Industrial development has created unparalleled wealth.

Yet it has resulted in a world where resources are threatened and even our climate is being disrupted.

And, while industrial development has created wealth for some, many nations outside the developing world have little or nothing.

There is a growing awareness that our economic and industrial model is unsustainable, that we must change.

Bjorn Stigson is a successful businessman who now represents more than 200 international companies in their response to the challenge of sustainable development.

We met him at home in Sweden during a break in his hectic schedule.

How does he think we can change?

BJORN STIGSON: "The big balancing act we have today is between poverty alleviation and environment and it becomes very clear when we look at things like climate change. If we want to alleviate poverty then you need economic growth and that economic growth won't happen unless we have access to energy and that energy is normally fossil fuel energy and that fossil fuel is creating climate change. So the big balancing act now internationally when we talk about how we deal with climate is to find this balancing act between development, poverty alleviation and dealing with climate change.

INTERVIEWER: "Some commentators say that companies are merely greenwashing instead of observing and accepting the needs of sustainable development, what would you say to that?

BJORN STIGSON: "Well, first of all, business is about minimising costs and maximising profits. But it is about doing that within the rules of society and society is today saying to us we have to protect the environment to a much higher degree. And doing that today is part of the normal way of doing business. We have to find ways of utilising less energy, less resources if we want to stay in business. So, for business today, this is an absolute necessity if we want to be able to exist."

INTERVIEWER: "These are enormous changes that are going to be necessary. Are we going to cope with them?

BJORN STIGSON: "Well it will certainly require more technology development. We need to find ways to achieve what we call a low carbon economy, an economy where we generate less carbon emissions and that has to come basically from two sources. One is new technology like cars that utilise less fuel, hybrid cars, plug-in hybrids where you plug them into the electric system and charge them overnight, buildings that use less energy, better insulated buildings, new ways of heating them, ways of producing electricity where we capture the carbon emissions. So technology is one very important part.

But it will also mean changing life styles and consumption patterns. It's not realistic to believe that we're going to reduce emissions to the extent that we have to and the scientists are saying we have to reduce emissions by at least 50% by 2050. And that's only in 42 years.”

INTERVIEWER: "You represent some 200 companies and you're an advisor to the governments of India and China - what are you saying to them?"

BJORN STIGSON: "My message to governments is that you have a responsibility to make these difficult trade-offs. You have to provide the balance between development, taking care of the environment and so on. You have to tell us what is a reasonable political solution to this and you have to provide the rest of society and us in business with a framework - rules, regulations that we can live within. What I'm saying to business is that business cannot succeed in a society that fails - we have a clear business interest in helping to create functioning societies that are good places for doing business, otherwise we don't have a platform for doing what we're supposed to do."

INTERVIEWER: "Are you optimistic about the future yourself?"

BJORN STIGSON: "I'm looking at this enormous transformation and I'm saying this will be a transformation that will create a lot of tension, a lot of challenges. I believe that we will solve these problems, but I believe the transformation from where we are today to the time when we have implemented enough actions so we are in a sustainable situation, that will be a challenge in transformation that will take a few decades. We'll get there but it will take some time and it will go through some rough spots on the way."

GENERIQUE