Steering Business Toward Sustainability: New Strategic Choices Through the Zero Emissions Approach to Biomass Production

This paper argues that if the management of renewable resources, in particular plantations, were to opt for an innovative approach to the full use of all components of the biomass generated by crops and trees, it would convert the producers of biomass into an economic power house of the 21st century, comparable to the petroleum industry of the 20th century. It would become an engine for growth, a generator of jobs and an example of sustainability. It is an ideal model of how to steer companies toward sustainability. Business and society must respond to the needs of the people for water, food, health care, shelter, energy and jobs. The population explosion is adding stress to a system which is not able to provide even the most basic services to some 800 million people in the world. And with an additional 90 million inhabitants per year, the challenge is tremendous. Asia alone is responsible for some 54 million extra consumers on the globe this year. In order to respond to this increasing number of citizens, the globe needs to produce an additional 28 million tons of grain annually, or 78,000 tons per day . Scientists and agronomists succeeded in achieving the First Green Revolution. Thanks to irrigation, the application of fertilizers, pesticides and the selection of high performance seeds, productivity has gone up dramatically. The irrigated land increased 2.5 fold between 1950 and 1990, expanding from 94 to 248 million hectares, two thirds of which are found in Asia. The world fertilizer consumption increased from 14 million tons in 1950 to a staggering 146 million tons in 1990. World harvest of grain increased over 40 years from 631 million tons to 1,780 million tons. The world production of beef nearly tripled from 24 to 62 million tons and the world’s fish catch increased more than fourfold from 19 to 85 million tons. The yield per hectare demonstrates the results over the forty year period with yields going from 1.06 tons per hectare to 2.52 tons. But scientists agree that we cannot expect another three-fold increase in the productivity of land. This fact will add stress to the system, greatly exacerbated by the 400 million middle class consumers who are emerging in Asia. A middle class consumer has the purchasing power to pay for a beer a day, to buy a newspaper for a dollar a day, the money to buy chicken twice per week, and to pay for an egg for breakfast. These are the consumers who are moving