Employer Responsibilities and Employee Rights

United Nation’s Millenium Development Goals on Environmental Sustainability

1. Integrate the principles of sustainable development into country policies and programs (including
reverse loss of environmental resources)
2. Reduce by half the proportion of people without sustainable access to safe drinking water; and
3. Achieve significant improvement in the lives of slum-dwellers.

8 MDG Established in 2000 by the UN

1. To eradicate poverty and hunger;
2. To achieve universal primary education
3. To promote gender equality and empower women
4. To reduce child mortality
5. To improve maternal health
6. To combat HIV/AIDS, malaria and other diseases
7. To ensure environmental sustainability
8. To form a global partnership for development

Environmental Values
Environmental concerns are relevant to business because human beings depend on the environment to
survive.

Declining Resources and Increasing Demand for Resources and

Ecosystem Services Ecosystem Services due to population
growth and consumerist lifestyle

process in which it examines what the future will be when we emrge through the funnel; move backward from
the vision to the present then move step by step toward the vision.

THREE APPROACHES TO ENVIRONMENTAL SUSTAINABILITY

1. The Market Approach
Achieving environmental sustainability focuses on the capability of markets to allocate resources
efficiently to serve the goals of the greater good while seeking profits at the same time.
2. The Regulatory Approach
The government is tasked to regulate the use of natural resources, issue permits to businesses that
require use of these resources, and implement policies to prevent pollution and abuse of natural
resources.
3. The Sustainability Approach
Development that meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations
to meet their own needs

The Sustainable Model

• Recognizes that the economy exists within the biosphere with finite resources
• Recognizes the input of natural resources, and the presence of wastes produced at each stage of
economic activity that are dumped back into the biosphere; the biosphere can produce resources
 indefinitely, and it can absorb wastes indefinitely, but only at a certain rate and with a certain type of
economic activity.

What is the ultimate environmental responsibility of business?

• Matching the rate and type of economic activity and the resources needed to sustain the economic
activity to create a sustainable practice.

General Principles for a Sustainable Business

 Eco-efficiency
“doing more with less” activities that achieve the goals with the least carbon footprint (the amount of
greenhouse gases produced to support human activities)

 Biomimicry
Waste materials of one company are turned into a resource by another firm; example is the closed-loop
production, a manufacturing or production method that seeks to integrate what is presently waste back into
production

 Services-based economy
Involves a shift in business model from goods to services; needs product redesigns that create more durable
and more recyclable products