Changing the adversarial paradigm.

• Author: Lee, Henry
• Position: Leadership in Environmental Initiatives

Here is what it will take to develop a real working partnership between business and government.

Corporate environmentalism, eco-efficiency, sustainable development, green technologies, market incentives, and responsible care are all terms heard in today's corporate boardrooms almost as commonly as they are in the offices of the Sierra Club or the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. There is an emerging consensus that business must play an important role if society is to achieve its environmental goals.

This new perspective marks a significant departure from the traditional view that without strong government intervention, corporate executives would ravage the environment in order to improve their profit margins. The implication was that businessmen were inherently insensitive when it came to the environment. Today, this situation has changed dramatically.

Many companies have adopted aggressive environmental initiatives in the belief that protecting the environment is not only being a good citizen but, in many instances, it is good business. As Frances Cairncross, environmental editor of The Economist, pointed out in her book Costing the Earth, well-managed companies in the 1990s tend to be environmental leaders. The problem is that our laws and regulations have not caught up with these changes. Further, there are groups within and outside of government that have a strong self-interest in resisting the move to a more cooperative business-government relationship.

Businesses throughout the world are reexamining their strategies and their behavior. The Keidanren, the senior business coalition in Japan, has adopted an environmental charter, the chemical industry associations in the United States and Europe have embraced Responsible Care programs to promote continuous improvement in environmental health, and Stephan Schmidheiny's Business Council for Sustainable Development -- a group of approximately 40 major corporations -- published "Changing Course," which outlined a new sustainable direction for business in protecting the health of the planet.

The Clinton-Gore administration enthusiastically seized upon these changes and has trumpeted "green technologies" as a major plank in its economic development policies. Task forces, conferences, workshops, and consortia -- all extolling the potential benefits of "green technologies"-- have popped up around Washington at a startling rate.

Senior administration officials vociferously embrace the theme...