According to environmental experts, environmental costs have increasingly been internalized in the business with such charges as water consumption and waste disposal added to costs. As these costs increase, the cost of business increases, and in the ever more competitive marketplace, these costs will either reduce the profit or sales or both of the typical SME. For a business to reach sustainability goals, where a company can achieve an emphasis on PPP, there is obviously a need for leaders with the ability to take a strategic view of their businesses, as continually internalizing increased cost will eventually drive them out of business.

tial, we often think of human potential to improve, take on more challenging tasks and become what we might strive to be. Here, we are thinking about the potential of a country to be more conscious of its environment, and reverse previous behaviors which tended to damage the environment more than protect it. Arguably, we can suggest that the only way the world can achieve strong gains in dealing with climate change and global warming are through country-by-country initiatives. The poorer countries have tended to cause more pollution and environmental challenges in the past than richer and more developed nations, and some emerging markets have very large populations which threaten the overall future of the planet in quite an alarming way. For these countries to become interested in environmental issues, they need leadership with an interest in this area of concern—and these leaders can come from the public or private sectors.

As we suggest, overpopulation and the globalization of markets have added to domestic pressures faced by emerging markets, where the environment might already be suffering from the over-exploitation of resources. These emerging markets are just beginning to wake up to the need for ‘environmental sustainability’.

Powering on Potential, Assessing the Potential of Leaders, Emerging Markets to Improve Their Countries, Environmental Sustainability.