Business Leaders urged to turn Environmental Challenges into Business Opportunities

PETERBOROUGH, U.K. - July 18, 2015 - PRLog -- Business owners, directors and boards need to turn environmental challenges into business opportunities according to Prof. Colin Coulson-Thomas. Speaking at the World Congress on Environmental Management he called for innovative and entrepreneurial responses.

The University of Greenwich academic asked the business leaders present if they were actually in the business of producing rubbish: “Will mountains of waste be one of your most tangible legacies? Do your strategies embrace built in obsolescence? Do you upgrade or change products so that older models are thrown away? Is your packaging excessive, unnecessary or non-biodegradable?”

Coulson-Thomas warned: “If we fail to address environmental issues, others will. Governments and regulators will impose general solutions upon us. How do we ensure future regulations are effective, easy to implement and proportionate? Are there better alternatives to penalties and charges such as incentives?” He encouraged delegates to think strategically about environmental issues, ask the right questions and think through the implications of their actions:

“Are social impacts of our built environments being overlooked? How accessible for the disabled are they? Do they create positive feelings and improve performance? Do they enable interaction as opposed to causing isolation? Do they inspire the creativity and innovation we need to address environmental issues, challenges and opportunities?”

Coulson-Thomas believes: “Responsible leadership is about choices - making the right calls, selecting the best alternatives, establishing priorities and balancing contending forces. Can we turn environmental challenges into business opportunities? For example, should we renovate rather than replace? The regeneration of UK waterways and derelict docks has boosted local employment, growth and property values. Cleaning up rivers can yield leisure, health and lifestyle benefits, as well as encouraging tourism and other commercial activities.”

“Responsible business can be profitable business. Could your purchasing power be used to better effect? Could you part fund a supplier's development of more environmentally friendly packaging in return for a share of resulting revenues? Compelling visions can engage, excite and bring together the know-how, technology and finance needed for their implementation. If you lack capabilities you can collaborate with those who have them. Established companies sometimes protect existing investments, where innovative and entrepreneurial ones create new options and better alternatives.”

Coulson-Thomas called upon business owners and directors to challenge entrenched assumptions:

“Are there different and more sustainable models of growth? Could different policies and practices differentiate us and simplify and enhance our lives, and those of our customers, while protecting and improving physical and aesthetic environments?

“Activity sometimes replaces thinking. Should you rush to meetings, answer emails or reflect? When did you last watch the tide come in and out, or a flower open and close, and quietly reflect on how helping others to address challenges might create new opportunities?

“Business owners, directors and boards should probe and question strategies, priorities and approaches. Are we getting the right balance between immediate pressures and longer-term concerns? How do we fund progress along learning curves and prepare for the future while remaining competitive?

“Questions stimulate the search for solutions. Today's questions determine our tomorrows. How do we achieve more with less? Rather than change corporate cultures, are there quicker, more sustainable and less disruptive ways of simultaneously achieving multiple objectives?”

The professor's recent investigations and reports reveal affordable steps that can be taken: “Customers could be given support tools to help them make more responsible, sustainable and healthier purchase and consumption decisions. Better support can also make it easier for people to excel at difficult jobs, speed up responses, reduce costs, ensure compliance and deliver other benefits for people, organisations and the environment.

“Innovative, responsible and sustainable responses could restore trust and lead to less intervention and greater reliance upon market mechanisms. They could also produce closer and more productive public-private collaboration, as each better appreciates the contribution of the other.”

He concluded with a positive appeal to business leaders: “You can employ practical, innovative and responsible business approaches. You can engage, utilize and deploy people, resources and capabilities to develop and implement more sustainable and beneficial business strategies.”

Note: These comments were made by Prof. Colin Coulson-Thomas to the 17^th World Congress on Environment Management that was organised by the Institute of Directors of India and held at the Hotel Le Meridien, New Delhi, India. The event coincided with the Institute's 25^th anniversary and was attended by Ministers from the UK and India, senior civil servants and business leaders.

Prof. Colin Coulson-Thomas holds a portfolio of board appointments and has helped organisations in over 40 countries to harness more of the potential of directors, boards, management teams and corporate capabilities to improve performance and deliver multiple objectives. He is a member of the business school team at the University of Greenwich and author of some 70 books and reports. He has held professorial appointments in Europe, North and South America, the Middle East, India and China, and has spoken at over 300 national and international conferences. He was educated at the London School of Economics, the London Business School, UNISA and the Universities of Aston, Chicago and Southern California. A fellow of seven chartered bodies he secured first place prizes in the final examinations of three professions. His latest books and reports on more affordable and sustainable approaches are available from www.policypublications.com.