Environment vs. Business

It is always said that we need to start planning now to have a future. That can be thought of in many terms, financially, educationally, …etc. The difference with dealing with the environment is, while other platforms can be theoretically reversed quickly, when we are talking about our ecological system, it could take hundreds or even thousands of years to reverse the damage. Ecology is the study of how all-living things interact with each other in the Earth’s ecosystem. Whether it is the depletion of the ozone layer, deforestation, or the consumption of our limited natural resources, it is sustainable development we need to look at. The Earth’s carrying capacity is finite and businesses need to think about how out ecological footprint in affecting the future.

Humans are impacting the balance of the ecosystem the most. Commons are shared resources; for instance, water and land. By having these shared resources it leads to what they call tragedy of commons. This happens when every individual tries to reap the greatest benefit from a given resource. As the demand for the resource overwhelms the supply, every individual who consumes an additional unit directly harms others who can no longer enjoy the benefits. This example can be viewed with Coca-Cola’s controversial water sourcing processes in India.

Along with the human nature and economic standing, the population boom has had a very high impact our ecosystem. The Earth’s population in the past 113 years has surpassed being tripled. In 1900 the population was about 2 billion and in 2013 it is 7 billion. The growth is manly focused in underdeveloped, poor countries. Poverty also causes environmental decay. Forty percent of the populate lives below $2 a day. When people don’t have their basic needs it puts them in survival mode, in which there is a misuse of resources in lieu of rational thought. Yet, if we do not develop in a sustainable thoughtful way it can cause even more harm.

Natural resources, both...