Environmental Debt: The Hidden Costs of a Changing Global Economy

by Amy Larkin

For decades, politicians and business leaders alike told the American public that today's challenge was growing the economy, and that environmental protection could be left to future generations. Now in the wake of billions of dollars in costs associated with coastal devastation from Hurricane Sandy, rampant wildfires across the West, and groundwater contamination from reckless drilling, it's becoming increasingly clear that yesterday's carefree attitude about the environment has morphed into a fiscal crisis of epic proportions. Environmental Debt argues that the costs of global warming, extreme weather, pollution and other forms of "environmental debt" are wreaking havoc on the economy. To combat these trends, author Amy Larkin proposes a new framework for 21st century commerce, based on three principles: 1) Pollution can no longer be free; 2) All business decision making and accounting must incorporate the long view; and 3) Government must play a vital role in catalyzing clean technology and growth while preventing environmental destruction.
Profiling the multinational corporations that are transforming their operations with downright radical initiatives, Larkin presents smart policy choices that would actually unleash these business solutions to many global financial and environmental problems.

• ISBN10: 1137278552
• ISBN13: 9781137278555
• Publish Date: 25 June 2013
• Publish Status: Active
• Out of Print: 9 July 2021
• Publish Country: GB
• Imprint: Palgrave Macmillan
• Format: Hardcover
• Pages: 256
• Language: English

Reviews

[jnkay01]

My review for The Associated Press: Money doesn't grow on trees, especially not when you've cut down all the trees to reap short-term profits, argues a former Greenpeace USA official pitching conservation to corporate executives.

With more than two decades of experience at the high-profile environmental group, Amy Larkin might be expected to publish a screed against corporations for their polluting greed. Instead, "Environmental Debt" highlights the efforts companies such as Puma, Wal-Mart, Coca-Cola, McDonald's and Tiffany & Co. — yes, the same brands many so-called tree-huggers might associate with global ills — have already made to reduce waste, change their supply chains and embrace environmentally sustainable practices.

Larkin, now a consultant with her own firm, isn't pushing for more government regulations, though she does encourage executives to invest in the infrastructure that governments build and maintain. She puts her pitch in terms businesspeople understand: It all comes down to money. Successful companies, Larkin argues, understand that they will pay more for resources and production down the line if they don't invest now in energy-efficient upgrades and other changes.

Corporations may balk at the cost of those changes now, but Larkin says they will face far greater deficits when they have unhealthy work forces, facilities damaged by extreme weather events and unstable supply chains.

"Environmental Debt" is presumably Larkin's consulting pitch in book-length form, but it raises a question that consumers might consider as well as corporations: Are you taking the long view?

http://bigstory.ap.org/article/larkin-puts-conservation-business-terms