The Quest for Sustainable Business by Visser Wayne;

Author:Visser, Wayne;
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Taylor & Francis Group

For peat’s sake

A related but different issue that I became aware of during my time in Kuala Lumpur, through a chance meeting with eco-activist Matthias Gerber, is that most of the world’s peat forests are in Indonesia and Malaysia.31 These underground forests are a colossal carbon-sink asset for the world and their loss poses a significant climate change threat. They are in urgent need of protection, but instead, intensive farming and deforestation is lowering the water table, drying out these organic soils (comprised mainly of undecayed leaves) and resulting in peat forest fires, which release massive amounts of CO2 into the atmosphere and are hard to put out once they begin.

This is exactly the sort of issue CSR should be tackling in Malaysia, where, according to research by CSR Asia, Malaysia is marginally ahead of Singapore and the Philippines, but behind Hong Kong. My observation – which was confirmed by Tan Lin Lah, Executive Director of the UN Global Compact for Malaysia – was that strategic, embedded sustainable business is still limited to very few large companies, such as those involved in the local UN Global Compact network.32 The progressive role of the government on sustainable business, however, may yet pay dividends. This includes, for example, presidential awards for CSR, the creation of a Green Technology ministry and the implementation of a Green Buildings Index.

There is even talk of impending reforms to company law, to redefine corporate purpose in terms of meeting stakeholder needs, rather than continuing to follow the global model of shareholder fiduciary duty. If it was any other country, I would take this with a pinch of salt, but this is Malaysia, which dared to defy the International Monetary Fund (IMF) hegemony after the Asian financial crisis. If there is any government bold enough to challenge shareholder-driven capitalism, it is Malaysia.

I, for one, hope it has the courage to do so, because until we reduce the stranglehold that shareholders and financial speculators have over our companies and markets, it will always be like trying to sail against a gale, using only a handkerchief – namely CSR – as a sail. The trade winds of the market will always blow, but rather than tinkering with the sails, we need a new kind of vessel – a new model of responsible business – that can not only navigate through the tempest, but also sail for calmer waters, where long-term thinking is possible and preferable.

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