Environmental Protection – First Steps to Environmental Sustainability Explained!

The challenges of achieving sustainable development in both developed and developing countries, and their adjustments

Introduction

Development, this refers to the continued improvement of living standards by economic growth. Usually in so called developing countries. It may be thought of as the act of making purposeful changes to improve the quality of human life. Thus scientists, policy makers, economists and advocates arrived at the idea of sustainable development.

Sustainability refers to continued use of resources indefinitely without depleting the energy or material source on which man depends.

However, sustainable development refers to development that meets the needs of the present generations without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs. In other words it’s the use of renewable and non renewable resources in a manner that satisfies our current needs without jeopardizing future availability of resources. Sustainable development that encompasses varied global environmental concerns was the main agenda at the 1991 Rio Earth Summit that was attended by world leaders representing more than 170 governments. The main outcome of the Rio Summit was Agenda 21 which addresses sustainable development at both local and international levels. It was a blueprint for sustainable development that encompassed poverty eradication and environmental protection.

 Sustainable development means different things, different people. This is well illustrated by the view points of three important disciplines traditionally concerned with the process involved. Economists are mainly concerned with growth, efficiency, and maximum use of resources. Sociologists focus on human needs and concepts like equity, empowerment and social cohesion, and cultural identity. Ecologists show their greatest concern for preserving the integrity of natural systems, for living with in the currying capacity of the environment and for dealing effectively with pollution.

The concept arose in the context of a debate between the environmental and development concerns of different groups of countries. The first world wide meeting of heads of states directed on the concern for environment took place at the Earth summit formally known  as United Nations Conference on Environment and Development (UNCEB) in Rio-be Janeiro in 1992 (Brazil capital).

The world summit in Johannesburg; it was the largest ever international gathering of its kind held to address perhaps the world most pressing issues for 10 days in August and September 2002.

 Developed countries are economically developed, industrialized countries which are often referred to as the north; since most are in Northern Hemisphere such as USA, Canada, and Western European countries, Japan, Australia and New Zealand. In which the GDP exceeds and 8,200 per capita.

Developing countries are countries that behind the level of economic development of the North. They are referred to as the South and include nations of Latin America, Africa and Asia except Japan.

However, both groups of countries have embraced the concept of sustainable development although the industrialized countries are usually concerned about environmental sustainability while the developing countries are more concerned about economic development.

Indicators of sustainable development include; i) Proper sanitation, here wastes are being managed properly, access to good latrines, good drainage system. (ii) Political stability; this reduces death rate, distribution of resources and biodiversity loss. (iii) Access to safe drinking water, this promotes good health among the people. (iv) Good transport and communication system, this reduces accidents, promoting tourism sector, reduces congestion in urban areas.    (v) Medium population, this reduces over exploitation of natural resources like forests, land  congestion, reduces diseases and slum development, (vi) High education levels, it improves on the management and proper utilization of resources after acquiring the known lodge on the importance of those resources.

Although we need sustainable development as a core concept for making purposeful changes to improve the quality of human life for both the present and that of the future generations, there are a number of challenges that handicaps its achievement in both developed and developing countries and these include:

Inadequate financial mechanisms;

This would help to facilitate implementation by covering issues such as research and training by safety, cultural property of indigenous people and facilitate access to biological resources. Most of the developing countries rely on developed institutions like the World Bank. This has led to the delay and collapse of different planning mechanisms both at National Environmental Action Plan (NEAP) and District Environmental Action Plans (DEAP). Therefore their services have been limited due to such crises (financial crises).

Ideological differences;

Both developed and developing countries tend to minimize environmental laws and policies that could promote sustainable development at different levels. Developing countries say that these  policies are meant to restrain them from meeting exploitation of their resources for them to developed, for example “The user pays principle” that requires that a person who doesn’t  use environmental resources sustainably must pay the total cost of those resources including the losses incurred by the society sector. On the other hand, “polluter pays principle” demands a person responsible for polluting to bear the costs associated this could shift the burden of pollution from the public to the user himself.

Population increase;

The rising population and consumption of resources, there is evidence that the human population is shooting up too fast. Since the industrial revolution human population globally has grown over 9 times with some regions like china and India shooting higher. This forces more than 1.2 billion people to live on fragile lands for example arid zones, wetlands and forests that can not sustain them. This calls for an urgent move to create realistic alternatives for poor people if we are to relieve the growing pressures on the environment. The increasing population implies increased resource use like water withdraws, fuel consumption and food production among others which is colossal considering the fact that the resource base is not increasing.

Extreme poverty and economic inequality within and between nations;

Poverty refers to lack of basic needs by people and society. People fail to finance their needs such as foods, charcoal, land for settlement, agriculture and also fail to build houses and therefore opt for cheaper means such as forest depletion for timber used as fuel and also for construction of houses. With regards to economic inequality, the affluent nations and classes, for example Japan and USA among others depend on nonrenewable resources such as fossil fuels and minerals. They import value from developing countries such as Uganda leaving us with artificial capital like phones. 

Within developing countries, there are also significant inequalities in land distribution which cause clearing of forests by destitute landless farmers for agriculture land. Sustainability therefore can be achieved through substitution of charcoal with solar energy, Hydro Electric Power and other forms of energy. Protectionism of the economy from rich nations through the use of tariffs such as banning of some artificial goods, and taxing them. These therefore will leave the future generation with available stock to work with.

Resource depletion;

Many of the world’s resources are being consumed at a rate faster than they can regenerate. Some are near extinction yet others are extinct today. Forests provide both economic value and environmental goods and services and contain 2 of every 3 land species and the highest species diversity of any system. Yet the world has already lost half of its forests and about 15.2 hectares disappear in the tropics every year. In Latin America alone more than 37 million hectares were deforested between 1990 and 2000 for agriculture. Yet between 70,000 and 80,000 km2 agricultural land is made unproductive each year by soil erosion. The segment load from soil erosion has risen over 3 times in major river basins and by 10 times in smaller more intensively used river basins. Silting is at alarming rates thereby reducing the quality of water and its biological productivity.

Global climate change;

In the atmosphere, air rises as it is heated by the sun, falls earthward as it cools, and intermixes with evaporated water from the planet’s bodies of water to form clouds and precipitation. The uneven heating of the Earth’s surface by the sun, along with Earth’s rotation, creates rising (convection), falling (advection) and horizontal air movements (winds). The result of these processes occurring in the form of rain, snow, heat or freezing cold, at a particular place and time, is called weather. Variations in the behavior of weather over long periods, such as from one century to another, is called climate change. Climate variations occur as a response to climate forcing which can cause either a warming or a cooling of the atmosphere. Over most of the Earth’s history, the forcing have been entirely natural, caused by continental drift, variability in solar radiation, changes in the Earth’s orbit, and volcanic emissions. However, since the Industrial Revolution, human activity has had an effect on the global climate system, increasing the amount of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere, trapping heat and contributing to an overall global warming. This has been facilitated by the first growing rate industrialization and urbanization. The growth of industries increased air pollution with methane, carbon dioxide, carbon monoxide, chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs) and halons the last two being the major ozone depleting substances. The impacts of global warming could include reducing the ice caps leading to sea level rises of tens of centimeters threatening millions of people in coastal areas of high agriculture production leading to famine and food insecurity among others.

The huge foreign debt especially in developing countries

Countries in the global south are always living on debts from the World Bank, International Monetary Fund, and European Union among others which are paid back with interest. The cumulative debt of lower income countries is in far excess of 1 trillion dollars and cumulative interest payment approximately 100 million dollars per year. Many of them live in deficit and can not fund their economic development pragrammes, with such a heavy debt burden, these countries are bound to over exploit their resources in a bid to repay the debt. Besides they are bound top implement unfavourable policies that are endorsed by the money lenders some with disastrous effects on the economy.

Civil wars;

A lot of wars have been fought since the end of the Second World War and they have mainly occupied the global south – in countries like Angola, Sudan, Uganda, and Liberia among others. A lot of money has been spent on facilitating governments and perceived revolutionaries. In the process many live are lost, a lot of vegetation cleared and a lot of money borrowed for buying fire arms and ammunition. Until such a time when there is peace and security of person it is still very hard to pursue sustainable development.

HIV/AIDS pandemic  

This pandemic that has gripped the world for the 30 or so years has claimed a lot of lives at an equally fast rate. Many parents have died leaving young children with no one to care for them. This has been worsened by the breakup of the social security systems and safety nets especially because of poverty. Today we see many children taking on adult roles and many going in child labor. This significantly reduces their chances of getting an elementally level of education thereby reinforcing poverty with its adverse effects on sustainable development.

Political instability;

This is mainly experienced in African countries, Afghanistan, Iraq, among others and areas of northern Uganda. The people usually use forests and mountains as hideouts and as thus destroying them in the process. Instability also leads not give people an opportunity to develop themselves agriculturally because they are always on the run. It also leads to death of people, destruction of property. This undermines sustainable development since it’s hard for the government to develop such areas. This could be solved through peace talks, with the rebels and the government, denouncing practices such as suicide bombing and acts of non-humanness. With this, it can be easy to reduce political instability and thus people regaining their values and peace in society thus promoting sustainable development.

Technology;

Technological progress offers the opportunity to augment consumption opportunities for a given stock wealth. Nordhaus (1995) and Weitzman and Lofgran (1997) have separately urged that a prevalence of exogenous technological change effectively absolves the needs to under take changes in natural assets. Technological change would swamp all loses of assets as estimated by the procedures (the total factor productivity) this appears to lend some support to the view that no matter what the degree of care between generation and the bequest of asset across time. It will always take care of the current generation as always the poorest. However in theories of endogenous technological change ( Romer 1990 and Salah-l-Matin, 1995) the creation of new technology uses scarce resources that could be employed else where in production. Recognition of these opportunity costs of developing new technologies go some way in dampening some of the more optimistic  claim that have been made, Thus affecting sustainable development.

(b)

In view of the above challenges towards the achievement of sustainable development, there some adjustments that needs to be under taken in order to live in a sustainable manner in both the present and future generation as highlighted below:

Community participation;

This involves the use of a local approach of the Bottom –top approach. Since the community is at the base level in terms of resources exploitation and use, it encourages the sharing of responsibility for project identification, design, management and execution. This also helps the community to feel a sense of ownership of the project and hence will be enthusiastic to see that it succeeds. The role of public involvement helps to affirm the public the benefits of environmental projects, as a result there will be big turn up during implementation thus sustainability of the project. Public participation is a major issue when designing developmental programs and these accounts for failure of some projects.

Technological advancement;

Technological advance is one of the avenues towards achievement of a sustainable future. On a global scale, there is a tremendous increase in the total On a global scale, there is a tremendous increase in the total number of people followed by worries for grain to feed the growing population, technological advancement has helped to relieve worries through the introduction of genetically modified species (miracle crops) to double production of output with less input. Mechanization of farms also helps to improve on the soil structure by bringing back the leached nutrients on top soil surfaces for plant growth and thus a diverse community. Mechanization also helps to trigger off extensive clearance of grassland to boost food production in addition, the use of fertilizers also help to minimize on the total acreage and thus saving wilderness and forest ecosystems which would have been cleared to increase on the total output.  On the other hand, there is need for economic development through ensuring economic efficiency (using fewer inputs and achieving high outputs). However some resources are exhaustible and they are crucial in our daily living for example fossil fuel, iron ores among others. For future generations to enjoy such finite resources there is need for sustainable exploitation with recycling the used resources. This can only be done by technological advancement.

Provision of family planning services for all who wish them;    

Most of environmental problems and in fact obstacles to achievement of sustainable development are tied on rapid population increase. The resources such as land, energy, food, among others which sustain human life are fixed and therefore over population means scarcity of these resources thus complication of life for both the present and future generations. Family planning methods like contraceptive use, condoms, genital mutilation, among others would cut off numbers of people leaving only a sizable figure which can fit in the amount of resources available. As result, there will be no worries for resource depletion for future generations. However this has been embraced by both the developed and developing countries.

Promotion of millennium development goals (MDGs)

The millennium development goals are the eight goals (Eradicate extreme poverty and hunger, Achieve Universal Primary Education (UPE), Promote Gender Equality and Empower women, Reduce child mortality, Improve maternal health, Combating HIV/AIDS Malaria and other diseases, ensure environmental sustainability, developing a Global Partnership for development)

 To be achieved by 2015 a global partnership that has given on the commitment and target established at the world summit held in September 2000. They are drawn from the action and targets containing millennium declaration that was adopted by the 149 nations and signed by 147 heads of states in September 2000. For instance the “the eradication of extreme poverty and hunger is achieved alternative projects that would empower people to meet their needs as they give them resources that they need to earn their families money. For example, prosperity for all in Uganda known as “Bona bagagawale”, in Kenya, there are youth projects funded by Non government organizations (NGOs) to plant trees, dispose of solid waste properly, where in Tanzania there is Kikwete fund that sponsor small enterprises. This has helped to reduce on number of people surviving directly on the natural resources for instance activities like lumbering, brick laying, agriculture, and charcoal burning as such activities leads to rapid exhaustion of resources.

The use of legal and policy framework;

Much of the terrestrial biodiversity occurs within national boundaries and such national policies and legislation play an important role in conservation for the future generations. Comprehensive environmental law is an essential tool to achieving sustainability through conservation. The law sets standards of social behavior and gives a measure of governance policies. Though conservation laws varies country to country representing varying economic and social settings there are some common aspects followed by most countries. Conservation laws should be family rooted in the constitution or any other fundamental definition of a nation’s governance. These laws should address the following aspects;

(i)                 Land use planning and development planning, some countries have limiting the use to which specific land can be put aside. Land use controls are normally applied to restricted construction activities, mining and industrial location. This is normally done to protect unique habitats where there is high level of biodiversity. In Uganda, one can site controlled hunting areas and such areas are protected through land zoning. Therefore any activity can only be carried out upon receipt or permit.

(ii)               Currying out environment impact assessment (EIA).

Alternative energy use;

Worldwide, a generic study shows that there is a heavy dependence on forests for fuel wood, charcoal, timber among others. Thus there is need for substitution of these services with other for a sustainable yield, for example bio-fuel instead of fossil fuel, energy saving stoves instead of charcoal stoves. The gestation period for some tree species like ekule, mvule is long under the circumstances, when such tree species are cut within minutes it deprives the generations to come a chance to enjoy services from such trees like fresh air recharge, protection against dangerous winds among others. When alternative energy uses are discovered there is a chance for survival of some tree species which are remarkably diverse in terms of species.

Proper provision of environmental education;  

There is need for a change in the education curriculum; knowledge about environmental management should be imparted into people. Environmental education should be provided at all levels of education including community, primary schools, and pre-high education having the following objectives; environmental education should be looked at as pattern behavior in groups, individuals and society, Every person to be provided with opportunity to get knowledge, values, commitment, and skills needed to improve environmental wellbeing. Once more communities appreciate environmental management with some roles and responsibilities towards conservation, the contamination of water, land and air pollution will be no more. In addition, there has been improving in education attainment for both sexes with the percentage for female sex almost equaling to that of the male, by promotion of girl education through provision scholars. Women involvement in resource depletion is high compared to men as a result, they need skills in resource use and environment management. Also for purposes of population control there is need for them to prior knowledge about the family planning methods available.

There is needed to start a process of mediation and consensus development. Environment economic and social goals and interests should mediate among themselves and develop political consensus. Taking the right value judgments for appropriate balance between short term and long term needs and among industrial production consumption and environmental quality can lead to sustainability. Such decisions/ judgments involve difficult tradeoffs between conflicting objectives and sometimes mutually exclusive options both with far reaching consequences. Such decisions are essentially ethical and political and need to be negotiated among many sectors and interest groups. 

Proper planning;

Proper planning is another major requirement – major investments in industry and infrastructure that take long time to anticipate environmental impacts involve a number of actors and need to address the different operational requirements and the broad range of issues that affect sustainable development. All of which call upon proper planning so as to strike a balance between infrastructure and sustainable development this has been done through currying out Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) to assess the impacts of a particular project and the mitigation measures designed to redress such areas.

Creation of awareness and sensitization;

The creation of awareness and sensitization should be done through radio programmes, journals, News papers to inform the community about environmental programmes lured to enhance environmental management. People at the local level lack knowledge and thus take long to understand the functioning of the natural system thus appreciate services from the environment. When the public gets such information in time, they can try to minimize on their negative activities that can cause environmental degradation. Thus reversing the effects to ensure achievement of sustainable development. 

In conclusion, there are various challenges affecting achievement of sustainable development in both the developed and developing countries with all the responsibility for both obstacles and avenues for its achievement being tied on the developed countries, because they are heavily industrialized, high consumption of resources, and the hoarding of technology required for the sustainable use of resources. Claiming that they want developing countries to be at the same pace with them in terms of economic development. Under the circumstances, these challenges should be solved in order to promote quality life among generations in terms of resource distribution.

References

Daniel B.Botkin, (2005), Environmental science; Earth as a living planet 5th                                    

                        Edition, published by Von Hoffmann Corporation

Enger and Smith, (2002), Environmental science; A study of

                         Interrelationships 8th Edition, published by McGraw-Hill    

                         Companies

Bernard J.Nebel, (1990), Environmental science; The way the world works

                          3rd Edition, published by prentice-Hall

Enger and Smith, (2004), Environmental science; A study of

                          Interrelationships 9th Edition, published by McGraw-Hill

                          Companies

Related Environment Impact Info

THE CHALLENGES OF MARKETING INNOVATION FOR A BETTER SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT

INTRODUCTION

Marketing is about selling people more. So can sustainable marketing really work?

- Marketing comprises a set of skills that generally enable companies to sell more stuff to more people to get a greater share of the market. These skills are usually portable: it doesn’t matter what’s being sold to whom in what marketplace. The social and environmental impact of the stuff that’s being marketed remains, for the vast majority of people in marketing, until recently, largely irrelevant. The idea of sustainable marketing is inevitably sort of ridiculous.

- Sustainable development comprises a set of ideas, principles, values, mindsets and practices that enable individuals and organizations to improve their quality of life in ways that simultaneously protect and enhance the Earth’s life-support systems, in other words, without destroying the planet. At the very least, it can mean consuming in more environmentally and socially responsible ways; for some, it means consuming less.

The idea of sustainable marketing is, therefore, sort of suspect. The marketplace is greener now than ever before and will become even more responsive to products and services promising environmental responsibility well into the 21st century. The reasons are many. People are worried. In the 1980’s, environmental calamities dominated the news. Almost daily, headlines trumpeted oil spills, toxic-waste dumps, and nuclear meltdowns. A hole punctured the ozone layer, a garbage barge searched in vain for a dumpsite; apples were not considered safe to eat. The issues were no longer in someone else’s backyard far-away, but in our own. The environment rose to the top of the public’s worry list.

MARKETING INNOVATION AND SUSTAINABLE MARKETING

Nowadays, businesses that fall short of developing effective value propositions have difficulties in taking advantage of market opportunities that are characterized by uncompromising market forces such increased competition, shortened product lifecycles and more sophisticated and variable customer demands. It is a disconcerting fact that many, if not most, businesses struggle to develop sustainable, innovative value propositions that help them sustain their market positions.

Marketing innovation and sustainable development are today’s hottest topics of our planet among intellectuals. Why not harness the creativity and innovation of one of the oldest professions there is to move forward our societies onto a much more sustainable footing? Humanity has been known to tackle far more challenging tasks, anywhere from placing a man on the moon, to persuading people to buy aloe vera toilet paper, as Steve Hilton from Good Business often illustrates. Surely, therefore, bringing together these innovators and persuaders needed to make the world more sustainable should also be possible.

Will we assist to less growth with marketing sustainability? Not really. I think if it is well done, it could mean better, smarter and much more efficient ways of buying and making stuff. What if marketing sustainability is just a pipe dream when consumers are largely ambivalent about the green credentials of the products and services they buy, and certainly find it difficult to pay ‘green premiums’? We don’t think it will be. If done properly, it will appeal to personal values and allow that twinge of “I would really like to do something”.

However, I have to notice that efforts by the odd responsible company are not nearly enough to make producer and consumer change stick. A much wider collective effort is needed if we are going to be successful at reversing unsustainable patterns of consumption and production, considering most of us are not willing to sacrifice Aloe Vera toilet paper for banana leaves. If marketing can turn “lead into gold”, then it has the potential to make sustainable development a household word, a universally recognised way of adding both social and economic value. Marketing can create, influence and change target audience attitudes, beliefs and perceptions. In a nutshell, marketing works; that’s why companies do it. A more interesting question is how can it be used to reinforce sustainable development?

I have to mention that although sustainable development and marketing innovation are the 21st century most discussed topics, they are conflicting concepts. Today’s evolution about these topics is to set a challenging sustainable development benchmarks for every element of the marketing mix and build intrinsic brand value in and through sustainable development. Through engaging companies from a range of sectors that are both already active in sustainable development and have high brand awareness, as well as leading media and communications agencies open to new opportunities, we hope to build wider competencies in sustainable marketing within the profession and more broadly in businesses. 

 MARKETING INNOVATION

Much of the discussion about marketing and sustainable development focuses on developed markets; on the levels of consumption amongst the world’s richest people and the changing nature of their preferences. Companies face fierce competition for growth in developed countries whilst, in contrast, the most disadvantaged people in the world represent a market with enormous potential. And if the world’s population expands in line with current predictions, over 90% of people will be living in (what are now) developing countries within 30 years. It is no surprise, then, that marketers are increasingly interested in the opportunities amongst the world’s poor, which may involve addressing their basic needs. But is this wishful thinking, or are there compelling commercial reasons for business to pay attention to developing markets? As the term sustainable development enters the business mainstream, the responsibility for managing social and environmental issues is slowly shifting from the corporate fringe to an important business function.

The implementation of communication strategies is a marketing innovation. Not only does the company inform the general public of its efforts to reduce its environmental impact, but in addition, it listens to its clients and tries to gain acceptance of its employees. A sophisticated form of the communication strategy consists of taking part directly in the development of restrictive measures (emission standards, branch agreements, etc.). This effort seems to show a proactive approach to companies on the environmental question, but on the other hand, it could be a way to impede environmental progress by means of a lobbying policy.

It is a truth universally acknowledged that a company in possession of a good (or poor) fortune must be in want of innovation. Yet, by all accounts, some 40-90% of innovations fail in the market. In this elective we examine the drivers of market adoption, taking the perspectives of both ‘objective reality’ and the ‘perceived reality’ of the players in the decision. We then offer some suggestions for bringing innovations more successfully to market.

Invention and innovation have proven to be crucial components for the development of modern societies. However, 1.3 billion people who currently live on less than a dollar a day do not enjoy the benefits that many modern inventions have brought. At the same time some key new technologies are known to have caused enormous damage to the global environment.

SUSTAINABLE MARKETING

Increasingly, business is investing in sustainable development strategies, often not fully embraced by their marketing departments.

The result of this means that mixed messages are being transmitted to shareholders and stakeholders alike. There is a real need to join sustainable development business strategy with the marketing departments that drive that strategy forward.
Because marketing influences the development of products and services, as well as the communication methods used to influence consumer behaviour, it is at the axis of one of the most challenging issues facing business today: addressing the current unsustainable levels of production and consumption in an uncertain world.

There are two key approaches to marketing and sustainability. One seeks to embed sustainable development within a company’s core marketing strategy from innovation to the market. The other aligns opportunities for marketing and advertising with the values of sustainable development, either overtly or covertly.

Why is it now that people think about sustainable marketing?

As mainstream marketing is changing and as we enter a ‘third age’ of branding, the context for brands is changing irrevocably. The first age of branding was the age of functionality, where product purpose was legitimised through trademarks. The second age was the age of aspiration, meaning brands served a self actualising purpose. The third age of branding is the age of reconnection, that is, solutions-oriented branding. Empowering consumers to make the world a better place through the products they buy.  For example, if we take the case of the refrigerators, we can say that in 1950’s, somebody could easily be convinced to buy a refrigerator just because it looked cool in his/her eyes, but in today’s uncertain world, we might ask ourselves about the impact of the chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs) that our refrigerator is emitting and demand a more environmentally friendly refrigerator.

So, if today’s successful marketing is about appealing to personal values and delivering consumer empowerment, then surely the time is right to inject sustainable development into the marketing mix to help address some of the gritty issues currently facing our planet.

SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT

Today’s fast technologies innovation and invention have made people worry about their living environment. Although they need improvements for the household equipments they are daily using, they started asking themselves about the future of the world. Based on this, we have to mention that marketing innovation is developing with consequences for humankind. In this 21st century, sustainable development remains a term which many marketers have become accustomed to hearing alongside jargon such as stakeholder engagement and Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR).

Sustainable development is a compelling idea for many people. It is concerned with how business can contribute to some of the most significant challenges that the world faces today; from climate change and biodiversity, to working conditions and health amongst the poorest in the world. But marketing managers have struggled to translate these ideas into viable commercial propositions into marketing strategies that create competitive advantage, build trust or develop new business opportunities.

Moreover, marketers have often faced criticism for being part of the problem for pushing the consumption of unsustainable products and lifestyles.

Sustainable development is becoming a key strategic issue for companies. With growing pressure from global warming, natural resource depletion, widening social gaps, legislation, societal pressures, and the evolution of consumer expectation, the role of marketing within an organization is changing dramatically. Consumer demand for “ethical” products and services is increasing and the marketing is a lever for innovation to answer to this new demand. Social and environmental values are now elements of a brand, marketers need to tackle these issues. Sustainable development is the practice of protecting the environment while improving living standards for all, and invention and innovation is key to its success. Invention and innovation for sustainable development isn’t just about developing new technology, but includes new processes and new ways of solving old problems. Creative thinking is the rubric. Creative thinking has always been integral for improving well-being.

Despite the fact that people everywhere have an innate ability to be creative, rich countries are not doing enough to stimulate and harness invention and creative thinking, and poor countries tend to stifle innovation and creativity outright. This is typically due to a combination of factors: insufficient financial resources, lack of role models, education systems that don’t inspire or value creativity, and social/political environments that discourage creativity, invention and entrepreneurship. Sustainable development has different meanings and implications in different parts of the world. Julia Marton-Lefèvre, executive director of LEAD International, an organization dedicated to leadership for environment and development in a workshop on “invention and innovation for sustainable development” held in November 2003 said to understand the challenges and ramifications “not only in London and Paris and New York, but also in tiny villages in Nigeria and Indonesia and China.” Sustainable development is for all countries, not just developing ones. Based on what she said, I can mention that while rich countries need to develop alternative sources of energy and other technologies that reduce their own impact on the environment, poor countries need to develop their own innovation capacity, in order to address their own particular needs.

CHALLENGES FOR MARKETERS TO ACHIEVE SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT

Companies create competitive advantage by understanding the shifts in society; from technological innovations such as the 3G communication system to the unwinding consequences of events such as May 12th China earthquake. These trends are the foundations of marketing strategy, and the emergence of sustainable development as a matter of public and corporate concern is one such change in the marketing environment. In recent years, hundreds of companies have developed ethical policies or mission statements. These initiatives appear to be grounded in market realities. For example, a Weber Shandwick survey of 8,000 consumers in 2001 indicates that 80% of high-education/high-income people in the USA have considered switching brands when a company was negatively portrayed in the media in respect of social responsibility issues. But today, the question for marketers is: is there really an opportunity for them to use sustainable development as a lever of brand innovation, rather than the greenwash?

Marketers rightly insist that appealing to sustainability values will not overcome a fundamental weakness in product quality, yet with excellent products there is evidence that social and environmental aspects can be used to differentiate or create a profitable niche. For them, Sustainability values can be a successful differentiator; a key part of the functional and emotional attributes of a product or service. Many of marketers argue that integrating sustainability values into a brand can contribute to market growth. As one professional has commented, “As long as performance, price and place are right, then corporate responsibility can become a differentiator, although a significant price premium is not possible.”

Nowadays, a lot of businesses have tried to differentiate specific products on the basis of their social and environmental impacts. For example, Toyota has used celebrity endorsements to promote the environmental credentials of the Prius, their hybrid fuel car; it has also approved plans to use more distinctive badging on its hybrid Highlander and Lexus models. And niche businesses (increasingly joined by mainstream retailers) supplying fair trade coffee and organic products have targeted consumer concerns regarding working conditions and chemical pollution in the food supply chain, often using eco-labels and social labels to enhance the consumer understanding of their products.

The opportunity for differentiation is perhaps more significant in the business-to-business sector. Business-to-business companies are increasingly identifying opportunities to position their products and services in the wider context of their social and environmental impact as well as their cost and functionality. As one marketer has suggested: “Corporate customers are more interested in these issues than individual customers” Another marketer has confirmed the basis of this business-to-business market: “The challenge is what do customers care about: sometimes it is just price and delivery, but functionality can include aspects of sustainability, like reducing your customers’ waste so their operations run better, helping them deal with and/or eliminate regulatory issues.”

Today’s challenge for marketers to achieve their goals by integrating marketing innovation with sustainable development is to build trust with customers, consumers and society.

Reputation – the goodwill that an organization has acquired from its past performance – is the foundation of future success, the basis on which a business will be trusted in years to come. Companies remain among the least trusted institutions in society, with some businesses particularly vulnerable to pressure group campaigns and consumer boycotts. As a result, many marketers are asking themselves how to minimize the risk of criticism from stakeholders, and whether sustainable development has a role to play in these efforts. Perhaps more positively, they are also wondering what part their companies’ ambitions and achievements on social and environmental issues can play in building and maintaining trust with consumers, customers and society as a whole.

Some marketers are also concerned that reputation and trust may not be sufficient to preserve their brands in the longer-term: current patterns of consumption are not sustainable, and so customers and consumers must be educated in order to protect or secure the resources on which business is based.

Products with sustainability attributes will only appeal if they are clearly consistent with the values and activities of the company.

Many people care about the social and environmental impacts of business. Yet people trust companies when they believe they are acting according to their values, and not just because it happens to make sense in that particular instance. Credibility comes from the confidence that a business will continue to behave ethically in the future: a business will gain little reputational benefit – and more likely harm – from helping a community if local people see the contribution as a short-term ‘bribe’ that will be withdrawn as soon as its immediate objective is achieved. Marketers have a critical role in building trust. In particular, they can help to create inspiring communications, which are honestly based on the abilities of the organisation and the resources that it can realistically devote to enhancing its social and environmental performance.

However, reputation and trust may not be sufficient to safeguard a brand. To succeed, marketers must lead the path towards more sustainable consumption.

International policy makers are paying more and more attention to some of the greatest challenges to society and the environment. For example, UK previous Prime Minister Tony Blair placed poverty in Africa and climate change at the top of the G8 agenda for 2005. These issues are critical to the long-run success of business. In short, companies cannot operate effectively in societies and economies which fail to protect and support the production and consumption of their products and services. Business needs reliable access to sources of raw material, safe working conditions for production, storage and distribution, thriving consumer markets, and safe mechanisms for the disposal of product waste. There is much that governments must do. But if consumers aren’t switching to more sustainable products, then it will also fall to business to break the current patterns of consumption. And it is often the marketer who will be best positioned to create this connection between business and consumers.

CONCLUSION

Purchasing organic or fair trade produce is now very easy, but making purchasing decisions about other products such as mobile phones on environmental, social or ethical grounds remains difficult. Innovation for sustainable development would inevitably lead to new product-service systems. Current consumer culture with its emphasis on ownership as a status symbol creates significant barriers to the acceptance of these new product service systems.

Although new products and services may be essential for future growth and profit,

companies must survive today to be around tomorrow. Short term financial objectives tend to focus companies on making incremental improvements that keep sales up, keep customers happy and satisfy city analysts rather than the more radical approaches that would promote innovation for sustainable development.

Transforming today’s companies into sustainable innovation stars is not a simple case of creating a new sustainable innovation tool. Product and service innovation is part of a much wider innovation system and is affected by conditions as wide ranging as government leadership on sustainable development and organisational structures within companies. Addressing the barriers to integrating sustainable development into product and service innovation, therefore, requires change to take place across the entire system; from the introduction of new tools into the immediate product development process to the integration of sustainable development objectives into innovation policy.

Sustainable development specialists (and those with equivalent positions or responsibilities) are no longer just responsible for the management of philanthropic initiatives, community engagement programs or environmental impact assessments.

Instead, in leading companies, these managers are expected to act as agents of change: to develop the structures, systems, ways of working and personal values that will support the organisation’s sustainable development objectives; and to encourage others in the company to act as enthusiastic agents of change.

 References

- Aggeri, F., Pezzet E. and Alii (2005), “Organiser le Développement Durable”, Paris, Vuibert

- Asselineau, A. and Pierre Piré-Lechard (2008), “Développement Durable et Entreprise Responsable : Une voie pour l’innovation de rupture ”, Communication présentée lors des 3èmes journées Neptune, 1ère université : Réalités et Prospectives du développement durable organisationnel, ERMES, IAE de Toulon, Observatoire du développement durable, Université du Sud-Toulon-Var, Toulon, 13-14 Novembre 2008

- Bridgewater, S. and Peter Doyle (1998) “Innovation in Marketing”, Business and Economics

- Buisson, J. (2006) “La Responsabilité sociale de l’entreprise”, Economie et Management, N°119, Avril.

- Commissariat général au développement durable (2009) “Stratégie nationale du développement durable 2009-2012”, Ministère français de l’écologie, de l’énergie, du développement durable et de l’aménagement du territoire

- Cravens, D. (2006) “Strategic Marketing global challenges and Opportunities”, Handbook of Business Strategy, Vol. 7, Issue. 1, pp.63-70

- Fuller, D.A. (1999) “Sustainable Marketing”, Sage Publication, London-New Delhi

- Guignard, S.and Claire Prendleloup (2008) “Le développement durable”, Agence de l’environnement et de la maitrise de l’énergie, Service Valorisation des informations et des connaissances

- Harribey, J.M. (2004) “Développement ne rime pas forcément avec croissance”, Le Monde Diplomatique, Juillet

- Hauser, J., Gerard J.Tellis and Abbie Griffin (2006), “Research on Innovation: A Review and Agenda for Marketing Science”, Marketing Science, Volume 25, Number 6, November-December 2006, pp.687-717

- Jaffro, V. and Anne-Gaël Girrard (2008), “Responsabilité Sociale et Développement Durable, comment construire un modèle d’innovation et de collaboration pour les entreprises ” www.biggerthinking.com/sustainability/innovation

- Kates, R.W., Thomas M. Parris and Anthony A. Leiserowitz (2005) “What is Sustainable Development? Goals, Indicators, Values and Practice”, Science and Policy for Sustainable Development, Vol.47-Number 3, pp.8-21

-  Lambe, P. (2003) “Marketing Innovations”, www.greenchameleon.com

- Lawrence, G. (2006) “promoting Sustainable Development: the question of Governance”, Research in Rural Sociology and Development, Vol.11, pp. 145-174

- Longhurst, J.W.S., Stephen A. Dalton and David C. Gibbs (1995) “Towards a sustainable future: Promoting Sustainable Development”, The Environmentalist, Vol.15 Number 4/ December 1995

- OECD (2001) “Sustainable Development: Critical Issues”, Policy Brief-September 2001

- Patris, C., Gerard Valenduc and Francoise Warrant (2001) “Technological Innovation fostering Sustainable Development”, Report on a Research Project at the Federal Service for scientific, technical and Cultural Affairs (SSTC), under the Levers for sustainable development programme

- Reynaud, E. (2006) “Le développement durable au cœur de  l’entreprise. Pour une approche transverse du développement durable”, Dunod

- Taylor, J. (2002) “Sustainable Development: A Dubious Solution in search of a problem”, Policy Analysis Number 449- August 26, 2002