Rethinking business activities

Switching to a sustainable model of society involves a revision of all economic sectors. Here's an overview of this changing world...

Moving towards sustainable agriculture

In the second half of the 20^th century, the advent of intensive agriculture has led to success in the fight against hunger in many parts of the world. However, productivist agriculture has shown its limits and its incompatibility with long-term management of the environment and its natural resources. It is now necessary that we gradually switch to a model that is not just productive, but sustainable as well.

Monoculture should be avoided: it relies on the use of pesticides (the U.S., Japan and France are the three main users ⁽¹⁾) and fertiliser. Irrigation techniques should be revised in order to be more water efficient (drip system...). Varieties that are compatible with the soil must be selected and they should be distributed first in local markets. Breeding and fishing techniques should be adapted in order to be safe on the natural environment and the focus should be on product quality rather than quantity.

Moreover, the GMO issue needs to be treated with great seriousness and independence. These types of crops require a greater amount of pesticides. Furthermore, applications in the field are irreversible, and the use of patents creates a risk of food production monopolies. It is necessary, now more than ever, to be cautious by implementing stringent constraints in order to prevent the contamination of conventional seeds, or by prohibiting GMOs if such prevention is impossible. A recent study shows that nature is capable of creating new GMOs by crossing with those created by humans ⁽²⁾...

Integrated farming models, or better yet, organic farming models, offer positive prospects for the future. Organic agriculture can feed the entire planet ⁽³⁾. But the transition appears to be slow and difficult. The involvement of farmers is necessary, and it would make sense that subsidies only be granted if environmental criteria are met.

Industry: from product to service

Industry is a major consumer of natural resources and it causes many forms of pollution. In recent years, some companies have begun to practice eco-design, which takes into account environmental factors in the design of physical goods. A product's entire life cycle is considered, from its design to its end-of-life disposal, including its manufacture, transport and usage. Such a life cycle analysis allows for a comprehensive assessment of environmental impacts to be made ("sustainable design" also examines social criteria). The transferring of impacts is thereby avoided. For example, the carbon assessment of a biofuel shouldn't just consider the pollutants emitted during combustion. Its production can have severe environmental consequences if it comes from intensive agriculture, or social consequences if it competes with food crops.

Eco-innovation is used to describe innovation of one or more stages of a product's (or service's) life cycle in order to reduce its environmental impact while maintaining economic growth ⁽⁴⁾. More than a redesign, the goal is to make a clean break, and this is a source of net environmental gains. The dematerialisation of products is an example of this (ex: the replacement of an answering machine bought in a store with voicemail provided by the telephone company). "Remanufacturing", which aims to recover a product at the end of its useful life, and then refurbish and reuse it, is very effective, especially with printer cartridges. The transition from products to services appears very promising: this system aims to improve "eco-efficiency", in a scenario where a customer pays for a service and a supplier pays for the means to provide this service. Some examples of this concept: Rank Xerox, which sells a photocopying service, not photocopiers, or Paris's Velibs, which pool 20,000 bikes together for 250,000 daily commutes.

Responsible tourism

25 million international tourist trips in 1950, 900 million in 2007, 1.6 billion in 2020 ⁽⁵⁾. The transformation of tourism is also one of the cornerstones of sustainable development. In 2008, 59% of French citizens had heard about the concept of "responsible tourism", but only 2% had already tried it ⁽⁶⁾. The new face of tourism should help contribute to the fight against the excesses of mass tourism: concreted shorelines, illegal wildlife trade, harm to indigenous communities, deforestation, pollution...

Tourism can reduce the social impact that it has. This can be achieved thanks to fair tourism, which involves rewarding partners fairly, and solidary tourism, which aims to help poor populations. Ecotourism takes into account environmental criteria, while eco-volunteers contribute to nature conservation efforts. Responsible tourism seeks to be safe to both human beings and their environment. Today, however, quality labels are still not used and transparency for the consumer is far from perfect.

Among the environmental impacts associated with tourism, transport is highly implicated. Air travel, in particular, is responsible for the highest pollution emission rates per passenger per kilometre. Yet, travel agencies now feature flights for increasingly shorter stays (weekends in New York...). Even though "carbon compensation" systems are starting to appear, responsible tourism helps us question the relationship between humans and both time and distance: taking more time to travel further allows for "gentler" tourism.

The energies of the future

Energy plays a major role in all economic sectors. Today, 80% of all energy comes from fossil resources ⁽⁷⁾. In the upcoming context of shortage, only coal contains significant autonomy. However, its combustion pollutes and it emits greenhouse gases (GHGs). Nuclear power is an alternative which emits few GHG gases, but the storage of electricity is difficult, and radioactive waste remains problematic. It is therefore imperative that new sources of energy be developed.

"Renewable energy" describes energy which is derived from inexhaustible sources (sun, wind...) and renewable ones (wood...). Currently, the two types of renewable energy sources (RES) that are used most often are hydropower, which is criticised because of the adverse effects of dams on ecosystems, and wood, which must come from sustainably managed forests. For the latter source of energy, as with all biomass, its combustion is not free from polluting emissions. While geothermal science recovers energy from underground, energy from wind turbines, the sun, the tides, and tidal turbines (marine currents) is infinite but very dependent on local conditions (weather...). In addition, the impacts on landscapes are sometimes worthy of criticism, and it is not always possible to recycle the equipment that is used. Biofuels can store energy in a manner that is comparable to hydrocarbons, but their environmental and social impact isn't always positive. Lastly, fuel cells require the handling of hazardous materials (hydrogen…) and their performance has yet to be satisfactory.

Currently, the replacement of oil is still an issue. No RES exists that is abundant, cheap, powerful and easy to store. The time has now come for diversification, innovation and technical optimisation.

However, as with all economic sectors, technical progress and industry developments are not enough for us to switch to a sustainable society model. Changes in our behaviour and adjustments to our lifestyles will also be required.

Written by Florent Planas for "One year for the Planet" (translated by Anyword).

Find out more…

1. Michel Barnier, Atlas pour un monde durable (Acropole, 2007)
2. Meredith Schafer, Université d’Arkansas (Congrès International de l’Ecological Society of America, 2010)
3. FAO (Food and Agriculture Organization)
4. Bernard Yannou, Eco-innovation de produits et services (Ecole Centrale Paris, 2009)
5. WTO (World Tourism Organization)
6. TNS Sofres survey (03/2008)
7. IEA (International Energy Agency)