The need for cultural innovation to face the environmental challenge in business

Abstract

Commercial organisations are the foundation walls of our modern economy. More than 200 years of industrial activity and the recent trend of globalisation have made them the most powerful institutions when it comes to resources, knowledge and ability to influence their surroundings. In spite of their strong position, business is not doing enough to meet the environmental challenge. The suggested ‘solution’ of eco-efficiency initiatives is a product of the same thinking that has created the problems and is not reaching deep enough. By using the concept of corporate culture, we will argue that companies not only passively adjust to their environment, but also may actively influence and shape the system they are a part of. In addition to the current focus on technological innovation and increased resource productivity, there is a need for a redefinition of industrial system borders, a redistribution of moral responsibility between the corporate and public sector, and development of new and overarching indicators of progress. Industrial ecology might in this respect be a promising framework to industrial reasoning that are more in line with sustainability