Is sustainability the responsibility of business?

There is no denying that large corporate businesses play huge parts in our everyday lives and have more influence on a global scale than an individual does. Businesses have a responsibility to provide sustainable products and services, allowing the individual to live a more sustainable life. However business also has a responsibility to make profit for its shareholders and to ensure it can continue to produce goods or provide services.

I believe it is unfair to shoulder the responsibility of sustainability solely onto business. We are all responsible for our actions and by shifting the blame onto business we are basically removing any of our own responsibility. It is up to everyone to try and achieve a sustainable life, through governments enabling businesses to trade sustainably using legislation and incentives, with businesses producing sustainable products and services for individuals and with individuals encouraging both businesses by choosing these services and governments by voting.

Reading Kev's post about CO2 is green (http://viewfromapeartree.blogspot.com/2009/10/co2-is-green.html) highlights this issue. Whilst businesses have a moral responsibility to promote sustainability, some are solely profit driven and therefore shirk their moral duties, as is the case with the oil tycoon who designed this tv advert. The advert just allows people who don't want to change their lifestyles to be able to justify this choice to themselves, because apparently they are making a greener world by producing CO2. Whilst it is impossible to stop adverts like this being made and shown through freedom of speech, governments should impose legislation which ensures businesses do produce more sustainably, thereby helping consumers to become more sustainable.

Ultimately, the emphasis is with everyone at every level to try and acheive sustainability. Whether it be through businesses providing us with choices of how to be sustainable, the individual choosing the most sustainable products or Governments enforcing these choices, achieving sustainability should be a global goal and therefore a global problem at all levels. By saying it is the reponsibility of businesses we are just passing the buck, creating a circular problem where business will argue government is responsible, governments will target individuals to change and individuals will complain that there are too many social barriers for them to overcome in order to be sustainable citizens. The blame culture within which we live in will result in a circular pattern where nothing actually is achieved.

Whilst some of the blame must lie with businesses, I believe it is counterproductive to solely blame them as we must tackle this problem from many different angles if sustainability is to be achieved.