The ecological imperative for business.

• Author: DeCrane, Alfred C., Jr.
• Position: Leadership in Environmental Initiatives

Business leaders must have their companies participate fully in the resolution of the complex environmental issues facing our world society.

Over the past two decades, environmental considerations have become an increasingly important aspect of doing business. Whether business is confronted with the curtailment of emissions, the remediation of waste sites, or the production of products attuned to today's "greener" tastes, the environment presents significant competitive opportunities, as well as challenges, to companies in most industries. Today, sensible environmental stewardship is totally consistent with good business practices, while environmental neglect invites unacceptable risk.

Responsible executives recognize this and incorporate environmental considerations into their corporate cultures and business planning. They act to ensure that their products and services are positioned to respond to the public's environmental concerns and needs. And -- of equal importance -- they are participating in the public debate over environmental policies.

The very nature of our business has put Texaco and its industry in the forefront of many high-profile environmental issues. As a result, we have had extensive experience in the environmental area and have been involved with significant research on the issues, confirming our belief that the people of the world can enjoy both a clean environment and a rising standard of living. But such a positive result is only possible if society allocates its human, material, and capital resources carefully and intelligently, and if the importance of economic growth as a benefit to the environment is understood. It is such growth that provides the resources and investment needed to support a clean environment. One only has to look at much of the underdeveloped world and the former Soviet Bloc, which suffer the poorest environments today, for proof.

Unfortunately, this connection between economic growth and the capacity for positive environmental actions is not fully understood by much of the public, or even by many government and opinion leaders. And business has not done as much as it should to explain this connection, too often leaving the field to those with little or no science or economics behind their positions who say, "Just send the bill to business, they'll pay, you don't have to."

This has contributed to the mushrooming of environmental spending in the United States, often without the expected...