Prof. Dr. Ernst Ulrich von Weizsäcker
 Member of the German Parliament, Chairman of the Globalization Commission of Inquiry; Founding President of the Wuppertal Institute for Climate, Environment, Energy; co-author of the book "Faktor Vier - doppelter Wohlstand, halbierter Naturverbrauch" [Factor Four - Doubling Wealth, Halving Resource Use]
 
A time bomb that just keeps on ticking: the world's population is growing by more than one hundred babies every minute! Our blue Planet Earth will be home to eight billion people by the year 2030. If just three billion, or even better five billion, of these individuals are to enjoy a standard of living currently available to just one billion, it seems at first sight that we will have to quadruple our use of natural resources. But this is clearly not feasible. On the contrary, we must take decisive action to reduce both environmental pollution and our consumption of energy, raw materials and land throughout the world.

We urgently need a solution. Over the past three decades, industrialized countries have significantly reduced emissions of pollutants into the air, prevented the ecological death of most lakes and rivers and stemmed the rising tide of waste. Companies like Bayer play a leading part in such progress. Most emerging and developing countries still have to face up to this task and multinationals like Bayer are under an obligation to set a good example and support those efforts by means of technology transfer.

But the problem of energy, raw material and land use still remains largely unsolved. That is why it is important for companies and products to become ever more environmentally efficient, to continue cutting pollution while at the same time boosting resource productivity. This should be in the interest of all companies, as using fewer resources to make a product confers financial benefits as well. This is a win-win situation for both business and the environment.

If we want greater prosperity for the world's rapidly expanding population without further increasing our consumption of natural resources, then we must at least quadruple resource productivity. Achieving this fourfold rise should be no more difficult than improving labor productivity, which has gone up by a factor of more than twenty in the past two centuries.
Bayer's global activities must focus on considering and implementing environmental efficiency in its operations with a view to achieving sustainable development. Even greater social responsibility, which society rightly demands, is another very high priority. And I would be glad if the Group - and its suppliers - would take a leading role here too.

 

  


Prof. Dr. Ernst Ulrich v. Weizsäcker

Wuppertal Institute for Climate, Environment, Energy