Screwing mother nature for profit

“Ransacking pristine forests, manipulating food supplies with genetically modified ‘terminator seeds’, vandalising sacred lands and exploiting the nature the world over; there are no limits to what big businesses do to turn a profit”, Elaine Smitha in her book Screwing mother nature for profits.

Companies exist to create wealth, and the finance professionals derive their cause of existence in maximising profit and driving the wealth creation process. However, the most direct contribution they can make to sustainable development is to create long-term value on an economically, socially and environmentally sustainable basis. Sustainable development has been defined as: development that meets the needs of the present world, without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs.

The Triple Bottom Line concept developed by John Elkington has changed the way businesses, non-profits and governments measure sustainability and the performance of projects or policies. Beyond the foundation of measuring sustainability on three fronts—people, planet and profits—the flexibility of the TBL allows organizations to apply the concept in a manner suitable to their specific needs.

Academy of finance as a socially responsible organisation strongly believe that while coaching the professionals to drive profits and create wealth, they should also be taught that this does not mean that every aspect of a company’s performance can – or should be reduced to a ‘common currency’ of money values.

Therefore, we have partnered with The Climate Reality Project and EcoNomiks and to educate the alumni and the general public on global warming, leading to sustainable planet earth.