Toward sustainable business

Toward sustainable business

By Adam Yazid

JAKARTA (JP): A textile mill in Tangerang, west of here, suffered heavy losses a few days prior to the Idul Fitri holidays last month.

Some 1,000 workers, mostly women, went berserk upon learning that their holiday allowances fell short of the amount previously agreed upon.

The workers vandalized the company's buildings and motor vehicles. This incident was not the first of its kind.

Historically, the process toward industrialization has created a dilemma from the start. During the 18th century, mainly in Europe and North America, the Industrial Revolution transformed an agrarian-traditional society into an industrial one.

The changes did bring benefits but they also caused air and water pollution and the draining of natural resources.

Of equal concern, beside the industrialization process, are the connected social problems, like urbanization, contrasting stratification of the society and employment of women and underage children.

What is now happening in developing countries, which compete against each other in order to belong to the New Industrial Countries, is actually a repeat of the revolution referred to above.

The concept of the much-proclaimed sustainable development is still heavily oriented toward economic efficiency, which emphasizes the prevention of pollution and the conservation of natural resources.

Economic efficiency is important, but as a prerequisite for continued development, its approach is inadequate. Socially sustainable development, comprising of improvement in labor practices, recognition of the environing community's right of life as well as other forms of social contracts, cannot be ignored.

Moreover, concern for the environment occurs together with the spread of democratization issues and the struggle for human rights with the inherent factor of social equity.

However, in reality, there is a tendency to play down the problems and to limit them to aspects of the physiobiological environment. In general, the socioecological impacts of a project or industry seldom receive sufficient attention. Even in several cases of development there were forced removals, physical clashes and explosive social conflicts.

The regulations in force also tend to comply with physical, chemical and biological parameters. Consequently, in development, especially industrialization, clashes often occur resulting from the imbalances.

The situation is similar when the community files a complaint on pollution generated by an industry. What becomes the center of attention is also limited to whether or not the company has complied with the parameters set.

In an indirect way, the cost for pollution control, which is an external cost for the company, is also charged to the community, which is the consumer. The additional investment is incorporated in the production cost, which results in higher prices for the consumers.

The community does not receive compensation for environmental damage generated by industry, but must, additionally, bear the higher cost of industrial products.

In developing countries, in order to obtain a major economic reach, it is the current practice for industries to use loose environmental prerequisites and comparative advantages, like raw material, natural resources and cheap labor.

The following can serve as an example. Indonesia's structure of paper production cost belongs to the cheapest category. The Indonesian producer needs only US$285 to produce one metric ton of pulp and paper, while Canadian and Scandinavian countries, as the world's biggest producers of paper with the application of an efficient production system, require $429 and $485 respectively.

However, the low production cost does not reflect a real efficiency level but a bias made possible by an ecology subsidy, in which the environmental damage factor and other related factors, including wages, do not obtain adequate attention.

Another aspect often ignored is occupational health and safety. We may accuse an industry of environmental pollution, but the highest pollution potential is in the environment of the industry itself.

Each day the workers inhale dust, chemicals and other hazardous material. They work amid machinery noise, electromagnetic radiation and high-tension power currents, which may cause deterioration of their health, including vision and hearing impairments, prolonged fatigue and stress.

In the long run, they are also exposed to contracting bronchitis, pneumonia, cancer or chronic poisoning. The more so because in their work they are not equipped with adequate protective equipment.

Commemorating the tenth anniversary of the atrocious accident at Union Carbide in Bhopal, India, Sangeeta Bhargava and Richard Welford in Sustainable Development Vol. 3, published in 1995, reveal that the accident originated for the greater part from corruptive labor practices, as is current fare in developing countries. Low-level education and technical capacity of the labor force, caused by the lack of training and occupational safety, were the main causes of the accident.

Bernardino Ramazzini, considered the father of occupational health and hygiene, in his book De Morbis Artificium Diatriba (The Diseases of Workmen), published in 1700, already mentioned a number of diseases connected with work and suggested a number of preventive measures.

Tragedies involving labor in the era of the Industrial Revolution are now being repeated in developing countries. Labor is still employed at minimum standards, from wages to the factor of occupational safety. Although the government will enforce next month a new regional minimum wage, the improvement only moves from one minimum to another.

Indonesia's labor matters will continue to be tarnished by the same conflicts and exploitation.