With the economy under strain from COVID-19, can you afford to green your business right now? In fact, there has been no better time to consider the environmental impact of our businesses if we want to prevent future outbreaks like COVID-19.
According to Sonia Shah, author of the 2017 book Pandemic, there is a direct correlation between outbreaks on the rise (dengue fever, Ebola, avian flu, Lyme Disease, SARS, MERS, and now COVID-19) and human development. Shah says, “our environmental and social policies — like cutting down forests or failing to address a housing crisis — make it much likelier that a previously harmless microbe will cause a devastating outbreak.”
Wild animals and human development are coming into contact like never before as populations expand and wilderness is transformed into urban jungles. Shah explains, “we are building roads between wild animals and human bodies. We’re using up a lot of land — for our cities, our mines, our farms — and while doing that, we’re destroying wildlife habitat. That’s why 150 species are going extinct every day. And the species that are remaining have to squeeze into these tiny fragments of wildlife habitat that we leave for them.
When you cut down the forest where bats live, they don’t just go away; they come roost in the trees in your backyard or farm. That means it’s easier to have casual contact with their excretions.”
Shah is not alone in this thinking. New evidence has emerged of a link between human exploitation of nature and pandemics. Close contact with wild animals through hunting, trade or habitat loss puts the world at increased risk of outbreaks of new diseases.
"As natural habitat is diminished, wildlife come into closer contact with people," Dr Christine Johnson of the University of California, Davis, told BBC News,"Exploitation of wildlife, which has caused once abundant wildlife to decline in numbers, through hunting and trading in wildlife, have endangered species survival and also put humans at risk of emerging infectious disease," she said.
In the wake of coronavirus, there is growing awareness that human health is linked both with animal health and the health of the planet as a whole.
Now is the time to consider our impact on the environment. Even if your business isn’t the one clearing out rainforests, you can think about your own supply chains, resources you use, how your employees get to and from work, your company’s retirement plan investments, and the products and services you deliver to consumers.
What this virus has made clear is that people and the environment are interconnected. A bat halfway across the world, through human contact, can wreak havoc on our health, economy, and social ties. It’s time to do something to reduce our environmental impact. Our lives depend on it.
Contact SSC for a consultation on how to reduce your company’s environmental impact.