"You can't deny business its roots. It has to have growth and profit to succeed against its competition in society. If you want to make it do something different, then make it more profitable for business to do good things or less profitable to do bad things."

Simple stuff, maybe, but a world away from the old trench-warfare attitude of environmentalist campaigners. You'd imagine the words came from a seasoned corporate consultant, rather than, say, a former head of Greenpeace. You'd be wrong. They come from both-in the shape of one person: Paul Gilding, winner of Tomorrow's Environmental Leadership Award for 1997. Gilding says we've entered the Second Generation of Environmentalism, where the push to change attitudes has been succeeded by a pressing need to change behaviour. That's largely an activist perspective, and Gilding has plainly a chunk of his heart left with the Greenpeace which elevated him to Executive Director then swiftly fired him. But his analysis is firmly rooted in business reality.

Gilding believes the driving force for change will be climate change, which will transform the economy. He finds climate change so powerful because it's both a moral issue, which worries him on a purely personal level, and because it is a pivotal commercial issue: "Everything we know will change. And when it does-old stuff out, new stuff in-we can show industry that this means opportunity."

Gilding left Greenpeace in a flurry in June, 1994, pried out by a board apparently uneasy with his youth (he was 33 when appointed Executive Director in '92) and relative inexperience. It's hard to extract from Greenpeace the exact reasons for the failure. A Greenpeace communications manager, Brian Fitzgerald, says only that "there were divisions over the degree to which Greenpeace was to confront business and to work together with business, and not just in campaigning." Fitzgerald recognises that Paul's leaving "catalysed debate" and that Greenpeace is a different organisation today in its relationship with business-a way of admitting that Gilding's influence was potent but historically inappropriate.

Since then, his renown as a business consultant has spread. His company, Ecos Corporation, has clients in Australia, the US and Sweden, operating in sectors as varied as mining, finance, energy and forestry. Begun as a straight consultancy in 1995, Ecos is moving towards partnerships and joint ventures, and is becoming involved in some long-term projects. Ecos's particular strength so far has been in the ability to bring in diverse operators into ambitious schemes as the Sydney Olympic Solar Village project-and get them to work productively together. It's also gained a reputation for not simply helping companies draw up strategies-but hanging around to ram them through.

Two key successes so far: the Queensland Timber Board's transformation from environmental whipping boy to model for Australian forestry; and the changes at giant Western Mining Corporation, another ex-arch-enemy of Australian greens, currently getting accustomed to environmental reporting. Gilding himself says Ecos's accomplishment has been in targeting the hard-to-gets and helping divest them of the idea of environmentalism as a threat. A selling point has been Ecos's 'big-picture' outlook, fueled by Gilding's global activist past.

In the US, DuPont had him dreaming up a company-wide prize program then present it, unabashedly putting the stamp of a famous activist on their prize. Gilding uses DuPont to exemplify one of his favourite themes:

"Don't green your company: commercialise environmentalism. Greening the company has been done quite well in some instances. DuPont is a good example. It's not that they're doing wonderful things in every division-they're not, there's a lot of environmental damage being caused by DuPont-but the thoroughness with which they've driven their environmental goals is an admirable example of greening the company." But on its own, such greenery is not the golden road to sustainability which some would have us believe. Commercialising environmentalism, however, might just be. That, says Gilding, means asking: 'what products do we need?' and 'how can we address the environmental and economic crisis that we're facing by fixing that with commercial opportunity?' A company looking through this viewfinder would reason: 'If we can get growth in our profit out of solving the environmental crisis, then we're going to be a better company environmentally and a better company in terms of shareholder value.'

"It's [all about] refusing to see the environmental crisis as an external threat." Gilding says. Rather than a 'problem' out there, the environmental imperative should simply be seen as part of the mainstream-part of the framework of our society.

Gilding's Second Generation of Environmentalism-influencing behaviour rather than attitude-involves not the fusion of environmental activism and business but a redefinition of their roles. "The role of activism is to maintain its defining role, which is to be the honest provocateurs on the edge of society; to put the radical view; to put forward the pure, long-term idealistic view of how society should be," says Gilding, but "the way it's being done needs to change. Attacks on the morality of people have to be modified to make them attacks on behavior."

Business, then?

Business must 'unlearn' confrontation with activists, just as the more strategically inclined activist organisations are de-emphasising confrontation with business.

"I'm not a great believer in socially responsible business in the sense that business should be driven by moral responsibility," says Gilding. "I think that individuals should have moral responsibility. But business as an organisational form is inherently a machine that drives towards profit." There is a range of factors which drive business, Gilding says, such as: government regulation, community attitude and beliefs, consumers' needs and wants in terms of products, and the environmental issue. "The environmental issue impacts on regulation, on customers' needs and on products in that framework. So in a sense, it's just one more business driver. This creates opportunities and allows a much more business-like approach to it. For the last ten years, it's been treated as pressure from the outside, which creates resistance."

There are those in industry who are well pleased that Gilding's skills are now on the market. In Australia, where Paul returned after his Amsterdam honeymoon soured, he has been advising fistfuls of important companies. He has, for example, been an active sounding board as energy company Pacific Power writes its new development plan. Peter Graham, CEO at Pacific Power, says simply that "Paul Gilding is making a significant improvement in industry-and we are just one example of that. We always knew about the environmental issues, but we didn't know what to do about them. And now Paul's shown us how."

One of the basic tenets of business development that Gilding and Ecos have been emphasising to business is to plan around climate change.

"Four or five years ago, to say that climate change is real was an extreme view. To say [it] was real-let alone needed to be acted upon-was the purview of activists, the activist mentality. Now the most powerful man in the world is saying just that." President Bill Clinton's speech at the New York 'Rio+5' meeting in June impressed Gilding, and is just one of many indications, he argues, that we have come a hell of a long way. "The eco-system isn't improving," he allows. "On the contrary, it's getting worse-but as a social change activist, which I still consider myself to be, then I see cultural and attitudinal shifts happening a long time before their impact on the eco-system."

When the full realisation of what climate change implies actually penetrates, Gilding believes, the basic attitude change among leading companies will already be in place and the commercialisation of the environment can be thrust into a higher gear. "We're arguing about 5, 10, 15 percent reductions in emissions when we need 50, 60 or 80 percent reductions. So the scale of shift is going to need new approaches to manufacturing, services, products, the consumer economy, the structure of the economy."

The function of government is slightly less clear. It comes down to the vexing role of regulation, which the visionary Gilding would like to make disappear but the ex-activist Gilding wants to retain.

"[Industry] leaders will always be driving new products in response to new regulations. Regulation creates the market and leading companies then jump into that opportunity to create new products and new systems to respond. They need the regulations to mop up afterwards because they've taken the risk of going out in front and they need to be rewarded for that by having the whole marketplace in that situation. Then, I would hope, we'll get to the situation where companies are actually arguing for regulation, in self interest, to drive the standard across the marketplace."

So how does Greenpeace see its ex-leader now? "They see what I'm doing as important-and they're glad they don't have to do it themselves! There's grudging support, and of course, there are people who see me as a total sell-out. Some, too, see what I'm doing in terms of their own personal futures."

And Gilding is not about to soft-pedal the environmental threat. "I'm as concerned as ever. Bio-diversity is declining, climate is deteriorating-there are lots of situations where the situation is worsening, but the attitudinal shift has been dramatic. And I can't think of a historical situation where something with such a profound potential to impact our society has swept across our thinking in such a relatively short period of time."

Sentiments like those are tempting to believe. And the Australian is both convincing and an easy man to like. No doubt the companies he deals with across the world are charmed by Paul Gilding's friendliness and frankness-and intrigued by his vision of a changing world where far-sighted business planners have more to contribute than ever before.

"Paul's approach is innovative, it's exciting and it's smart because it is helping companies like Boral to deliver wins for the environment, for the community and for our business."

"Paul's skills in recognising the issues and bringing together the right team for the job is a key to his success."

"If half the animals and plants could adapt as well as Paul has, we'd be OK." "In the longer term, if the health of the environment is to improve, it has to engage the organisations which have brought about the greatest human endeavor ever-and that is the corporations. Paul has done a lot towards achieving that...It's been a very powerful symbolism-if you like that term-that the ex head of Greenpeace has moved towards that philosophy." Who are the surprise people making waves this year with their heavyweight environmental speeches? Here's Paul Gilding's list:

• BP CEO John Browne, because of the stand BP is taking on a future energy supply to the world, and it's more sunny than oil companies have ever admitted.
• David Wolfensohn, head of the World Bank, revealing convincing environmental strategies in an off the cuff talk with journalists at Rio+5.
• Bill Clinton, with his impassioned and tactically astute speech at the same meeting. Gilding believes Clinton understands exactly how he must woo industry and the public for the really crucial meeting: the regulatory meeting in Kyoto, Japan, this December. When climate change hits the fan.

• For his innovative approach to increasing understanding in business of the commercial potential in environmental improvement.
• For his skill in translating into business terms his dedication and determination to improve the environment-and increasing understanding in business of the deep-seated desire among private citizens for improved practices.
• For personifying the development of environmental awareness from grassroots activism to dialogue to support for business goals, without relinquishing his own vision.

Republished with kind permission from Tomorrow Magazine. Originally published September-October 1997.