Opinion Sur Joven

The world goes round, non-stop. Every minute there’s production and economy grows in a world where both people and politicians no longer talk about ideologies, but about how to make money faster and faster.

However, just as we’ve been seeing it in this section of Opinión Sur Joven, human development has brought along environmental decay, an outrageously growing trend originated over the last decades of the 20th century.

That’s why over the past two decades a dilemma has been posed: growing economically or destroying the planet. Sectors aiming at immediate profitability dismiss the importance of correct industry practices, invoking the necessity to generate more employment and development. And fattening their bank accounts, of course.

Nevertheless, some businessmen care about the environment. Or, at least, they’re aware of the fact that getting rich without ruining the Earth may be profitable as well. The main idea is not about stopping or slowing down material progress, but about reorganizing the method to obtain it, because if the same forces that created the ecological problem are directed in a different way, they may contribute to solve it.

That’s how a new way of making money slowly starts to develop: eco-sustainable or eco-friendly business.

Money and ecology go hand in hand

“An eco-sustainable project produces and generates profitability without deteriorating the environment”, Eduardo Remolins points out. He’s an economist specialized in this field. And he explains: “One way of combining market and development logics is promoting businesses under their own eco-friendly economic logics, or, in other words, producing ecological benefits to produce economic profits.”

In this way, restricting or limiting economic activity is not necessary, for the more businesses of this kind exist, the better for the environment. “Generating enterprises which deteriorate the environment is self-defeating”, Remolins assures, bearing in mind the long-term consequences and, in this case, that it’d make things even worse.

Humberto Sigal, a biochemist and ex-chairman of the Environment Commission of Maimónides University, thinks it’s more suitable to talk about activities or processes, because “they’re broader concepts”. In his opinion, “saying an eco-sustainable activity doesn’t alter the environment is an idealization. Not damaging it at all is impossible, but we do have the choice to minimize its consequences and maximize the efforts to revert the impact”.

Setting up a business or an activity of this kind doesn’t require as much intelligence as an expert may suppose it does. “The first thing to do is finding out what eco-friendly (clean) technologies are available for the business we want to set up. Based on that, we may develop the project”, Sigal comments.

Though it’s also true that clean technologies are more expensive that the traditional ones. That’s one of the key points of the “environment/economy” dilemma. However, having an eco-friendly production process may be profitable too. “From the company’s point of view, clean technology spares the cost of waste disposal, which may be very high. At some point, costs will get to be equivalent, and we must have in mind that, as clean technologies become more popular, they will become cheaper”, Sigal says.

Besides, companies usually focus only on the expense generated by a waste disposal plant, for example. But the State must also estimate the cost of facing the consequences of contamination, which, although it’s not easy to calculate, is necessary. An eco-sustainable project may not only benefit the ecosystem and avoid damages to third parties, but it also may spare the cost of damage repair to the State. What’s the cost of facing health or public sanitation expenses generated by companies that ruin the ecosystem?

According to the experts, there’s a “friendliness” or “sustainability” ranking of the economical projects that take care of the environment. The top positions in the list are for zero-waste production processes (i.e., those which don’t produce any gas, solid or liquid emissions at all). They’re followed by industrial processes that generate waste that may be reused within the same process or recycled (that is, reusable in other processes).

The following are the processes which produce waste that must be compulsorily treated with physicochemical methods to reduce their contaminating potential. And, finally, the last positions are for “God help us” processes, which produce waste that can’t be treated or that preserves its hazardous potential even after the treatment. The only thing that may be done is placing it in a safe and controlled place, just like nuclear station waste is.

As a green-business manager, Eduardo Remolins is particularly interested in entrepreneurships that have deeper goals: those which require a healthy and well-balanced environment to make money. “It’s not that they don’t damage it, but they need it to be healthy and sometimes they fix what others have damaged”.

Cabañas de la Isla is one example of this type of projects; it’s located on the islands in front of Rosario city, the largest city in the province of Santa Fe, Argentina. It’s a cabana resort which has offered a tourism alternative based on a healthy ecosystem over the last eight years. It’s located among streams, brooks, small lakes and natural beaches, with fish hatcheries and a leisure park. Its goal is not damaging the environment, because they need it to survive. They make a living upon an attractive environment, and that’s the very reason why they fixed it where it had been damaged.

Furthermore, on April Cabañas de la Isla organized educational courses and trips for students of state and private schools for the purpose of generating ecological awareness and encouraging an approach to nature through knowledge, respect and environment protection. Their goal is reflected in their motto, “We haven’t inherited our land from our parents, but we’re borrowing it from our children”.

Latin America, an eco-friendly subcontinent

In our region we don’t have the industrial development level of the first world, but it’s undoubtedly growing. Therefore, it’s important that the severe environmental sins committed by pioneer countries aren’t repeated; on the other hand, historical circumstances wouldn’t allow them. The world’s globalized and environmental awareness spreads more and more.

Regarding this, it’s essential that eco-sustainable businesses are encouraged in our subcontinent, along with an active controlling role by the State. This region is enormously rich in terms of nature and resource reservations, but they’re degrading fast. However, some international organizations rate it as an under polluted region.

Remolins emphasizes: “Latin America needs economical and social development, so it can’t afford protecting the environment by stopping its growth. We need both”.

Sigal also thinks this region is fertile to undertake eco-friendly entrepreneurships: “There’s no reason to think it can’t be done. But we need firm political decisions encouraging this type of development, as well as rules towards it. In Argentina, the State hasn’t assumed such role”.

Leaving technical explanations aside, it’s essential that our societies make an effort to join two aims that, although the usual self-interested people always try to make them look as opposed, we’ve learned may go hand in hand: socio-economic development and environment protection.

Considering them separately may be profitable in the short run, but it’ll eventually lead to failure. The challenge is making them work together.