Responsible businesses have advantage

Judging by the pall of smog that hangs over many Chinese cities, it is all too easy to think that doing nothing seems to be the most common course of action for the average Chinese company, rather than making the huge financial, technological and managerial investments necessary to clean up their act.

Although there is a commitment at government level to source 15 percent of its energy needs from non-fossil fuels and to reduce carbon emissions per unit of GDP by 40 percent by 2020, many running Chinese companies seem to be asking why should they invest their resources into supporting a cleaner environment, reducing carbon emissions and enhancing social development, when their profit margins are being squeezed by the global slowdown and multinationals' supply chains.

From the viewpoint of enterprises, this is understandable. Why should they divert their profit margins to support longer-term sustainability, which depends on the behavior of other players beyond their control? And can the Western concept of sustainability, which underpinned the Durban conference, despite the conference's multilateral credentials, realistically be applied to the Chinese marketplace, business traditions and cultural values?