Viewpoint

During the slowdown of the 1990s there was certainly talk of the environment being the first casualty of recession. However, despite doubts about their value and concerns surrounding the cost and inconvenience of their installation, environmental management standards such as ISO 14001 flourished. Indeed, nowadays they have become almost essential adornments of trading.

Given this precedent, and if we are comparing like with like, sustainability standards would appear to have as good a chance of surviving the current economic slowdown as their environmental predecessors. However, the concept of sustainability requires additional disciplines to control the consumption of scarce resources which suggest the challenges are greater today. First, in an increasingly material-hungry world – despite any slowdown – not everyone is convinced their behaviour should be artificially constrained. Arguably therefore, the attractions of a resource-grab free-for-all are higher in a recession where business survival is the top priority. Then there is the difficulty that most of us have in comprehending the distant effects of depletion of natural assets which, unlike most pollution, seldom take place on our own doorstep.

Commitment to sustainability standards requires quite an extra leap of faith in difficult and competitive times.
So what do the standard-setters have to do to make their ‘products’ recession-proof? First of all they have to win the twin arguments that there is sufficient on this planet for everyone so long as no one gains unfair advantage and that we all take just the minimum required for our own needs. This means not only a detailed dialogue with both the extractors and consumers of resources, but also the possible re-orientation of the standards themselves to include the concept of maximum benefit from each product. It also requires the standards to be relevant, easily understood, readily implementable and with the maximum authority devolved down to trusted users.

Most sustainability standards will probably survive the slowdown. Many will need refining to meet the demands of an increasingly no-frills world. But, in the long term, their existence will become more necessary rather than less.

Charles Thwaites MBE, executive director, FSC UK