Monday, March 22, 2010

The Corporate Ecosystem Services Review

By World Resources Institute, World Business Council for Sustainable Development, Meridian Institute

“Unfortunately, companies often fail to make the connection between the health of ecosystems and the business bottom line.” (pg. iv)

Historically, we Americans have been good at recognizing and appreciating the non-business value of healthy ecosystems. We have a wonderful natural park system that includes some of the most beautiful physical beauty in the universe. Millions of people visit those places annually to stand in humble awe. Then, most of those millions get back in their automobiles, turn off the part of their brain that was awed, and drive back to the office to get back to work, never making the connection between that which awed them and that which they wanted to get away from. The Corporate Ecosystem Services Review (CESR) is an attempt to make that connection.

In my organizational behavior class, we spent a lot of time on decision-making and the potential pitfalls that can lead to poor decisions. One of those is the framing trap, in which prior experience or some other stimulus prevents the decision-maker from objectively evaluating the options, leading him or her to choose poorly. The above scenario is reflective of how we frame this issue, how that inaccurate frame has lead to sick ecosystems, and is what I consider the CESR’s strength.

The framing trap we fall into is disconnecting the natural from the industrial and business related. We set aside our beautiful ecosystems and protect them, and once that line is drawn, what falls outside it is ours to exploit and what’s inside it is ours to appreciate on the weekend road trip. What we’ve failed to recognize is that those lines are arbitrary, and natural systems don’t respect them. Furthermore, once that line is drawn, what’s inside it ceases to serve a purpose other than providing us with a nice background for photo ops. This is not meant as criticism of the weekend road tripper or our national park system, but as an explanation of how a skewed frame has kept us from accurately accounting for the services healthy ecosystems provide.

So, the first step is to frame the issue in terms with which we’re comfortable and familiar (read “dollars”). Americans understand and appreciate money. Put a dollar sign on it, and we’ll pay attention to the numbers next to it. We’ll notice when the price goes down; even more when the price goes up. This, I think, is what the CESR does right. Protecting ecosystems won’t be a priority until we can show corporations that doing so makes financial sense.

Beyond this argument, that neglecting ecosystems is going to cost us more than protecting them, the CESR includes the hows of accurately accounting for those services. Despite my best efforts, I have no criticism of what they say. As with other resources we’ve looked at, I’m sure issues would arise when putting the CESR into practice, and some trial and error would be necessary to adapt it to a given organization, but that’s to be expected.

No comments:

Post a Comment