Sustainable commerce: Ten years after

TEN YEARS AGO, the United Nations Conference on the Environment and Development (UNCED) was held in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. The Conference, popularly known as the "Earth Summit" or "Rio", was a much heralded event. High ranking politicians, corporate leaders and prominent environmental organizations

The Conference took place against a backdrop of rising concern about environmental problems. Following several of the hottest years on record, scientific confirmation of a growing hole in the ozone layer, and other evidence of the declining biosphere, mainstream media such as National Geographic and Time magazine published cover stories about the state of our embattled planet.

Such press, combined with the presence of transnational corporations at the Conference, made certain the Earth Summit would bring environmental concerns to the center stage of global issues. This debut brought high expectations. Never before had environmental issues enjoyed such worldwide, mainstream focus. And never before had these issues received the attention of so many political and corporate leaders.

Yet despite the media attention, political focus and corporate presence, the Rio Conference yielded few results. Ten years after, the arrival of environmental questions to the world's center stage seems to have made little impact on global policies or institutions. Close examination of the players at Rio provides understanding as to why such efforts produced inaction.

The presence of transnational corporations (TNCs) at the Conference made Rio a novel event. Following decades of open resistance to environmental issues, TNCs seemed to be undergoing a fundamental shift. After ignoring or denying environmental concerns, or sponsoring empty, symbolic acts such as tree plantings, transnational corporations appeared ready to seriously consider the issues.

Indeed, efforts to protect the planet's ecosystems warranted their attention. By the time of the Earth Summit, TNCs controlled 70 percent of global trade and held over 90 percent of all technology and product patents worldwide. In the five years leading up to the Summit, investment in the third world saw a 500 percent increase by transnationals based in Europe and the United States. Given this huge stake in global trade, TNCs made it their business to shape the policies and institutions that might affect the rules of international commerce. Through influencing the formulation and passage of the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT) and the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), transnational corporations significantly undermined the ability of nations to regulate international trade.

INTERNATIONAL ARENA

As international institutions committed to ecological and social justice were undermined, TNCs focused their attention on restricting steps the UNCED might take in that direction. As a report released after the Summit stated: "UNCED is perhaps the best example to date; corporate influence on the Earth Summit undermined parts of Agenda 21, rendered the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change toothless, and weakened the Convention on Biodiversity..."

The Business Council for Sustainable Development (BCSD) joined corporate members of the Global Climate Coalition, International Council on Metals and the Environment, and International Chamber of Commerce in lobbying for such changes at UNCED.

To help, the BCSD hired BursonMarsteller (B-M), an international public relations firm. B-M has a long track record of aiding TNCs with questionable environmental histories. Previous clients include: Babcock and Wilcox builders of nuclear reactors including Three-Mile-Island; A.H. Robins makers of the Dalkon Shield contraceptive device; and Union Carbide following the disaster in Bhopal, India. As B-M explained in one of their brochures: "Often corporations face long-term issue challenges which arise from activist concerns.. or controversies regarding product hazards.. Burson-Marsteller issue specialists have years of experience helping clients to manage such issues. They have gained insight into the key activist groups (religious, consumer, ethnic, environmental) and the tactics and strategies of those who tend to generate and sustain issues. Our counselors around the world have helped clients counteract [them]."

The success of such efforts to undermine and dismantle policies and institutions that might regulate the negative effects of global trade has placed the global environment and its communities in great peril. A look at the barren results of the UNCED summit in Rio and the forces that ensured that outcome brings into question whether corporations whose profitability and commercial survival depend upon environmentally damaging products, can ever be leaders in the change to a sustainable society. Given their record, our greater hope lies in promoting the growth and success of companies and communities whose core business and mission are built around technologies and methods that will truly support life and liberty around the world.