Planet over Profit

With the rising concerns about climate change, species extinction, and pollution it is safe to say that the “green” movement has gained great strides in recent years and continues to gain speed. Let’s face it, we all like the idea of being green and we all want to be able to say that we left the world a better place that when we entered it, but like the wise-man Kermit the Frog said, “it ain’t easy”.

Today, we are in unprecedented territory as more and more industries are committing to greening their businesses. In the seafood world, 90% of major seafood buyers have now made some public commitment to sustainability. Now the environmentalist’s who have advocated for decades on this issue and those industry members who have finally called uncle due to the pressure of these groups are sitting across the metaphorical table from each other thinking “now what?” Its no surprise as sustainability was never going to be an easy nut to crack. Now, these groups in their uncomfortable collaboration are struggling to implement the real world changes required to ensure that products that we consume are all really sustainable.

So what is sustainability and why is it hard? The theoretical definition is that sustainability is achieved when all three pillars (environmental, social, and economic) are in balance. Businesses in the last 100 years have on average not accounted for these “externalities” and this is why we see the environmental problems we have today. Yes it would be easy to blame the corporations, but before we grab our flames and torches and march to their head offices, let’s remember that this is more about the economic system itself rather than those who participate in it (although that is putting it very simply). It’s easy to see why the architects of the economic system didn’t place proper value on the use of natural resources as at that time there was a low human population and seemingly endless natural resources. Today, that misperception has caught up with us and we have the opposite situation (large human population and rapid diminishing resources) which leads us to the core challenge of the sustainability movement which is how do we reconcile the limits of the environment with the traditional needs of economics. Simply put, how must we do business differently to see the change we all want to see.

I have spent the last ten years working on sustainable seafood and the last five on reforming shrimp farming practices in Southeast Asia. I have seen that there is a large gap between the “desires” or good intentions of environmentalists and their buyer partners and the realities facing producers of seafood in developing countries. Sadly, current attempts to create sustainability in the seafood sector through various strategies are not succeeding to the level everyone is hoping for due to this gap. This is not to say that they are not creating change, but we cannot confirm that we are not simply rearranging deck chairs on the titanic with these efforts. Einstein famously said, “a problem cannot be solved with the same thinking that created it in the first place” and these words ring very true in this context.

What is needed is a critical evaluation of all factors that have contributed to the problem in the first place which could include examining what is the real cost of production, who is paying the most for this production, is someone absorbing this cost without being paid for it, among others. Solutions must be built across the supply chain and include every actor, which could mean a whole new way of doing business. At the end of the day we need to ensure that a healthy product is delivered to a consumer and that the consumer has paid a sufficient price to ensure that the environment was not harmed irreparably and that any persons involved in its creation are paid fairly. While I realize this may sound like a lot, I believe it possible with sufficient dedication and a willingness to face the problem. In closing, we simply need to remember the wise words of the Lorax who articulated the depth of this problem over 40 years ago when he said, “unless someone cares a whole awful lot, nothing is going to get better, its not”.