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COPYRIGHT 2002 Journal of Business Administration
INTRODUCTION
In the late 1970s, an extraordinary research effort was undertaken to map out what a future "Conserver Society" might look like in Canada. Two organizations were instrumental in this effort: the Science Council of Canada and GAMMA, a joint McGill-University of Montreal futures study group. In many ways, this pioneering work preceded some of the current thinking in the area of sustainable development, especially as it applies to the business sector. To demonstrate both the value and current relevance of Conserver Society thinking, an attempt is made in the following pages to show that this literature (see Exhibit A) anticipated by some fifteen to twenty years much of the conceptual framework of the World Business Council on Sustainable Development (WBCSD) Report, "Sustainable Production and Consumption: A Business Perspective" (Falkman, 1995). To prove this is indeed the case, direct quotations, some from WBCSD sources and others from the Conserver Society literature, will be used to highlight important similarities.
The first comparison is between key aspects of a Canadian Conserver Society as spelled out in the two benchmark investigations of this topic--by the Science Council and GAMMA--and current WBCSD concepts of Sustainable Production and Eco-Efficiency. Similar but not quite as detailed comparisons will then be made in the areas of new market opportunities and appropriate marketing practice. Next considered will be the relative role of the market and the state in both a Conserver Society and in a WBCSD world committed to Sustainable Development. Finally, the painful possibility that a commitment to "doing more with less", a key concept underlying some Conserver Society and most WBCSD thinking, might not in itself be sufficient to resolve a global ecological challenge is briefly explored.
By conscious design there is very little that is new in this paper. Since the intended objective is to demonstrate a de facto intellectual recycling of ideas, there was very little that had to be new. However, this is not to suggest that only limited progress has been made in the last quarter century in operationalizing Conserver/Sustainability concepts. In other parts of that same WBCSD report so extensively quoted, the extent to which major corporations are currently adopting eco-efficient practices is discussed in considerable detail. The fact that enlightened managers are now both more willing and more proficient at employing ecologically sound technologies is a very positive recent development. However, the purpose of this paper is to show how much and how completely the current WBCSD position was anticipated in a body of Conserver Society literature that still deserves academic attention.
SIMILARITIES IN OVERALL DESIGN: SUSTAINABILITY AND THE CONSERVER SOCIETY
The following excerpts suggest, to this author at least, that the conceptual similarities between late 1970s Conserver Society publications and the WBCSD report on Sustainable Production and Consumption are quite pronounced. Both the Science Council material quoted and other Science Council publications anticipate the WBCSD report in terms of stressing the essentials of the WBCSD's eco-efficiency without, admittedly, using the term itself. Another important similarity, a similarity that is reinforced in subsequent sections, is between Gamma's C[S.sub.1] and the eco-efficient world that the WBCSD advocates. Gamma team members frequently referred to C[S.sub.1] as a Scotch Efficiency model that emphasized "doing more with less". Efficiency is also at the heart of the WBCSD initiative and a similar emphasis on "doing more with less" is found as well in Sustainable Production and Consumption: A Business Perspective".
1976: The Conserver Society: An operational definition
[Source: Science Council of Canada, Conserver Society Notes (May-June), p.2]
The concept of a conserver society arises from a deep concern for the future and the realization that decisions taken today in such areas as energy and non-renewable resources, for example, may have an irreversible and possibly destructive impact in the medium to long term.
The necessity for a conserver society derives from our perception of the world as finite and of nonrenewable resources as limited, as well as from our recognition of increasing global interdependence.
A conserver society is, on principle, against waste. Therefore, it is a society which promotes economy of design of all systems, i.e., "doing more with less"; favors reuse or recycling, and wherever possible, reduction at the source; questions the ever-growing per capita demand for consumer goods artificially encouraged by modern marketing techniques; and recognizes that a diversity of solutions in many systems, such as energy and transportation, might in effect increase their overall economy, stability and resiliency.
In a conserver society, the pricing mechanism should not just reflect the private cost, but rather should reflect the total cost to society, including net energy used, ecological impact, and social considerations. This will permit the market system to allocate resources in a manner that more closely reflects societal needs, both immediate and long term.
1977: Canada as a Conserver Society
[Extracted from a summary description of Science Council Study No. 27, Canada as a Conserver Society: Resource Uncertainties and the Need for New Technologies]
The Report questions the way in which our society has chosen to transform resources into commodities, and the ways Canadians have become accustomed to a way of life that involves high rates of resource use, high waste, and constantly inflating expectations. Symptoms of environmental and social stress indicates that a transition must begin toward more sustainable and selective patterns of growth.
Five basic initiatives or thrusts characterize policy that will help us make a smooth transition to a conserver society: concern for the future, economy of design, attention to diversification and flexibility, recognition of total costs, and respect for the regenerative capacity of the biosphere.
The planning of individuals, business and government must develop a sense of direction and lengthened perspectives to ensure that we keep options open.
We must strive not simply to react to crises and shortages but to attain greater flexibility and efficiency, the elimination of wasteful practices, and the re-orientation of our expectations.
Diversity in human activities, as in natural ecological systems, increases flexibility, adaptability and resiliency. It allows the decentralization of responsibility and the optimization of performance from local resources.
If the true costs of our activities--to others, to ourselves, and to future populations---could be seen for what they are, a conserver society would be an almost automatic result.
A constant aim of the conserver viewpoint is techno-socioeconomic processes that are in principle sustainable and self-renewing and that do not overload the capacity of the biosphere to assimilate waste.
Energy supply is becoming a primary constraint on our present pattern of growth; the difficulty and expense of bringing new sources of supply on line have made measures to improve the efficiency with which we use energy and measures to conserve energy very appealing. The application of conserver principles will give us invaluable flexibility and manoeuvring space as we go through the transition away from fossil fuels.
One aim of the conserver society will...
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