Making the Human Economy More Tolerable: Organisations that Put the Environment / Sustainability First

Abstract

This essay draws upon a recent polemic by Johnson in the September 2008 edition of SEAJ `Sustainability and Life: How long can the earth tolerate the human economy?' This essay briefly reviews Johnson's polemic and challenges his equating a business to a natural living system. From there using Johnson's polemic and his views as a leaping off point, research findings from an exploratory study with organisations that have environmental/ sustainability focused missions are presented. These findings support some of Johnson's views regarding restraint and that a sustainable future will not be populated with publicly traded corporations. However, it also adds to them by exposing how the organisations interviewed operate a balancing act of mission and money, with money being subservient, but a necessary means to an end. The essay closes with a view that the researched organisations represent a `future normal'.