Making Business Respond to the Global Warming “Opportunity”
Climate Change and Global Warming have been on the discussion table for a few years now. While the discussion table has got hotter with global warming issues, it is still questionable if the debate has percolated through discussion rooms into tangible progress. At the most, the issue of global warming has assumed some seriousness at international forums and conferences where leaders have taken up on themselves, targets to cut down on carbon emissions. That is, however, just the starters.
The real issue here is for industries to take charge and responsibility of the situation and for their actions.
The Top Down Approach: The issue has been taking a Top-Down approach to managing the catastrophe in formation – an issue that could turn out to be a crisis of the day, perhaps a decade or two down the line, when businesses and individuals may have no choice but to act. It would be a question of survival then – and survival instincts in humans are strong. But, would acting then be good enough to rectify the gravity of the situation? For Governments to agree on schedules and deadlines, for individual ministries to translate the deadlines into workable propositions, for legislations to be enacted after consensus and for businesses to act when it becomes law is the top-down approach that is time consuming and may not be the most effective strategy in the larger scheme of things.
Th Bottom-Up Approach: The better way is the bottom-up approach to managing the problem of Global Warming and Industrial pollution. Businesses are out there to make profits and grow. Industries need business opportunities to survive, to cash in on and move up the value chain. All the efforts the activist groups put forward in making their voices heard are as good as barking up the wrong trees. Activists groups should first be getting together to see how they can “help” businesses, rather than oppose them.
Global Warming is an Opportunity, Not a Problem: If they think global warming is a problem, they should look at the “opportunity” it presents for businesses. Let them find a business model that could be feasible for businesses to work on; let them engineer a design that would be environment-friendly and cost-effective for businesses. Let them prove to businesses that there is efficiency involved in the green way of doing business. Then, all they have to do is to sell the business opportunity to business houses and industries. Why would businesses refuse something that would save them money, increase their efficiency and also enhance their brand values through enormous goodwill generated by embracing the Green Revolution?
The Top-Down approach is under way from the government. Activist groups should focus on the Bottom-Up approach to make businesses act.
