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How business can create a roadmap to a sustainable future
by Kathleen Hawk

Kids challenge world leaders to preserve the Earth’s environment
by Ryan Davidson

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| | The Earth's ecosystems, that offer us a range of essential services, are under attack

How business can create a roadmap to a sustainable future | | Related Links

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by Kathleen Hawk

A new in-depth report on the current and possible future state of the Earth’s ecosystems and their impact on our well-being highlights the challenges and opportunities this presents for business

The management of every successful business is based on a roadmap of how the business will reach its objectives. Anticipated changes in market demand, raw materials costs and regulations are just some of the things that must be factored into long-term development plans.

But planning is only as good as the information that goes into it. Until recently, one of the crucial questions in future planning was also one of the biggest question marks. What is really happening in terms of fundamental resources - like water, land, climate and energy - due to the impact of human development on the Earth? What concrete information do we have about what we can expect five, 10 or 50 years down the road?

Earlier this year, the publication of a long-awaited report opened a window on the future of these basic resources. Produced over four years by 1,360 experts from 95 countries, the Millennium Ecosystem Assessment (MA) is a comprehensive synthesis of current knowledge about both the changes wrought on the Earth's ecosystems by 50 years of rapid human progress, as well as projections of the impact of human life over the next 50 years.

In July, the concerns of businesses were more specifically addressed with a breakout report entitled Ecosystems and Human Well-being: Opportunities and Challenges for Business and Industry. Like its parent report, this document paints a disquieting picture of the damage already done, as well as the future impact on ecosystem resources that we rely on, and that were, until recently, largely assumed to be self-replenishing.

The MA discovered that two-thirds of the ecosystem services it examined are being degraded or used unsustainably. Resources such as clean water, natural air and water cleaning systems and key raw materials are already in decline. And, more troubling, this destruction has reached a point where the group anticipates not only gradual and progressive degradation, but also sudden and irreversible changes.

But bad news often holds seeds of business opportunity. “Businesses' engagement in voluntary actions to reduce their impact on Earth's ecosystems can be an engine of positive change in two ways: it can be a source of new opportunities for business, and a means of preserving our natural assets for future generations,” says the report.

With a pragmatic focus on business strategies and scenarios, the report provides hard data and multiple perspectives for evaluating current and future resources, as well as marketplace and regulatory changes. To assist in formal business planning, the concepts are translated into business checklists for discussion and identification of opportunities.

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http://www.maweb.org/

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