ABSTRACT

The conclusion of this trilogy of books has to be that there is a need for change in the way we do business. At the outset that change might be associated with the introduction of management systems and tools associated with improved environmental performance (the subject matter of Corporate Environmental Management 1). However, as was suggested in Corporate Environmental Management 2, such tools need to be supported by organizational and cultural changes within the organization if the process of continuous improvement towards zero negative impact on the environment is to be achieved. In this book I have gone one stage further in arguing that if businesses are serious about the concept of sustainable development, then many of the sacred tenets of doing business will have to be re-examined — the business will have to think more clearly about ethics, about being a campaigner and educator, and about making a closer link between production and consumption, for example. I have suggested that one way to achieve such a situation might be to examine closely more spiritual dimensions of environmentalism and in particular Buddhist approaches to economics and the environment.