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Would like to highlight Björn Stigson's blog on sustainable development. I like the blog's tag-line: "Businesses cannot survive in societies that fail.". Stigson is President of the World Business Council for Sustainable Development (WBCSD), the world’s leading business organization focused on business and sustainable development.
In a post today, he writes:
There are many such really well-thought out and well-written posts at the blog. Bookmark it for later or read them now... good stuff!Poverty remains the main challenge facing the countries that will be the home of 85% of the world's population in the decades to come. Some 2.7 billion people worldwide continue to subsist on less than US$2 per day.
The challenge facing the global community is to eradicate extreme poverty and to foster economic development that benefits all, while preserving natural habitats and biodiversity. Business is a core human activity, and it will be instrumental in bringing about sustainable development.
In a recent post I discussed the importance of developing small and medium enterprises, which form the backbone of nations' economies. In this post, I would like to refer you to the latest WBCSD publication on the topic of business and development. Titled Doing Business with the World - The New Role of Corporate Leadership in Global Development, the report shows how companies can contribute to global sustainable development through their core businesses in ways that are profitable for the companies and good for development.
I can't help responding to this entry as well, Sanjeev. I watched a C-SPAN program the other day about media consolidation and the developing concern that continued merging medias will result in non-existent local news coverage. It also results in a propaganda venue for big corporations and their political puppets.
Apparently, we can do something about this creeping corporate monolith take-over by encouraging - hold on now for the newest buzz word ' "localism". We, the People, need to buy locally and support local enterprises to bring power and economy back into balance in our nation. If we want local news stories featured on the nightly news, then we need to support local broadcasting companies.
An example I like to use is this: I've noticed it's been a long time since I've seen those words of warning across the top of my TV screen during severe weather out breaks. For instance, recently there was an outbreak of severe thunderstorms and tornadoes in many areas in Virginia. I turned on the TV to keep on top of the situation only to learn that the bigtime news station wasn't reporting on it and many of the bigger TV stations don't broadcast local warnings anymore. If these types of public warnings are important to us, then we need to support our local stations so we can get local news coverage and severe weather warnings to break in across our TV screens interrupting the normal programming schedule, when necessary. This is just a small example, but, there are others just as important.
For instance, if you were to go to the Federal Food and Drug Administration on-line ( http://www.fda.gov/opacom/7alerts.html ) you will find how much of our food is being recalled, tainted and contaminated. But I'm warning you, after reading the first page of such food recalls you might not feel like having supper. The only way we can make sure we are getting uncontaminated food is to buy locally. We can find farms that deal in organic food, take advantage of farm markets, co-ops, etc.
I guess you can see where I'm going on this.. If we want to have a larger role in controlling our own lives, then we need to encourage support for our "local" food stores and local commerce, in general. The only other thing you can do is sit back in your easy chair and do nothing. The choice is up to us.
Let's roll!