Page 29 - ELITE PLUS MAGAZINE VOL10

ECO-SOCIAL ENTERPRISE: THE NEW CSRWith the rising environmental and human costs of rampant capitalism, adopting a new business paradigm is crucial if we want to save the planet, and ourselvesI n global capitalism, corporations have become increasingly powerful – some even more powerful than nations. When a business takes social and ecological responsibility seriously, though, and not just as lip service andpublic relations work, it has very positive repercussions.Firstly it means going beyond the conventional business bottom line ofprofit maximization to include taking care of the health of the planet and social justice. Hence there is a new bottom line: planet, profit and people.This means reaching for a more workable, better society. This is easier said than done, as business planning becomes more complex. A shift of paradigm is required among all stakeholders.In the history of humankind, inspired people tried to use religion and politics to achieve a more just and peaceful society, with some success and a lot of failure. This also inspired much bloodshed in the many names of idealism.Business since ancient times has generally been the bad guy in these scenarios, as exploiter and a source of corruption. Business has done increasing wrong to Mother Earth over the past few hundred years since the Industrial Revolution.The gap b“Gandhi in 1931 warned: “Industrialization is, I am afraid, going to be a curse for mankind. Exploitation of one nation by another cannot go on for all time. Industrialism depends entirely on your capacity to exploit, on foreign markets being open to you, and on the absence of competitors ... India, when it begins to exploit other nations – as it must if it becomes industrialized – will be a curse for other nations, a menace to the world. The future of industrialism is dark.”Gandhi said this before large-scale environmental damage and it is even more relevant today. Industrial and post-industrial business has manipulated demand to absorb the goods and services produced by companies to maintain indefinite and unhealthy economic growth.The results are the human and natural disasters we are witnessing today. The gap between rich and the poor, the powerful and powerless is shameful. Neither the rich nor poor are happy, because of the endless craving for more material consumption. This is based on a wrong assumption of happiness in the ideology of liberalism.etween rich and the poor, the powerful andpowerless is shameful. Neither the rich nor poor are happy, because of the endless craving for more material consumption. This is based on a wrong assumption of happinessIndividualism and competition are also becoming so extreme that the basic social fabric is being torn apart. Hence the increase in a sense of loneliness and isolation among so many urban people as family and community ties grow thinner.in the ideo”logy of liberalismElite+ 27