Does Being Environmentally Friendly Improve the Competitiveness and Profitability of a Firm

The UN General assembly in the year 1983 realized that there was a steep global decline in the natural environment and resources. So, in order to get the countries together and work towards sustainability development, the United Nations set up a commission dedicated to environmental sustainability (Asuquo, 2012) .It came to be known as the Bruntdland Commission. This commission was set up under the leadership of Gro Harlem Bruntdland, the ex prime minister of Norway. Bruntdland was a pioneer in the field of science and public health and was chosen to head the commission because of these credentials. The basic ideology of this commission was to work together with all the major corporations of the world in the interest of people and the planet while being profitable at the same time (Bruntdland Commission, 1987). Environmental sustainability has since then achieved a humongous stature and is considered an important part of any successful business venture (Shrivastava & Hart, 2006). This essay will describe the importance of environmental sustainability and how companies can make more profits and fare better than their rivals by adapting the tag of being “environmentally sustainable” (Pfister & Tierney, 2012).

A survey made across 113 countries by interviewing 2,847 executives through MIT Sloan Management Review and the Boston Consulting Group has revealed that 66% of corporations see environmental sustainability as a chance to attain competitive edge as compared to 55% who held similar views a year ago. Moreover, 31% of all the companies surveyed said that practicing environmental sustainability helped boost their profits. The report established that sustainability in business is reaching heights where the companies not only have the ‘need for sustainability’ on their radar but are also deriving monetary benefits from such practices (Forbes,2005). There are innumerable examples of corporations reducing costs and boosting profits by being more environmentally...