Asking India Inc to look beyond profits, Intergovermental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) chairman Dr R K Pachauri today said business leaders must protect Earth's natural resources.
"I would like to put forward the view that management science today has to extend its concerns and its overall objectives in decision-making beyond the corporate boardroom and beyond profits targeted in the next quarter," he said.
Delivering the convocation address at IIM-Kolkata, he drew the attention of business leaders on the need to protect the vital 'global commons' related to the Earth's climate.
The term refers to unowned natural resources like the atmosphere, the ocean floor, areas like Antarctica and outer space.
"Can any of our economic activities and enterprises function effectively if our rainfall deviates from established patterns, temperatures frequently exceed past trends and sea level rises threatens our coasts and megadeltas like Kolkata? Yet, human actions are now changing the Earth's climate," Pachuri said.
He told the young management graduates to strive to set high standards of ethics in decision-making which would earn them the respect of the society at large.
The environmentalist emphasised that even the financial performance of a company was dependent on societal factors.
