Water: Can We Make Sustainable Choices?

Today is World Water Day. As conservationists and governments across the world step up their efforts to protect freshwater sources, and build awareness on water conservation, the key question to ask is - Are we, as ordinary people, really concerned about our attitude towards water consumption?

When we talk of water consumption, we generally tend to think of the water we use in homes for cooking food, washing clothes and other domestic chores. Simply put – its water from the tap that catches our attention. Obviously, we need to monitor this water spending, it’s very much needed. But we forget that there are more ways in which water plays a crucial role in our lives. Its role extends beyond what that just meets the eye.

A Business Case for Sustainability

Businesses of all sizes around the world are increasingly beginning to appreciate the urgent challenge for the need to operate in an economically, environmentally and socially friendly manner. As 2012 begins in the shadow of the just ended COP17, many companies should be wondering what implications lie ahead in the events of implementation of COP17 Agreement and the Kyoto Protocol.

The Sustainability Mindset

Markets and capitalist incentives have great strengths in promoting economic efficiency, growth, and innovation. And, as Ben Friedman of Harvard University argued persuasively in his 2006 book, “The Moral Consequences of Growth”, economic growth is good for open and democratic societies. But markets and capitalist incentives have clear weaknesses in ensuring stability, equity, and sustainability, which can adversely affect political and social cohesion. Obviously, abandoning market-capitalist systems, and implicitly growth, is not really an option. Collectively, we have little choice but to try to adapt the system to changing technological and global conditions in order to achieve stability, equity (in terms of opportunity and outcomes alike), and sustainability. Of these three imperatives, sustainability may be the most complex and challenging.