Public Holds Local Industry Responsible for Environment

If we guess at the ages of all of these people, we could be talking about a spread that looks like this: teens (14-18), twenty-somethings and thirty-somethings (20-34), parents of the teenagers (34-42), and an older group (55-65). All these people could generate a lot of pressure at the local level, subtle or otherwise, to address local environmental issues.

Despite this broad spread of potentially environmentally concerned people, the number of people who want government to spend more money to take care of environmental problems is declining according to figures ("46% in 1995 vs. 55% in 1991") in Keller's report. Likewise, the report says, fewer people want more government regulation ("an average of 46% in 1996 vs. an average of 57% in 1995").

Keller was right when he said "We're still not certain as to how this will play out," but businesses would be wise to heed Keller's counsel that the public expects them to step up to the plate and swing away at local environmental issues. He cites the figure that 40 percent of the public "favor corporate involvement in local environmental affairs and a majority would welcome business support of such endeavors as community clean-ups (73%), eco-system education (66%), water and land conservation initiatives (62%) and promotion of recycling (55%)."

If the normal slow pace of corporate awareness of such public attitudes holds, it ought to take about 5 to 10 years for the U.S. corporations to catch on and get involved. It should take a lot longer for this type of public attitude to evolve in developing countries because they have so many other forces at work that these types of trends are simply passed by by something else. For example, SE Asian economic troubles are probably putting all environmental activity on hold. Where is the European public on these issues?

If U.S. corporations want to keep pace with public opinion, these relatively benign attitudes outlined by Keller suggest a good opportunity for pro-active involvement. Every industry can find at least one community activity to undertake within the clean-ups, eco-system education, water and land conservation and recycling. For once, industries can get involved without somebody beating them up first for something they've done wrong. Being good guys would be good for the environment.

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