Companies and organisations with innovative environmental strategies that improve business performance: EnAct International
EnAct International, a Cape Town-based consultancy, has played a key role in developing a pioneering legal philosophy and approach to governance called “Earth Jurisprudence”. This is based on the belief that human societies should regulate themselves as members of a wider Earth community and should be compelled by law to respect the rights of the planet and all its creatures.
EnAct’s systems-based approach was embraced by the African Biodiversity Network and is taught by law lecturers in countries such as Ethiopia and Ghana. Nobel Peace Prize laureate Professor Wangari Maathai asked the firm to advise on how the approach could be incorporated into the draft Kenyan Constitution.
One of the firm’s founders, lawyer Cormac Cullinan, was listed recently in a book entitled Planet Savers: 301 Extraordinary Environmentalists. In 2002 he set out his thinking on Earth Jurisprudence in a book called Wild Law.
It’s an approach EnAct has used to help in a wide range of legislative drafting and policy development in South Africa. The firm helped draft the Integrated Coastal Management Bill, currently before Parliament, as well as various other national, provincial and municipal laws.
“Some people believe that we must focus on people first and deal with the environment second. In my view this is like arguing that one must first focus on making fish healthy and happy and then address water pollution. But you can’t have healthy fish in poor-quality water, you have to address the whole system simultaneously,” Cullinan says.
He initially set up EnAct when he was based in London in 1994. The firm worked in more than 40 countries and developed an international reputation in the fields of environmental law and policy.
The Cape Town office was opened by Terry Winstanley in 1997 and in 1999 Cullinan moved to South Africa to join it. The firm’s international role continues, with speaking tours at law schools in the United Kingdom and United States. The UK Environmental Law Association holds annual “Wild Law” conferences and a Centre for Earth Jurisprudence was established in Florida in September 2006.
“The worsening of major environmental indicators throughout the world provides clear evidence that the methods used to govern human relations with the natural world are inadequate,” Cullinan says. “Without significant innovation in environmental governance, our society will not be ecologically sustainable.”
The firm works mainly in the public sector to have a greater influence than it would by introducing changes among individual companies. Besides policy development and legal drafting, it undertakes institutional reform, training and capacity building.
The Greening the Future judges praised EnAct International for its pioneering leadership and for important battles it won in changing mindsets, both locally and globally. Because the firm fell in the services industry, they felt it could not qualify to be a winner in this category but deserved a special commendation.