In the company of partners: Business, environmental groups and sustainable development post-Rio

Abstract

Partnership is not the first word that comes to mind when business and environmental groups are mentioned in the same breath. Over the past three decades, most relationships between the private sector and the environmental movement have been founded upon conflict. This started to change in the early 1990s with the emergence of sustainable development, which has offered a new way of looking at environmental, economic and social problems. As a result, representatives of business and the environmental movement have in some cases begun to collaborate in the search for alternatives and solutions. Sustainable development remains an elusive concept, one which some economists and environmentalists have dismissed as an unworkable compromise. Others insist that sustainable development offers a basis for innovative responses to complex, seemingly insurmountable obstacles. One of our key arguments is that business–environmental group partnerships are one of many strategies needed to put sustainable development into practice. The emergence of the business–environmentalist partnership phenomenon in the 1990s also offers new hope for building consensus towards global sustainability. The overall purpose of the book is to provide the reader with an introduction to business–environmental group partnerships, including an analysis of how and why they have emerged, and their wider significance for business and the green movement in northern, industrialised societies. Although the book is generally optimistic in tone, we accept that the prevailing pattern of business–environmental group relationships remains adversarial and that the road to sustainable development is largely uncharted territory. We, nevertheless, believe that business–environmentalist partnerships should be embraced by both business and environmental leaders as one of many strategies for sustainability.

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