October 6, 2005
Environmental Sustainability Requires Multi-Disciplinary Approach
by Sandie Taylor

As the Earth’s natural resources wane and carbon dioxide increasingly fills the atmosphere, should we really be expecting a catastrophic ending like the dim version played out in the media and the Hollywood movie, “The Day After Tomorrow”?

"It's easy to paint a picture of the doom and gloom we face," said Jay Banner, director of the Environmental Science Institute and professor at the Jackson School of Geosciences at The University of Texas at Austin.

That negative attitude permits society to give up as if there's nothing that can be done, he said in his talk for the Business Ethics Program Speaker Series Sept. 30. Sustainability is an achievable goal, Banner insisted, if everyone instead resorts to optimism and commits to doing their fair share to protect the environment.

“You can’t just reach this goal with one discipline,” he added. “It’s not just a science issue—it’s also a business and social issue.”

That’s the message the Environmental Science Institute (ESI) aims to communicate to other academic disciplines. ESI works with students and faculty from various departments to raise awareness about sustainability and encourages school districts to incorporate a curriculum about these issues for elementary, middle and high schools.

Banner also contends that the environment and the economy must both be protected if change is going to occur. Although some may think the economy and the environment operate in different spheres, Banner believes otherwise. If environmental and economic concerns can be integrated, “the two can run in synergy with each other,” he said. Sustainability requires achieving a balance between conserving the Earth’s natural resources and producing new goods needed to facilitate economic growth.

After all, according to Banner, companies that address environmental issues sooner rather than later will be more profitable to shareholders in the long run. In fact, KPMG International released survey results in June 2005, which found a substantial increase in the percentage of the top 250 companies in the Fortune 500 issuing standalone corporate responsibility reports—an increase from 45 percent (112 companies) in 2002 to 52 percent (129 companies) in 2005.

Banner emphasized that the most pressing problems threatening the environment today include changes in the water cycle, land surface degradation, challenges to the ecosystem, atmospheric and global changes—and the root of all these problems—population growth.

He explained that the movie “The Day After Tomorrow” accurately depicted only 1 percent of these problems. While the inhibition of the ocean’s circulation will indeed disrupt temperatures and could cause drastic changes in the environment, it would take many years for this to happen—it would never occur overnight like it did in the movie.

“It’s important to continue to remain optimistic,” Banner said in his closing remarks. “If everyone says, ‘there’s nothing we can do,’ then we know what the outcome will be.”

Corporations and individuals need to look outside of their immediate surroundings and make themselves aware of what they can do to sustain our environment today, he said. This effort will result in greater profits and fewer environmental setbacks in the future.

 

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