Environmental Concerns: Pressure Groups (Cambridge (CIE) O Level Business Studies)

Sustainable Development

• Sustainable development meets the needs of the present population without compromising the ability of future generations to achieve a comparable standard of living

  • It may involve several aspects

    • Limiting the use of non-renewable resources and reducing harmful emissions

    • Protecting natural habitats and at-risk species

    • Using land and natural resources in an environmentally responsible way

• Governments often encourage business sustainability by providing information as well as grants or low-interest loans and sometimes legislate to enforce more responsible decision-making

Environmental Pressures and Opportunities

• Businesses can contribute to sustainable development in several ways

  • By doing so, they can benefit from an improved reputation, which can attract new customers and increase their sales

  • Business costs may be reduced by adopting responsible practices, and this can help improve profits

 How Businesses can Contribute to Sustainable Development

The Impact of Pressure Groups on Business

• Pressure groups are organisations, or groups of people, that seek to influence the policies and actions of businesses or governments

• Their primary objective is to promote a specific cause or agenda

• Pressure groups want the company to support their cause or take action on an issue

  • E.g. An animal rights group may want a clothing company to stop using animal products in their clothing

• Consumers have the ability to be one of the most powerful pressure groups

Ways Consumers can Encourage Environmentally Sustainable Business Practices

Examples of international environmental pressure groups

• Pressure groups also lobby political representatives to enact laws that require businesses to meet environmental standards and cease environmentally-damaging practices

  • Well-known international environmental pressure groups include Greenpeace, Friends of the Earth and Earthwatch

    • Greenpeace's programme of direct action has led to the outlawing of many environmental threats including the 1982 worldwide ban on commercial whale culling, the prohibition on mining in Antarctica and the 2018 UK ban of microbeads in personal cleansing products

Diagram: logos of environmental pressure groups

• National or regional pressure groups can also achieve significant targeted success in persuading - or forcing - businesses to improve their practices or change decisions

  • In 2015 UK-based pressure group Buglife campaigned successfully to stop a building development which had threatened a critically endangered species of insect

  • Dutch pressure group Milieudefensie bought land on which a new international airport was to be constructed and sold small pieces of that land to many individuals, making it impossible for the development to continue