By: Mohammad Aman Ullah Aman, IIMP—Country Manager for Bangladesh
Business at the cost of the environment can never be treated as good business. The natural environment is a very sensitive area where we lead our lives. Here, quality of life depends on the quality of the environment. Our life becomes fully hazardous, if the environment gets polluted. This pollution impacts the whole bio diversity and sometimes becomes the cause of death for people. But we rarely care about our environment. We don’t take it into account when developing a project or establishing a factory. We hardly ever consider the damage of our environment caused by the business activities performed by us. We never calculate the cost of health recovery when it is damaged because of environmental pollution. Very few of us analyze how many ways we can be impacted due to our activities that affect the environment.
That’s why we are doing damage to our environment every day. If it keeps continuing, the earth will be incompatible for all living beings. The whole ecology will be imbalanced and the bio diversity will be destroyed. So, we should start thinking about it going forward, otherwise we will face a very dangerous future. Our future generation will suffer too much due to serious environmental infections. But it is very unfortunate that we are so apathetic regarding this highly important issue. Business people are being asked to think about this environmental issue very seriously. Environmental issues should be given the utmost priority in every business case. Every development should be sustainable development. Entrepreneurs and business communities should put their efforts into establishing a sustainable business, while still being profitable. However, to establish a sustainable business, entrepreneurs need focus on two things which have been elaborated below.
A business can’t survive if it fails to ensure profitability. Profitability depends on efficient business operations to the greatest extent. Efficient business operation is nothing but the best integration of business value chains. A business value chain consists of two types of activities – primary activities and support activities.
Components of primary activities are inbound logistics, operations outbound logistics, marketing and services where firm infrastructure, human resource management, technology development and procurement are components of support activities. Business enterprises earn profits through ensuring the best integration of all the components mentioned in the Porter’s Value Chain Model.
Business sustainability cannot be gained in the long run through optimized profitability. Global warming, air pollution, water pollution and soil pollution has become a very critical issue now. Due to these environmental issues, Mother Earth is now under a very big threat. Because of global warming, ice is getting depleted and water levels are rising. If it continues, most of the global land will go under water. We all know that the ozone layer is getting depleted due to the rise of CO2. If the ozone layer gets completely destroyed, no life will be able to live on this earth, since gamma rays from the sun will directly hit. They currently can’t reach earth because they are filtered by the ozone layer.
All kinds of contamination have direct or indirect effects on all of our lives on this earth. Contamination destroys the ecology and results in death, infertility and the extinction of different species. Human life is also going to face the challenges of survival on earth. A small environmental issue is enough to destroy the global economy.
So, entrepreneurs should consider environmental issues with utmost priority while establishing a business enterprise. They should focus on green products and green process. Health and safety issues should be taken into account and factories should have proper waste management systems. Water consumption should be carefully managed with recycling processes. Products that cause harm to our health and the environment should not be manufactured. The use of volatile organic compounds and heavy metals like led, cadmium, chromium etc. are to be avoided or minimized. Adequate budget for research and development should be allocated so that healthier products can be offered to consumers. Product packaging should be eco-friendly. Packaging and communication materials that harm the environment should be avoided and only eco-friendly material should be used.
Businesses should realize that the cost of the environment equals the sacrifice of life. So, before developing a venture or an enterprise, businesses must consider the issue of its sustainability first.
*Author: Country Manager for Bangladesh, International Institute of Marketing Professionals (IIMP)