Industry's Role In Sustaining Environment

Abstract

Sustainable development has been defined as meeting the needs of the present generation without jeopardizing those of future generations. In a recent article in the Harvard Business Review, Stuart Hart credits environmental scientists Barry Commoner and Paul Erlich with observing that the burden placed on the environment is a function of population, affluence, and technology. Since world population is still increasing and a large portion of the world is striving to reach ever-higher standards of living, technology must advance even faster if the environmental burden is to remain constant or decrease. The challenge is to develop a global economy that can sustain the population's needs and wants indefinitely into the future. Sustainable development has been said to rest on economics, the environment, societal benefits, and social justice. In industry, we have a good idea of what economics is. We have become far more knowledgeable about the environment, particularly since the advent of the chemical industry'...