, what can you do depends on where you live and what you do in your daily life. For example, someone living near the Atlantic coast must be involved in shoreline conservation activities, while a prairie resident might have an interest in seasonal wetlands. Rural communities usually face a different set of sustainability issues than their urban counterparts. And high-school students will likely have interests and abilities that are different from business people. But we can do more to live sustainably.

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