Chapter 7 ungc environmental principles

1. By David Cooperrider and Nadya Zhexembayeva

2. Principle 7: Business should support a
precautionary approach to environmental
challenges;
Principle 8: undertake initiatives to promote
greater environmental responsibility; and
Principle 9: encourage the development and
diffusion of environmentally friendly
technologies.

3. The three principles focusing on the
environment include a precautionary principle, a
product or sustainable technologies innovation
principle, and a responsibility principle.

4. New market pressures are transforming
environmental sustainability from annoying
obligations into a thriving business opportunity.
Three particular sustainability trends:
1. Declining resources
2. Radical transparency
3. Increasing expectations
These have redefined the way we do business.

5. Why is sustainability important for everyone?

6. Bolt-On Sustainability Embedded Sustainability
Goal Pursue shareholder value Pursue sustainable value
Scope Add symbolic wins at the
margins
Transform core business
activities
Customer Offer “green” and “socially
responsible” products at
premium prices or with
diminished quality
Offer “smarter” solutions with
no trade-of in quality and no
social or green premium
Value Chain Manage a company’s own
activities
Manage across the product or
service life cycle value chain
Organization Create a “scapegoat”
department of
sustainability
Make sustainability everyone’s
job

7. 7.
I
R n
A o
D v
I a
C t
A i
L o
n
6) Business Context Influencing industry standards
5) Brand Protecting and enhancing brand
4) Market Entering new markets
3) Product Differentiating products
2) Efficiency Reducing energy, waste, materials
1) Risk Mitigating risk

8. http://www.unglobalcompact.org/index.html

9.  loss of biodiversity and long-term damage to
ecosystems
 pollution of the atmosphere and the
consequences of climate change
 damage to aquatic ecosystems
 land degradation
 the impacts of chemicals use and disposal
 waste production
 depletion of non-renewable resources

10. Principle 7: Business should support a
precautionary approach to environmental
challenges;

11. What is meant by “precautionary approach”?
Precaution involves the systematic application of
risk assessment (hazard identification, hazard
characterization, appraisal of exposure and risk
characterization), risk management and risk
communication. When there is reasonable
suspicion of harm and decision-makers need to
apply precaution, they have to consider the degree
of uncertainty that appears from scientific
evaluation.

12.  Develop a code of conduct or practice for its
operations and products that confirms
commitment to care for health and the
environment.
 Develop a company guideline on the consistent
application of the approach throughout the
company.
 Create a managerial committee or steering
group that oversees the company application of
precaution, in particular risk management in
sensitive issue areas.

13.  Establish two-way communication with
stakeholders, in a pro-active, early stage and
transparent manner, to ensure effective
communication of information about
uncertainties and potential risks and to deal with
related enquiries and complaints.
 Use mechanisms such as multi-stakeholder
meetings, workshop discussions, focus groups,
public polls combined with use of website and
printed media.

14.  Support scientific research, including
independent and public research, on the issue
involved, working with national and
international institutions concerned.
 Join industry-wide collaborative efforts to
share knowledge and deal with issues, in
particular production processes and products
around which high level of uncertainty,
potential harm and sensitivity exist.

15. Principle 8: undertake initiatives to promote
greater environmental responsibility; and

16. In Chapter 30 of Agenda 21, the 1992 Rio Earth
Summit spelled out the role of business and
industry in the sustainable development agenda
as: "Business and industry should increase self
regulation, guided by appropriate codes,
charters and initiatives integrated into all
elements of business planning and decision-
making, and fostering openness and dialogue
with employees and the public."

17.  Re-define company vision, policies and
strategies to include the 'triple bottom line' of
sustainable development — economic
prosperity, environmental quality and social
equity.
 Develop sustainability targets and indicators
(economic, environmental, social).

18.  Establish a sustainable production and consumption
program with clear performance objectives to take
the organization beyond compliance in the long-
term.
 Work with suppliers to improve environmental
performance, extending responsibility up the product
chain and down the supply chain.

19. Principle 9: encourage the development and
diffusion of environmentally friendly
technologies.

20.  Adopt voluntary charters, codes of conduct or
practice internally as well as through sectoral
and international initiatives to confirm
acceptable behavior and performance.
 Measure, track and communicate progress in
incorporating sustainability principles into
business practices, including reporting against
global operating standards.
 Ensure transparency and unbiased dialogue
with stakeholders.

21. Environmentally friendly technology should protect the
environment, are less polluting, use all resources in a more
sustainable manner, recycle more of their wastes and
products and handle residual wastes in a more acceptable
manner than the technologies for which they were
substitutes. They include a variety of cleaner production
process and pollution prevention technologies as well as
end-of-pipe and monitoring technologies.They can be
considered total systems including know-how, procedures,
goods and services and equipment as well as
organizational and managerial procedures.

22.  Establishing a corporate or individual
company policy on the use of
environmentally sound technologies.
 Making information available to stakeholders
that illustrates the environmental
performance and benefits of using such
technologies.

23.  Refocusing research and development
towards ‘design for sustainability’.
 Use of life cycle assessment (LCA) in the
development of new technologies and
products.
 Employing EnvironmentalTechnology
Assessments (EnTA).

24.  Examining investment criteria and the
sourcing policy for suppliers and contractors
to ensure that tenders stipulate minimum
environmental criteria.
 Co-operating with industry partners to
ensure that ‘best available technology’ is
available to other organizations.

25. . . . .we thought we'd
look at some of the truly
scary facts about the
natural world.There's no
treat (just the facts)

26. Global Warming
The overwhelming consensus
among credible scientists who
study the climate is carbon
dioxide and other greenhouse
gases, pumped out of our
tailpipes and smokestacks, are
building up in the atmosphere
and driving the warming trend.
(By one measure only five
scientists have published peer-
reviewed scientific papers
questioning that consensus
view.)

27. It’s Getting Drier and Wetter
Scientists predict both severe
droughts and historic floods will
be a consequence of global
warming. How's it possible? In
short, the climate is a
complicated system, and what it
can give with one wind, with
another it can taketh away. As
weather patterns shift, some
areas will be starved of moisture,
while in others, warmer air will
hold additional moisture that it
will unleash in fiercer storms.

28. There Aren't More Fish in the Sea
At least half of our favorite food
fish and as many as 90% – tuna,
salmon, cod and sea bass among
them – are at risk of overfishing.
Further, the historic shift from
wild-caught fisheries to farmed
fisheries has depleted smaller fish
at the bottom of the food chain,
since in many cases, it takes
several pounds of wild-caught
little fish to make one pound of
farmed fish.

29. Coral Reefs Are Disintegrating
Coral reefs are not only the most
beautiful part of the ocean
accessible to snorkelers and scuba
divers, but also nurseries of the
sea:They are home to one-fourth
of all marine species, and provide
habitat to fish and shellfish that
feed half a billion people.
Unfortunately, about half of corals
in the U.S. and its territories, and
as many as 70% worldwide are
severely degraded or at risk of
extinction.

30. The Bees Aren't Buzzing
One-third of the nation's
commercial bees have been dying
off each winter for several years
now. Roughly one-third of the food
crops we eat is pollinated by bees or
other insects. Honey bees are the
most important commercial-scale
insects up to the task, but other
insects do part of the job naturally.
However, these wild native
pollinators are also in trouble.

31. Fungus Is Killing Frogs and Bats
One in three amphibian species is
at risk of extinction, with as many
as 500 species of frogs,
salamanders and the like so near
to the end that experts think their
only hope is to live in zoos - not
the wild. Meanwhile, in caves
throughout North America, as
many as 90% of bats hibernating
are dying of emaciation, with a
mark of death in the shape of a
white ring around the nose

32. DeadlyViruses and Bacteria
Outsmart Us
When animals are kept penned
up in unnatural numbers in close
proximity to people, as is the case
with our food system worldwide,
the chances grow for new
diseases to outsmart us and
either infect our foods or jump
from wild lungs to our own.