The business of self-preservation

WWF believes in working with companies rather than against them. Peter Denton explains how.

Business and sustainability are incompatible. All over the globe resources are being used up faster and faster as the twin engines of consumerism and industry hurl us towards catastrophe. Or so many believe -and they can be forgiven for thinking so.

But business and sustainability are only incompatible up to a point - the point where self-interest comes in. Companies of all sizes want to stay in business: 10, 20 or more years from now they still want to be here. And if they are to do that, they will have to live with the consequences of their actions.

In this globalised age, when transnational corporations often have turnovers bigger than some entire countries, the stakes are all the higher. The consequences of these companies’ actions are potentially so vast that they concern everyone, and the case for sustainability is making itself heard more insistently than ever.

For this reason WWF believes it is vital to engage with, rather than combat, business and industry. WWF has developed an engagement plan, which has four aims: to form strong partnerships; to raise funds for nature and the environment; to innovate; and to challenge.

All are succeeding. For example, WWF’s business education unit, an innovative venture, works with business trend-setters to find ways of putting sustainability into practice. Through the unit’s work with forward-looking companies, we identify best practice and develop programmes that can be used by businesses of all kinds.

We are already getting results. Take, for example, the sustainability action network. Many environmental managers, consultants and others face such a mass of issues that sustainability can only be tackled through co-operation. Initiated and co-ordinated by WWF, the network comprises a wide group of non-governmental organisations, companies, academics and public-sector bodies dedicated to finding solutions for a sustainable future. Participants range from CGNU and Xerox to HM Customs & Excise and Surrey County Council, and already the ideas are flowing.

Meanwhile, WWF and the Centre for Human Ecology in Edinburgh have launched To the Heart of Sustainability, a management development programme that helps businesses meet the environmental and social challenges of the future.

Overall, WWF’s policy of bringing influence to bear on business and industry is showing far-reaching results. WWF’s global forest and trade initiative, for example, co-ordinates 14 trade networks with more than 600 members in 18 countries, and the WWF 1995+ Group - a partnership between the fund and companies committed to buying wood and wood products from well-managed forests - has grown to 94 companies with an annual turnover in excess of £54 billion. Group members, which include ASDA, B&Q, The Body Shop, Great Mills, Sainsbury’s and Tesco, employ more than half a million staff and trade in eight million cubic metres of wood every year. This represents over 20% of the UK’s total wood consumption.

Elsewhere, the Marine Stewardship Council, jointly founded by WWF and Unilever to promote more sustainable fishing practices, is setting global standards for well-managed fisheries and has launched its first certified sustainable seafood products in the UK.

WWF’s mission is to stop the degradation of the planet’s natural environment - and by engaging with business and industry we are working towards that goal. We are pleased with these results - but much remains to be done. This is just the beginning.

Peter Denton is WWF’s principal writer

29 May 2001

Peter Denton