Nature Environment And Economic Development

Published Date: 02 Nov 2017

Introduction

With the rapid economic development of the world market, the influence is also growing. Enterprises create social wealth, and meanwhile they also consume a lot of social environmental resources. Natural environment has been seriously damaged because enterprises do not take timely preventive and remedial measures. For example, there were 12 smog events because of dust and sulfur dioxide emissions from coal burning since 1952.The smoke forced the grounding of aircraft, cars turning on the lights during the day and pedestrians difficulty walking. Also smog surged in patients with respiratory disease. In many enterprises, business objectives still remain in the pursuit of the increase in the number of products rather than the product quality and public interest. Some companies believe that they are not in good development, not to mention the natural environment. Some companies do not know the latest developments for green consumers, so that they ignore the relationship between the environment and business development.

In this essay, perspectives and interests of stakeholders were analyzed, including government, enterprises, investors and community. Environmental impacts on them were also referred to. Nature environment and economic development have contradictory and unified relationship. Environment and resources would not be serious damaged to affect the economic growth if enterprises are too much emphasis on economic development. Otherwise, they could get economic development and accumulate capital under the rational use of natural resources and environment.

The relationship

As environmental pollution, ozone depletion and climate change and other global environmental issues have become increasingly prominent, people pay more attention on these environmental problems and sustainable development of human society. The challenges were brought to traditional industries and enterprises for socio-economic and environmental coordination. This challenge also brought new development opportunities for some far-sighted enterprises.

Large enterprises set up environmental protection department on business organization to have centralized management of the environmental protection. Some small and medium-sized enterprises do not have the environmental management department, so primary departments would implement the functions. Environmental management is difficult to implement due to the absence of organization set and deficiencies. Environmental protection relates to all aspects of the relationship between stakeholders. One hand, many owners do not attach importance to Natural environment. They always give up environmental objectives to reach high economic objectives when the two objectives have conflict. On the other hand, environmental management involved all departments which are relatively independent, and some departments can not deal with the relationship among main functions and environmental management, so it is very difficult to carry out environmental management. Some of the more radical attempts to carry out new environmental techniques or methods have been abandoned, partly due to these difficulties and also because sustainable development was itself redefined by central government. (Dave Counsell, Graham Haughton, 2006, p.924)

The government gradually introduced enterprises, consumers, community residents and other stakeholders to participate in nature environment and economic management. Multi-stakeholder action would improve the environmental performance and multiple pressures, such as government monitoring and enforcement efforts, and public scrutiny. The British Government attaches great importance to environmental issues, and they made more specific legislation for the prevention and control of pollution. The Government has taken a series of coercive means to reduce or even stop the production of mineral resources mining enterprises and high energy consumption, high pollution. Saving environmental protection industries got rapid development in the UK in recent years.

Environmental Protection

Environmental protection is the use of the theories and methods of modern environmental science, technology. Environmental pollution problems are mainly due to industrial development, which are too severe to cause national attention. They are taken of administrative, legal, economic, science and technology in many measures to rationalize the use of resources, prevent environmental pollution, maintain the ecological balance, coordinate the relationship between humans and the environment, and protect the healthy development of the human society. So human labor and life could be better and better in the nature environment as well as the natural biological survive.

Economic development

The early economists regarded economic development as economic growth. They thought the two were the same concepts. And they emphasized the role of savings growth and capital accumulation in economic growth. Colin Clank thought that the most important elements of economic development are structural changes, industrialization and urbanization. And most economists accepted this view. So economic development means one country shakes off poverty, and enters into the modern economic and social development. Economic development not only means the expansion of national economy, but also means economic and social improvement, so economic development involves much more than economic growth. Throughout the 1990s, both in public and in private, enterprises were engaged in some intensive debates about concepts such as carrying capacity, environmental capital and environmental assessment. (Dave Counsell, Graham Haughton, 2006, p.924)

Sustainable development

Sustainable development is proposed by environmental problems, which is the combination of economic, social and environmental development. The theory is a sign of social progress. Meadowcroft (1999, p. 37) analyzed that how planning for sustainable development may be regarded as a way of determining possible trajectories for ‘‘improvement,’’ rather than the achievement of some specific policy outcome.

They think none of economic, social and environmental development can be ignored, and the three are in the same important position. It is not desirable to promote economic growth without nature environment. The concept leads to a complete characterization of sustainable preferences, which are sensitive to the welfare of all generations, and offer an equal opportunity to the present and to the future. (Graciela Chichilnisky, 2010. p.468)

Corporate environmental management

Corporate environmental management is the combination of nature environment and management activities. The cost of risk caused by environmental problems (such as pollution emissions, environmental accidents, environmental fines, waste of resources, etc.) is minimized as much as possible. Environmental management is as part of the strategic management. It does not refer to enterprises, but also the impact and constraints of the interest groups, such as government, investors, consumers, community residents and other stakeholders. Nature environment management normally requires a high level of technology and specialized knowledge in the economic development. (Chun-Han SHIH, Yi-Yu KUO, 2011)

Investors

The requirements of investors get more and more important. The increasing environmental management of competitors and customer pressure became important reason to improve their environmental performance in order to win investors. Enterprises will continue to improve its environmental management so that they could win the competition and avoid the loss of green trade market. There has been considerable work already on how planners develop techniques for making better decisions, notably exploring alternative ‘technical- rational’ and ‘deliberative’ models to promote better development.( Dave Counsell, Graham Haughton, 2006, p.923)

British Petroleum (BP) firmly believed that economic growth does not conflict with nature environment. BP stripped the coal business and increased the investment in natural gas and renewable energy development in the last decade. They explore new energy consumption system beyond the traditional business, which makes BP always stand in the forefront of innovation and change, and eventually achieved a leading position in the industry.

Community residents

It is remarkable that pressure from community residents on corporate environmental management. Enterprises would be punished due to residents' complaints or reports of polluting. Since 1984, British Airways has established a community relations project to help communities around the world and environmental projects, such as purchasing the necessary facilities, supporting education projects and supporting sustainable tourism. What they had done is not only to protect nature environment, but also get local community benefit. Currently, the project has funded 130 community welfare and environmental organizations.

Government

Government monitoring and enforcement bring the higher pressure. Government makes environmental management policy to guide enterprises in order to increase the influence of the media and environmental non-governmental organizations. For example, The British government introduced a series of incentives conducive in finance, taxation, financial services and other aspects so as to promote energy conservation. In England, the officers would like to turn the directive into a sustainability appraisal that examines economic, social and environmental considerations together. (Dave Counsell, Graham Haughton, 2006, p.925)

Consideration evaluating the environmental policy

Government

 The government must increase the enforcement on environmental protection, because the main role of the government is making rules and regulations and make sure the implementation of the supervision.  The government performances are including: formulating regulations and standards of environmental protection, monitoring the environmental impact of socio-economic activities, carrying out environmental protection publicity and education, and participating in the global co-operation.

The government must invest in the field of infrastructure of environmental protection, and provide effective public goods and services. They also do some the necessary economic and administrative intervention to guide enterprises and individuals. The government should pay attention to not only the economic growth and development, but also cultural indicators, nature environment and resource to achieve the combination of environmental protection and social development.

Enterprises

Enterprises are not only the leading creators of social wealth, but also the major consumer of resources and nature environment. So they play a very important role in strengthening environmental protection. Enterprises have the social responsibility of environmental protection, which is responsibly to environmental protection and rational use of resources as well as maximize profits for shareholders. Therefore, enterprises must contact their economical development with social sustainable development and rational use of resources to protect the nature environment and promote economic and natural, economic and social sustainable development.

Enterprises should invest directly in the in the environmental protection industry (such as garbage dumps, sewage treatment plants, etc.). On the other hand, they should also strictly implement environmental indicators to reduce energy consumption, waste, and to develop green fresh products. The concept of environmental protection should get through product design, production, packaging, transportation, marketing and other production processes.

Community residents

Environmental resources are as the most typical public goods, and they are universal in property. For the whole community residents, enterprises would not only consume local resources, but also bring noisy and uncoordinated relationship. It is the bounden duty of enterprises to maintain community environment and protect the health of the community. The enterprises could be better development with nature environment and the public interest. For example, BP regarded improvement the environment as their responsibility to take various measures to reduce the negative impact. On the other hand, the response of community residents affects enterprises. Community residents would report to the authorities to do some punishment for environmental pollution. So enterprises can pay attention not only to management and production, but also to nature environment and the overall effectiveness of the community and society.

Recommendations to promote nature environment and economic development

Green development strategy

Green development is another explanation of environmental protection. It means profit-making activities related to environmental protection. There are two meanings-- environmental protection and profit-making. Firstly, enterprises should not damage nature environment when doing economic activity and production. Their production and management must be helpful to protect nature environment. Green development is not just referring to certain industrial activities, but the requirements of the entire economic system. It actually turns non-environment into protection. That is to say, afforesting and returning cultivated land to grass and forest improved the local eco-environment quality to some extents.( HAO Hui-mei and REN Zhi-yuan, 2009, p.96). Thus, the development of green economy is an environment conducive to the environment and economic development. Secondly, enterprises should get economic benefits from environmental protection that means environmental protection can become a source of economic profit. New profits could be brought through environmental pollution control, environmental infrastructure construction, new energy development and research and development of green food. For example, BP realized of he non-renewable fossil energy, so they tested of new energy on hydrogen fuel, solar energy applications as well as the operation of conventional oil resources. They finally have made ​​remarkable achievements. The product is installed in 160 countries around the world, over the past five years and solar cell production increased by 30%.

Resource conservation

Environmental protection is the ecological cycle to achieve economic development, maintain ecological balance and prevent and control environmental pollution. Environmental standards are a general term for the various standards of the technical specifications and requirements set by the environmental protection, according to the relevant laws, rules and regulations and natural environment, socio-economic conditions and technical level. Generally speaking, researchers always put environmental sciences with economics, chemical engineering, toxicology and technological innovation. (Roland Clift, 2006, p.4180). British Airways is committed to recycling any remaining waste in order to reduce the dependence of the final landfill disposal. The company has taken a large number of recycling measures. For example, the company entered into a global furniture management agreement, to encourage the recovery and recycling of the company's office furniture. In addition, the company is constantly looking for recyclable materials, and all offices have used recycled paper. Heathrow and Gatwick take amount of waste rate of 6% year-on-year improvement for per passenger, and solid waste recycling rate is 28%. Another form of industrial ecology entails systematic use and re-use of materials and components in a series of different applications. (Roland Clift, 2006, p.4181)

Strengthen environmental construction to attract investment

It is very important to optimize the investment environment and strengthen environmental construction, so that enterprises could obtain investment. In the industrial production, enterprises should establish eco-industrial parks, while in the agricultural production, they should develop organic agriculture and ecological agriculture. They also should do environmental labeling certification and organic food or green food certification. All these would promote economy growing and development get more investment so as to achieve the best combination of environmental protection and economic development.

Conclusions

As environmental pollution, ozone depletion and climate change and other global environmental issues have become increasingly prominent, people pay more attention on these environmental problems and sustainable development of human society. In the essay, the status quo was analyzed in environmental protection and economic development of enterprise. It is believed that nature environment and economic development have contradictory and unified relationship. Stakeholders were analyzed, including government, enterprises, investors and community. Environmental impacts on them were also referred to. And British Petroleum, British Airways and rules and policies of British Government were discussed in the essay to expound the relationship between the nature environment and business development. Government, enterprises, investors and Community residents were analyzed to study the relationship between development and environment. The government must increase the enforcement on environmental protection. Enterprises are not only the leading creators of social wealth, but also the major consumer of resources and nature environment. It is the bounden duty of enterprises to maintain community environment and protect the health of the community. Investors would put their capital on projects brought huge economic benefits, such as environmental protection projects.

These measures and policies reflected in the government, investment and community residents and other stakeholders. Firstly, implement the green development strategy; secondly, promote resource conservation; finally, strengthening environment construction to attract investment. Sum ​​up, enterprises could get economic development and accumulate capital under the rational use of natural resources and environment. It is an important and difficult task to strengthen environmental protection to promote economic development. And it is not only to the coordination of environmental protection and economic development, but also to the harmonious relationship to the people healthy.