Qualitative growth and complementary technology: Beyond the technical fix

At present, improved environmental performance and corporate growth work hand in hand as part of a single business strategy. Growth enables the company to invest in environmental technology; environmental technology in turn enables it to grow while holding increases in environmental impact to a minimum. But this ‘Golden Age’ relationship could break down as the environmental benefits of technological advance are overwhelmed by growth in output. For this reason, there is already concern in some industries that the need to protect the environment may lead in due course to regulations designed to suppress further growth. However, any attempt to suppress growth would have extremely severe economic implications, and would require us to address the Growth Enigma: how are the needs of a stable economy and a stable environment to be met at the same time? The concept of ‘qualitative growth’, i.e. corporate strategy based on a reduced rate of growth, is examined with special reference to the airline industry and to Swissair, which has recently announced a qualitative growth strategy. It turns out that the company is not in fact implementing the strategy, but the declaration of intent itself reveals some valuable lessons which may help in a solution to the central problem of growth and the environment.