Urbanization is happening at a rapid pace – thus making it vital to have an integrated approach to carbon-neutrality, which includes, but is not limited to reduced water usage, increasing reuse, renewable electricity, and climate consciousness green building. Decades of infrastructure neglect are eroding centuries of economic progress.
It is important to unpack the close relation to corporate social responsibility and green fronting. In 2015, ambitious targets were set in the Paris Agreement, which called for reducing the average temperature increase to 1.5 degrees above pre-industrial levels. Prior to this, the 1997 Kyoto protocol on the reduction of greenhouse emissions aimed merely to slow down global warming as opposed to completely stopping it.
What is Green fronting (Greenwashing)?
A “fronting practice” is defined as “a transaction, arrangement or other act or conduct that directly or indirectly undermines the achievement of the objectives of the Act or the implementation of any of the applied provisions.”
In 1985 a company decided to profit from the environmental image that they pervaded in the 70s. It masked itself, as part of a campaign, as an organization that helps endangered species living in the wild. The campaign was such a success that it ran well into the 1990s and even won a prestigious award for eco-marketing. However, the purpose of these commercials, efficiently masked the environmental pollution and destruction done by this organization.
Circumventing the law by using environmental rhetoric to boost sales. Or brand image while simultaneously polluting or killing the environment, pervades any type of marketing style campaigns. From oil giants to down to LinkedIn commercials on your feed these companies are perceived to be aiding in social and environmental consciousness and change.
A theory of deregulation and free-market business
Milton Friedman of the University of Chicago’s economics department, the founder of neoliberal economics penned an op-ed in the New York Times in 1970, a time when multiple laws to protect the environment became all the rage, but Friedman saw the whole situation differently. In his opinion, these laws were slowing down the economic success of corporations and forcing business to operate in ways they were not intended to operate in. The only social responsibility of a company, in his view, is to turn a profit for their shareholders, slowing down the machine of progress – this is the core of neoliberalism.
There is no need to do all this to achieve economic resilience for your organisation. MEB is here to create shared values of self-sustainability for both society and ourself. It’s that simple – speak to our train staff to find out more about our solutions and comprehensive portfolio of service offerings from consulting to design; providing you with the tools to achieve your water and energy sustainability goals and reduce operational costs.