I constantly hear how irrelevant government (e.g. EPA, state regulatory agencies) will become in the sustainability movement. Despite the fact that government was very effective at using command and control mechanisms to put environmental protection on the map, it appears this is becoming less the case as we evolve toward a sustainable market-driven paradigm. How can government remain a player in this movement and help facilitate efforts by organizations to become more sustainable?
Gil: Government still plays a critical role in setting the boundary conditions within which the market-driven paradigm operates.
It sets the legal floor, the minimal expectations required of companies to earn a "license to operate," and many of the rules for the market, ratchets down the ceiling -- the cap in cap and trade programs for carbon and other emissions -- that pressure the market, and the tax and incentive policies that affect market prices, and how fully companies do -- or don't -- factor so called "externalities" into their internal business decisions.
Government pulls the market through its procurement policies "environmentally preferable purchasing" policies (EPP); for example, the federal General Services Administration (GSA) -- responsible for buildings, fleets and procurement for the US federal government is perhaps the largest buyer in the world? The market success of the LEED rating system in large measure from President Clinton's executive order requiring the greening of federal buildings. The European Union has had a powerful impact -- globally as well as within Europe -- with its "take back directives," affecting the design of everything from consumer packaging to appliances, automobiles and electronic equipment. (See “It Began With a Dot”)
Government also contributes as a source of information that the market can't, won't or doesn’t yet deliver -- ranging from product safety and fuel efficiency comparisons, to the fundamental data underlying weather reports, to a wide range of technical assistance services to companies and communities.
Political strategist Grover Norquist once said that he wanted to “get [government] down to the size where we can drown it in the bathtub.” The founders of the United States were more on target -- in my humble opinion -- when they saw government as the cooperative effort of the people to pool their resources to “promote the general welfare.” I’d say that role continues, however forward thinking the market becomes.
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Gil Friend, systems ecologist and business strategist, is president and CEO of Natural Logic, Inc. -- offering advisory services and tools that help companies and communities prosper by embedding the laws of nature at the heart of enterprise. Sign up online to receive his monthly column via email. Read Gil's blog here.
