Sustainability of environment and markets is a responsibility of individuals who sell and buy various goods that may lead to environmental pollution such as cars. The role of the government is to come up with policies that will guide how different activities of the producers and consumers affect environment and markets. According to Coad, De Haan & Woersdorfer (2009), there are different ways in which both consumers and producers can contribute to the sustainability of environment and markets. One of ways in which producers can uphold their responsibility towards environmental and market sustainability include coming up with products that are safe and less harmful to the environment and markets.
For instance, manufacturing of green cars, as proposed by Coad, De Haan & Woersdorfer (2009), is a responsibility of producers. It is also the role of producers to come up with energy-efficient labels and financial incentives. All the producers in the international economy, formal economy, informal economy and the criminal economy should focus on attaining environmental sustainability. It is a responsibility of all the producers to identify sustainable projects and flag those which are unsustainable to the environment and the market. Conflict economy comprises of several related segments and all should be addressed by the producers ( Conca & Wallace, 2009).
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Another way is by upholding properly designed environmental regulations during the production of various goods and services. This is a responsibility of all producers in different sectors of the economy. It can be done through the process called win-win innovation which is designed to improve market and environmental sustainability (Desrochers, 2008). Although the government supports of win-win strategy, various producers such as industrial chemists, engineers and economists are responsible of sustaining their market and environment in order to increase their profits and also work in a safe and sustainable environment.
According to Hale, Held & Young (2013), the natural resources all over the world are limited. However, over 7 billion people across the world are competing for the use of these resources. Many of those who use natural resources are producers of different products. If all the producers in different sectors of the economy accept to engage in practices that are environmentally sustainable, then there will be no depletion of these resources (Hale, Held & Young, 2013). This means that consumers have a responsibility of ensuring environmental and market sustainability.
In the recent past, the temperatures in the atmosphere have been increasing steadily, leading to the global warming. The process of global warming has been as a result of emission of waste fumes from the industries all over the world into the atmosphere. Krugman (2010) proposes that if all factories adopt strategies that are not harmful to the environment when manufacturing their products in the industries, the rate of global warming will also reduce.
Other than producers, consumers are also responsible for the sustainability of environment and markets. One of their greatest roles is to practice the recommendations and initiatives of the government that are intended to conserve and sustain the environment. Coad, De Haan & Woersdorfer (2009) suggests that by adopting environmentally friendly cars, individual customers not only get an opportunity to save their fuel costs but also contributes to the sustainability of both environment and markets. Customers can therefore become responsible towards environmental and market sustainability by obeying to the rules set by the governance to reduce environmental exploitation.
The need for environmental conservation means that consumers are more responsible than producers. Even if products such as plastic bags and other products are produced my manufacturers, consumers have a responsibility of disposing them safely to protect their environment and ensure its sustainability (Coad, De Haan & Woersdorfer, 2009),
The struggle for resources in the world is mostly between the consumers. For example, there have been increased cutting down of trees in the countries affected by war in order to burn charcoal ( Conca & Wallace, 2009). This is mostly done by consumers of natural resources. UNEP discourages such practices and encourages peace in the communities and the use of sustainable practices. If the consumers become responsible and stop engaging in massive cutting of the trees, there will be reduced rate of environmental depletion and this will lead to environmental and market sustainability.
Among the major stakeholders who were mentioned in the 20 th anniversary of the Global Environmental Change include the families and households, small groups, private firms and the local community (Ostrom, 2010). These are the same groups who are the customers of various projects. It therefore implies that the customers have a major responsibility to ensure that sustainability of environment is maintained so as to achieve global environmental change.
In summary , Individual behavior has more importance than the role of governance institutions in sustaining environment and markets. The governance has the responsibility to come up with policies, rules and regulations to guide both production and consumption of products produced by different companies or firms. For instance, the governance institutions can pass laws to govern the production of efficient cars or the use of incentives with customers and producers (Coad, De Haan & Woersdorfer, 2009). However, it is the responsibility of individuals to put these policies into practice to ensure that they fulfill their purposes. The governance is only responsible at a secondary level and not at the primary level of ensuring environmental and market sustainability. Individuals such as producers and consumers have the main responsibility of ensuring environmental and market sustainability.
References
Coad, A., De Haan, P., & Woersdorfer, J. S. (2009). Consumer support for environmental policies: An application to purchases of green cars. Ecological Economics , 68 (7), 2078-2086.
Conca, K., & Wallace, J. (2009). Environment and peacebuilding in war-torn societies: Lessons from the UN Environment Programme's experience with postconflict assessment. Global Governance: a Review of Multilateralism and International Organizations , 15 (4), 485-504
Desrochers, P. (2008). Did the invisible hand need a regulatory glove to develop a green thumb? Some historical perspective on market incentives, win-win innovations and the Porter hypothesis. Environmental and Resource Economics , 41 (4), 519-539.
Hale, T., Held, D., & Young, K. (2013). Gridlock: why global cooperation is failing when we need it most . Polity.
Krugman, P. (2010). Building a green economy. The New York Times Magazine , 5 , 2-16.
Ostrom, E. (2010). Polycentric systems for coping with collective action and global environmental change. Global Environmental Change , 20 (4), 550-557.
