Video + A Memo to Executives: What Brands Need to Do to Avoid Sending Us to Mars

Posted on Aug 22, 2012 in Corporate Social Responsibility | 0 comments

By Liz Gorman, SVP, Cone Communications for CSRwire

The world is crowded. Global population reached the 7 billion mark in 2011, and is expected to reach 8 billion by 2030. At a minimum, each person needs food, fresh water, shelter, clothing, health care and some form of energy just to survive. But most of us consume much more than these necessities and well beyond what we need.

That’s where the problem begins.

In its 2012 Living Planet Report, the World Wildlife Fund (WWF) informs us that today we are using 50 percent more resources than the planet can provide. Our overconsumption of resources, specifically fossil fuels, is linked to increasingly higher levels of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, a major contributor to climate change, and a 30 percent global decline in biodiversity since 1970. In a similar report WWF issued in 2002, the trends were comparable but less alarming. Resource consumption has increased exponentially in the last 10 years to the point where we will need another planet – or half a planet today – just to meet our present demands. 

The alternative: Get serious. Really serious about how we manage and use the Earth’s natural resources so we don’t have to move to Mars.

Finding the Real Change Agents

While governments should undoubtedly be taking more aggressive action to regulate the sustainable use and protection of resources, the real change agents must come from industry – the companies that produce the goods we consume. A decade ago just a handful of companies were talking about climate change and clean water as germane to their businesses and reporting on their efforts to address these impacts.

Who were some of the leading change agents among business that Gorman is referring to? And despite all their efforts in the last decade — and the plethora of good news — why does Gorman believe we’re dealing with plenty of bold ideas but no major leaps? Continue reading on CSRwire Talkback.