Embracing sustainable development: The role of business in the communication and application of environmental ethics

Four elements are discussed: (i) the application of environmental ethics to business practices and logic as a process of normative innovation; (ii) the communication of environmental ethics through specific business channels; (iii) its action-shaping influence on the economy as a social system; and (iv) assimilation of environmental ethics in the economy over time influencing social and cultural norms. The extent to which this pattern occurs is determined by the degree of innovativeness and learning capacities of business actors operating within the economic system. An account is given of these various stages of change as initiated by a number of 'environmentally conscious' change advocates in the area.