Creating environmental education partnerships with industry

How to interest the business community for initiatives in environmental education? Experience shows that companies are most often willing to support initiatives if they are approached in conformity with their own strategies. So one must know which 'language' decision makers speak, and what values they have. Insight in these matters enables a tactic which makes win-win solutions possible.

This strategy features in the framework of Agenda 21 as formulated at UNCED (Rio de Janeiro, 1992), now coordinated by United Nations Commission on Sustainable Development and implemented through national and local authorities.

Agenda 21 suggests that existing regional networks and activities and national university actions which promote research and common teaching approaches on sustainable development should be built upon, and new partnerships and bridges created with the business and other independent sectors, as well as with all countries for technology, know-how, and knowledge exchange.

Networking is an effective way of learning about each other's strong points and offsetting one's own weaknesses. It allows enterprises to draw on each other's merits in order to achieve common progress and improvement. Networking could be instrumental in showing the capacity of industrial and other enterprises for self-regulation in health and environment management and the willingness of industry to collaborate with governments and international organizations.