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Transitioning to Green is proud to share a proposal for “Developing and Implementing a Sustainable Growth Strategy for New Jersey” from our affiliate, The Institute for Sustainable Enterprise, Silberman College of Business, Fairleigh Dickinson University (www.fdu.edu/ise).  Please send comments to jwirtenberg@transitioningtogreen.com.

EXCERPT: This short statement follows from a recent invitation from a senior Christie Administration official to submit some ideas for a sustainable economic growth strategy for New Jersey. It was prepared by the senior leadership team of the Institute for Sustainable Enterprise (ISE), and suggests a larger energy, environmental, and economic policy role for the Institute.

Along with our Corporate Partners — representing many of the largest corporations and employers in New Jersey — we have been discussing these issues for some time. Because of the diverse stakeholders we represent, covering a wide range of industries, as well as NGOs, municipal governments, and higher education, we are in a strong position to contribute substantively to this discourse and to the State.1 Specifically, we are committed to enhancing the Administration’s policy discussions, as well as supporting constructive public discussion, about how NJ can emerge from the deepest recession since the Great Depression, and address both the environment and economy at the same time.

We start from the premise that we need to ensure both adequate environmental protection and a strong economy; anything less is a false dichotomy with negative consequences in both the short and long term. Therefore, we recommend that we avoid conversations regarding ways to “balance” environmental and economic concerns as if they are two competing or even opposing forces, but instead recognize the power of creating and exploiting the synergy between them.

The health of the state economy, and the competitive advantage of NJ and the businesses that operate here, are deeply connected to the health of NJ's environment — we really can't have one without the other. We must find creative problem-solving actions that simultaneously improve both our environment and our economy.

We agree completely with Governor Christie’s repeated statements that the future growth of the NJ economy is tied to the emergence of a “green economy,” including renewable energy and other emerging green technologies. The demand for these new products and technologies is driven in part by consumer demand for them and competitive pressures, and in part by federal and state mandates for cleaner energy, less waste, new biomaterials, conservation and protection of water resources, and so on.

These drivers create a compelling logic: a green economy can happen only if it is backed by a clear, consistent, and intentional focus on protecting and restoring the sensitive environmental assets on which our current economy rests. It also requires corporate social responsibility (CSR), involving potentially all NJ economic sectors, as well as alternative measures of economic and
social well-being.

In our view, New Jersey needs to articulate a positive “sustainable growth” strategy that tangibly ties our economy to the growing global demand for green products and practices, and builds the market for the businesses and technologies where we have significant strengths and core competencies that can be turned into a competitive advantage. Our approach would clearly support companies going “beyond compliance” as they move through the natural stages towards greater sustainability.

One key element of a “sustainable growth” strategy is the rapidly advancing field of Corporate Social Responsibility. As Michael Porter & Mark Kramer said in a recent Harvard Business Review article on the link between competitive advantage and corporate social responsibility, “CSR has emerged as an inescapable priority for business leaders in every country.” They go on to stress that since business and society are inextricably intertwined, they should never be pitted against one another.

Click the pdf on the top right of this page to download the entire 5 page proposal.