Environmental Services: Policy Innovation and Business Opportunities

1
Environmental Services Policy Innovation and
Business Opportunities

• High-level Consultation on Trade in Services for
  Regional Integration, 28-29 February 2008, Macao,
  China
• Sitanon JESDAPIPAT, Ph.D.
• Center for Natural Resources and Environmental
  Management (NREM Center)
• Mae Fah Luang University, Chiang Rai

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Environmental Protection and services

• Eco-efficiency needed, as natural endowment
  carrying capacity run low, and business needs to
  adjust, not to mention needed changing
  consumption patterns of countries
• Green business to meet new demands and to
  capture market opportunities, but beyond CSR?
• Policies pave ways for above adjustments, but how
  would governments react to changes and needs
  (e.g., lower emissions)?

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Four Discussion Points

• Environment is development capital, increasingly
  there is a need to protect and rehabilitate
  natural resources (but new need to target
  ecosystem, rather than environment hence,
  eco-efficiency, not environmental efficiency)
• Policy innovation is needed in the globalized and
  chaotic world old paradigm out of fashion and
  inadequate in ensuring effective protection
  (eco-efficiency)
• Business, inevitably, is the change agent, not
  governments, but is CSR adequate?
• No, need to go beyond CSR, yes, but what and how?

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Basic Premise Environment and Development
Survival

• Choice is imperative Environment or development
  extinction if not choose rightly
• SD remains a big challenge to implementation,
  despite the debate, But How?
• Given threats of climate change, human survival
  questioned!
• Hence, environment development to provide
  solutions (win-win)
• But win-win win-win-win (for business) is
  realistic and imperative as well

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Environment as development capital

• Avoidance
• Protection
• Highest and best use ? (minimalists?)
• Reduce-Reuse-Recycle-Rehabilitate (4Rs)
• Sustainable Development Factor 4 in
  development, greening North and Leap frog in
  South
• Resources flows environmental flows

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Why Policy Innovation?

• Reject later clean up
• Urgency of problems, e.g., climate change
• Moral decay and localization process
• Changed new world
• Open prison
• Closed paradise
• Climate change looming and low capacity to cope
  or adapt to threats of climate change
• How? Paradigm shifts needed

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Kutznets Env.l Curve
Poll. intensity
How to avoid this?
B
??
A
Per Capita
5000
50
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What is policy innovation?

• Government playing facilitating role, e.g. Green
  Power Market
• Promote private sector stewardship
• Responsible care responsible pays, hence fiscal
  incentives needed
• Green procurement?

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Business as Change Agent

• Being a member of Social organization
• Symbiosis change and progress needed
• Sheer size of business volume
• Partnership Type II in WSSD calls for role of the
  Private Sector
• But what is green business anyway?

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Defining Green business

• Businesses in 4Rs defined above
• Businesses with environmental protection being
  core of CSR
• Businesses in Partnership Type II, defined in WSSD

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Examples of Green business

• Waste into energy
• Turning crisis into opportunities, e.g., Climate
  Change adaptation and mitigation measures
• Growing green together Bang Chak
• Responsible care health care sector chemical
  sector

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Growing green
Million
Corporate sale
Community sale
year
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Scaling up?

• Good small examples abound, but how to scale up?
• Social context of success remains a major
  factor determining its scaling up ability
• Favorable policy environment needed
• Question Green subsidies for businesses?

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Why Beyond CSR?

• What is wrong with CSR?
• Nothing wrong, but inadequate
• Corporations need new policy supports
• Given Climate Change, global agendas are urgently
  needed
• Need to use CSR to green corporations

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Thank you for your attention