Framing the Conservation Imparative

Too often issues are framed in terms of two sides of a problem or situation.  Like corporate polluters vs. environmentalists.  There is something about the "us vs. them" model that people like, regardless of the side you are on.  It simplifies the rhetoric, "we're right, they're wrong".  It polarizes the issues, forcing people to to pick sides and it makes for easy headlines.  However, it often causes more harm than good by clouding everyone's eyes to the real problem and the real solution that quite possibly will be in everyone's best interest.

Large corporations are often painted as the villains when it comes to the environment, but if we look at the role and responsibility of a corporation a new and different problem comes to light.  One that I believe will help us frame stewardship of the Earth in a new light.

In simplest terms, a corporation exists to provide a return on investment for its shareholders, typically by providing a good or service to the market in a profitable manner.  Corporations have a vested interest in minimizing their costs and maximizing their revenues so as to maximize the return for their shareholders.  Let me go on record as saying, there is nothing wrong with a profit driven corporate model.  However, in today's world that model is incomplete.  First, all of the costs of production are not captured on the corporate cash flow statement.  As an example, the cost of polluted air and water is born by the entire planetary ecosystem, not just the company with the emissions.  Second, the time horizon for the return on investment is too short.  Wall Street has created a 90 days performance measurement model which forces publicly traded firms to optimize short-term returns at the expense of long term sustainability.  If corporations looked at the cost of production with a 10-20 year horizon, then they would clearly have a vested interest in clean air and water because without it, their production costs will skyrocket.  

So, let us cast the need for conservation, not as an "us vs. them" debate, but as a need to fully account for the current costs of production and the need to delivery long term sustainable growth and profitability.