The word "sustainability" has been tossed around a lot lately as environmental issues are coming to the fore. Though it sometimes comes across as a green-washing phrase, Fanshawe staff and students learned a bit more about the term and how it's actually making businesses more profitable when Elizabeth May, leader of the Green Party, came to campus on October 18.

One of the main topics of her speech was that though many people see economics and environment as in competition with each other, this is definitely not the case. She quoted Herman Daly, the former senior economist of the World Bank, saying, "We must never forget that the economy is a wholly owned subsidiary of the environment."

"That mindset of thinking of the economy and the environment as in competition is so wrong-headed," she added.

Businesses who understand this idea and incorporate more sustainable methods in their operations are turning out to be winners both environmentally and economically.

She cited two examples: Husky Injection Molding from Bolton, Ontario and Ray Anderson's company, Interface Flooring are companies that have started to save money by reducing their use of toxic chemicals and greenhouse gas emissions.

Before launching into presentday examples, she explained where sustainable development began: the World Commission on Environment and Development that took place in 1983. This United Nations commission addressed growing concern about the environment and natural resources. The commission also looked at the inequity between first and third world countries. The environmental crisis meant the first world told developing countries that they were not allowed to develop, as the environment was in such a terrible state that it could not handle more pollution.

The world needed to assess this problem as a matter of equity, May said. She explained the commission examined the solutions to the "mess we're in" in terms of "ways that respect the ecological limits of the planet, sustain the ecological health of the planet and ensure that we deal with poverty as a pressing ethical issue, political issue and essentially as a moral imperative for the countries of the world."

The solution reached by the commission, she said, was sustainable development. The commission defined the term thusly: "Sustainable development is development that meets the needs of the current generation without sacrificing the ability of future generations to meet their needs," said May. This view focuses on the needs — rather than the wants — of the world's population.

"We in our generation shouldn't be able to use the Earth in a way that deprives future generations of their opportunities for a decent quality of life," she explained.

This discrepancy between business and the environment will not work out in the long run, and those forward-thinking companies will be the ones to lead the way.

"That's, in quick form, the history of sustainable development, why it matters and how businesspeople are getting involved right now, around the world in finding ways to use protecting the environment as one of their bottom line requirements, and finding time after time that it actually contributes to a healthier profit and a healthier bottom line, as well, of course, to sustaining the environment and the planet within which all economic activity must take place," she said.