What can business contribute to adaptive water management?: environmental change as driver for sustainable business behaviour

Abstract

Business is often viewed as a main culprit for environmental deterioration and thus as a major cause for environmental change, due to pollution impacts or the over-abstraction and exploitation of environmental resources in response to short-termed profit-maximizing interests. At the same time, business is increasingly affected by environmental change as well and thus faced with the need to develop strategies to cope and adapt. A much quoted example in this regard is the increasing scarcity of production-relevant resources, such as water in case of the food and beverage industries. This not only highlights the dependence of economic viability and stability on sound and resilient ecosystems, but also gives rise to the question of how the potentially growing awareness of business’ vulnerability to environmental change can be used in order to change corporate motivational patterns, leading to more responsible and sustainable business practices. This question is of particular interest in countries with weak regulatory capacities, as government might not be in a position to provide sufficient regulatory incentives. Evidence from South African business sectors indicates that firms’ self motivation to engage in sustainable practices can be leveraged and modulated by governmental as well as other actors through engaging governance modes to yield sustainable outcomes. The results however also convey necessary conditions in terms of government will and capacity, particularly with regards to skills required for engaging a broad range of societal actors. The degree to which business behaviour can be transformed crucially depends on these factors particularly at the local governance level.