Businesses clash with green groups

Conflict between profit-making and planet protection

JOHANNESBURG, South Africa -- The World Summit on Sustainable Development has rekindled the war of words between big business and advocates of environmental and social change.

About 100 chief executives are attending the 10-day summit in Johannesburg, along with representatives from as many as 700 companies.

They include oil giants like Shell and BP, as well as chemical group DuPont. Carmakers DaimlerChrylser and BMW, and computer maker Hewlett Packard are also present.

Their presence has rankled many environmental and anti-poverty groups who fear big business is attempting to hijack the meeting.

"The Johannesburg summit is in danger of being co-opted by private interests through... creeping partnership agreements, influential corporate lobbyists and punctuated by references to private-sector solutions," the group War on Want said in a statement.

IN-DEPTH Global balance: Johannesburg Summit 2002  Time.com: How to make this a Green Century    FACTS • During 1990s, 2.4% of world's forest destroyed   • World's population to reach 8 billion by 2025   • By 2025, 50% of world's population to face water shortages   • In 1981, fossil fuels generated 86% of energy; today it's 81%     RESOURCES Official site: Johannesburg Summit 2002     QUICKVOTE Can businesses be "green" and be profitable at the same time? Yes No View Results

Friends of the Earth International is also critical of the high corporate profile at the summit. "Big business has got hold of the puppet strings behind the scenes," vice-chairman Tony Juniper told Reuters. "I think it's quite obvious whose PR is treated as most summit-friendly."

But business leaders say they came to Johannesburg because any decisions affecting the environment would need to be implemented by them.

Already there are concerns in the corporate community that the summit will produce a declaration promoting partnerships between companies, governments and non-governmental organisations (NGOs).

And business leaders attending the summit believe that those kinds of partnerships just do not work.

"Many feel peer pressure or pressure from NGOs and civil society organisations, and feel they need to do something but don't have their heart and soul behind it and don't understand the business benefit that it's going to deliver to them," Christopher Tuppen, the head of sustainable development at UK telecoms group BT, told CNN.

The question is whether there is a fundamental conflict between what the summit in Johannesburg is out to achieve and turning a profit.

Business leaders argue that the first responsibility of a publicly listed company is to make money for its shareholders.

To rationalise that goal with good intentions on environmental issues, companies have to be convinced that it makes sense in terms of share price and dividends.

Some believe it is possible to accomplish both goals, at least on a limited basis.

"Were we to stop all our corporate social responsibility activities, we'd see a 10 percent reduction in our customer satisfaction ranking," says BT's Tuppen.

Still, the group representing chambers of commerce around the world, Business Action for Sustainable Development (BASD), is reluctant to have global rules imposed on companies -- especially when it says agreements already exist at national and local levels.

BASD wants environmental laws to ensure a level playing field for all companies.

"Many businesses support action for climate change. We've done that for five years or so," says BASD Chairman Mark Moody-Stuart. "Many of the environmental regulations we see as sound frameworks for doing business, but they need to be uniformly applied and on a national basis."