Industry efforts not enough UNEP report claims

UNEP NEWS RELEASE

State of Planet is Getting Worse, but for Many it's Still 'Business as Usual'

Industry and Environment - Achievements, Unfinished Business And Future Challenges

Global Launch of 22 Industry Reports Prepared for 2002 World Summit on Sustainable Development

PARIS/NAIROBI, 15 May 2002 - There is a growing gap between the efforts of business and industry to reduce their impact on the environment and the worsening state of the planet, a new report by the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) reveals today.

This gap, says UNEP, is due to the fact that in most industry sectors, only a small number of companies are actively striving for sustainability, i.e. actively integrating social and environmental factors into business decisions. And, secondly, because improvements are being overtaken by economic growth and increasing demand for goods and services: a phenomenon known as the "rebound effect".

The new findings appear in the UNEP overview report "10 years after Rio: the UNEP assessment". This overview report assesses progress to date by industry on sustainability issues. It draws on 22 global sustainability reports written by different industry sectors ranging from accounting and advertising to waste and water management. This collection of reports is known as the Industry as a Partner for Sustainable Development series.

Read the media release from the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP). ( 88kb)