Business ethics has an important role in delivering meaningful sustainability. The reason is that a lot many sustainability issues are interconnected, very much like a web and hence we can’t do real good, if we don’t realize the systemic impacts of our actions.

Just reminded myself that Einstein noted: ‘Not all that things that count can really be counted.. ’ Hence a moral mediator in terms of ethics has to come and fill the gaps that are ignored by business as usual sustainability green wash.

A clear ethical code for large businesses is important since these businesses carry an influence and a scale of impact that is needed. Personally I feel that many of the long established business have accumulated wealth at tremendous cost to the environment in the past and hence it’s logical to argue that they hold a certain additional responsibility in doing business now. On ground, despite CSR departments (and 200 page CSR reports! ), many such businesses are very slow to respond. The attempt is to still to the minimum. This may be become, once these businesses were moved by personal passion of the founders and leaders but slowly they have grown into large committees that work on consensus rather than revolution.

Its time businesses (at least large ones) in all industries including building and design come forward and decline work that will adversely impact sustainability. What a business stands for, must encompass the people it does business with and the wider impact. Otherwise we are only trying to ‘doing well’ in guise of ‘doing good’.

Harsh Thapar