Shifting Paradigms in Corporate Environmentalism: From Poachers to Gamekeepers

• Author: SUKHBIR SANDHU
• Published date: 01 September 2010
• Date: 01 September 2010
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-8594.2010.00365.x

Shifting Paradigms in

Corporate Environmentalism:

From Poachers

to Gamekeepers

SUKHBIR SANDHU

ABSTRACTbasr_365285..310

This article provides an insight into the changing role

of businesses in dealing with the natural environment

issues. From being regarded as poachers of the natural

environment, many businesses have now started to posi-

tion themselves as gamekeepers of the natural environ-

ment. This article traces the events and factors that have

contributed toward this shift. The article starts with an

introduction to the current state of the natural environ-

ment. It then discusses the role that businesses have

traditionally played in contributing toward the rapid

deterioration of the natural environment. The article then

traces the events that have gradually resulted in busi-

nesses accepting that they have a responsibility to

address environmental issues. This is followed by an

overview of the business responses, to the risks and

opportunities, posed by changes in the natural environ-

ment. The article then provides a brief overview of the

various phase models that attempt to categorize business

Sukhbir Sandhu is a Lecturer in the School of Management, University of South Australia,

City West Campus, North Terrace, Adelaide, SA 5001, Australia. E-mail: Sukhbir.Sandhu@

unisa.edu.au

Business and Society Review 115:3 285–310

© 2010 Center for Business Ethics at Bentley University. Published by Blackwell Publishing,

350 Main Street, Malden, MA 02148, USA, and 9600 Garsington Road, Oxford OX4 2DQ, UK.

responses to environmental issue. The conclusion

focuses on the challenges that lie ahead.

THE CURRENT STATE OF NATURAL ENVIRONMENT

There is now a growing awareness of the intensity of the

environmental change happening on our planet and also of

the centrality of the human effort in provoking that change

(Dunphy et al. 2007; IPCC 2007; Meadows et al. 2004; UNEP

2007; WCED 1987; Welford 1997). A manifold increase in human

population coupled with rapid and uninhibited industrial growth

have been identified as the major causes for the downward spiral

of the natural environment (WCED 1987). The degradation of the

natural environment has become an important issue for govern-

ments and societies throughout the world (Stern Report 2006).

The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) in its

2007 report on global warming provides stark evidence about

climate change now being a distinct reality, rather than a distant

threat. The 2007 IPCC report clearly states that warming of the

climate systems is now unequivocal. The United Nations’ Millen-

nium Assessment Report also rings a clear warning bell about the

deteriorating state of the natural environment (Millennium Eco-

system Assessment Synthesis Report 2005).

An established body of scientific evidence has thus, especially

since the last two decades, increased society’s awareness about

the complex but urgent environmental problems such as climate

change, holes in the ozone layers, and diminishing planetary

resources (IPCC 2001, 2007; United Nations 2006). It is now

widely recognized that reliance on fossil fuels, especially for

industrial activity, puts unprecedented amounts of carbon dioxide

into the atmosphere and is one of the major causes for global

warming (IPCC 2007). The current atmospheric concentrations of

carbon dioxide and methane are higher than they have been for

160,000 years (Meadows et al. 2004). Carbon dioxide retains solar

heat that would otherwise radiate away. Global warming caused

by overloading the atmosphere with carbon dioxide is predicted

(“at very high confidence levels”) to interfere with the global cli-

matic patterns [IPCC, p. 7]. The United Nations Environmental

Programme (UNEP 2007) on its website states that:

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