admindiscourse has attracted increased political will dating back to the Stockholm Environment and Development Conference of 1972, the 1992 Rio Earth Summit, though not limited to the Johannesburg Earth Summit of 2002.
However, despite “inclusive” attempts across the world, the north-south divide has become visible and consensus building has either way been mired with methodological differences.
Since the 1990s, efforts by governments, Non Governmental Organisations, Corporations, and investors began to grow substantially in developing strategies for investing in business sustainability – a concept that has come to be known as green business.
One critical milestone was the establishment of the ISO 14000 standards whose development came as a result of the Rio Summit on the Environment held in 1992. ISO 14001 is the cornerstone standard of the ISO 14000 series.
It specifies a framework of control for an Environmental Management System against which an organisation can be certified as an environmentally friendly business entity.
However, values of this nature have always remained rhetoric. They have not been translated into local realities; especially in the developing world which, Zimbabwe is essentially part of.
In Zimbabwe earliest manifestations of the green and sustainability trend began through pressure on companies to embrace more sustainable and green practices. The initial impetus was from the civic society and government agencies.
The year 2011 saw the environmental front in Zimbabwe taking a new twist. In June 2011, a major expo was convened at the Harare International Conference Centre to mark the World Environmental Day Celebrations. It ran under the theme “Greening the Economy”. The same month of June witnessed another expo at the Mukuvisi Woodlands. It was themed Ecosystems Management and the Green Economy – Education for Sustainable Development.
Barely a month later the 2011 Harare Agricultural Show set the pendulum afoot on August 19, under the theme, “Celebrating Agricultural Growth and Promoting Green Business”.
It is inevitable that one may query why the corporate cry on environmental issues? Is there sincerity and or does our business sector has genuine environmental concerns? Is it not that the green emphasis on business today is an antidote to unfair treatment of local environments?
Is it not a case of dancing with the wolves, which proves nasty when the music is over? Has the balance shifted, even if subtly, such that business groups saying “we must protect the environment” find a more sceptical audience now than they did a decade or two decades ago?
Does our business sector really comprehend what going green is all about or what it involves? The current clamour for the business-led green movement raises a lot of questions than answers. Hence I call our business to come to the fore and account for their greening initiatives.
Environmental issues have now become a core value to most Zimbabwean businesses. Almost everyone seems to have gone “green”. Ironic as it might sound, there is a need to question this emerging movement. As the green movement expands to encompass an ever broadening population of supporters, the role of business is an anomaly. It warrants a lot of investigations.
Many companies are beginning to inform consumers their efforts to improve the environment. The traditional chasm between industry and environmentalists causes me to have concern of this business-led approach to environmental determinism.
Rather than beat environmentalists industry has claimed to join them-a practice I believe has left the environmental movement in the country flat-footed.
One might be made to think it is the manifestations of the saying “if you can not beat them join them”. In this article I put to task the green themes being adopted by the business sector in Zimbabwe.
Many authors have written in this direction (Bender and Leon, 1996; Hawken, Lovins and Lovins, 1999; Anderson, 2006; Rennie, 2008; Galvao, 2008; Penfield, 2008; Becker, 2008; Cooney, 2009; Masara, 2011).
Of the foregoing, critics have charged that many in the business sector had joined the environmental movement as a means of improving their image and furthering their own interests (Bender and Leon, 1996).
Sadler (1996) sees green business as green marketing-a ‘phony’ ploy used to sell often higher priced eco-items that solve none-existent problems. Masara (2011) of The Standard News queried the direction the going green campaign is taking in Zimbabwe.
She notes that it would seem companies that are serious about building a positive company image and care about publicity have had to join the band wagon.
The green line may have been taken as a marketing gimmick, even though many companies deny maintaining that their zeal has nothing to do with marketing. But has everything to do with their love and sense of responsibility for the environment.
- Trymore Muderere is a final year student at the University of Zimbabwe studying for a BSc Honours Degree in Regional and Urban Planning. feedback [email protected]
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