Going green the only way for companies

Environment
If there is one fact companies all over the world can no longer ignore, it’s the need to operate in an environmentally-sustainable manner.

If there is one fact companies all over the world can no longer ignore, it’s the need to operate in an environmentally-sustainable manner.

Environment with Chipo Masara

It might have taken Zimbabwe longer, but it is finally catching up. While no one can deny that business operations form the economic base of every country, it is a well-known fact that most operations have been having a devastating impact on the environment.

This has prompted the economy versus ecology debate.

For long, there seemed to be a deep-rooted belief in businesspeople worldwide that economic growth had to come with casualties, with the environment unfortunately being one of them.

This trend of thought dominated for a long time, in the process causing unprecedented damage to Mother Nature, until such a time that environmentalists decided enough was enough.

This is when the green movement began, and it has been gaining momentum. Today, any company that wants to survive in the current highly competitive global economic village has no choice but to go green. According to the web-based encyclopaedia, Wikipedia, a green business “is an enterprise that has minimal negative impact on the global or local environment, community, society or economy”.

A green business is characterised by supplying environmentally-friendly products or services, achieved through the incorporation of principles of sustainability into each of the company’s business decisions.

At best, a green business is defined as one “that meets the demands of the present world without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs”.

A typically green business is highly concerned about the potential environmental impact of its products and the process employed to make them.

In spite of the belief by some that it is cumbersome, going green can start with seemingly little initiatives like encouraging employees to reduce consumption and avoid wastage, to upgrading to energy-efficient equipment.

In Zimbabwe, a country bedevilled by a myriad of environmental challenges, a considerable amount of blame can quite justifiably be placed on some locally-operating companies.

The persistent litter woes, water and air pollution, land degradation, among other challenges, all bear the locally operating businesses’ signatures.

But lately, there has been a growing consensus among different stakeholders that it is time to make changes.

The Environmental Management Agency, in a bid to make companies accountable, has been calling for each producer to adopt the “cradle to the grave” policy, which requires companies to follow their products throughout their life cycle.

This means that locally-operating Versapak, for instance, can no longer manufacture and sell the the polystyrene kaylites it produces everyday without following them up; to make sure they are disposed of properly.

It has been suggested that the company use alternative material as polystyrene is non-biodegradable.

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