Friday November 30th

Friday November 30^th

So…BNE. I didn’t really know what to expect. The intro video thing didn’t really work so we jumped in with questions. The guy seemed to obviously know a lot about the company and how it operates. We kept asking him questions about what is not sustainable with the company, what are you doing to be more sustainable, etc. and his answers were not super conclusive. Looking back at the sustainability and natural resources section of Edwards’ book there is definitely truth to what he talks about. The contradictions, the inability to really have both a business and environmentally sustainable practices. Especially since we’re talking about oil drilling. I think, their product aside, BNE is a great, very well run organization. They seem very invested in the community and their employees. They are knowledgeable about their operation. They are interested in minimizing their environmental impact, but they also display some stubbornness and ignorance. They kept trying to tell us that drilling, in a way, doesn’t have much of an impact and certainly not as much as other industries. Maybe others do have more of a footprint (sugar being his example) but oil certainly does also. It is not just those two acres they need to cut down; it is the roads there, the fuel for travel and transport, the disruption of neighboring ecosystems, etc. Even if they make their company, operation, etc. as clean and environmentally friendly as possible the nature of their product is detrimental to the environment. He kept trying to justify the destruction of some habitat by explaining how they’re helping the economy. I understand sustainability is about more than the environment and that environmental sustainability won’t happen without some degree of economic stability. That doesn’t mean you sacrifice the environment or that you should only think about your most profitable path without considering alternatives. As Edwards also says, they will eventually have to shift towards alternatives. In the long run the environmental degradation might hurt the future Belizeans significantly more than the economic impact of not exploiting the oil reserves now. Daniel, from BNE, said the company’s current thinking is to just shut down when they run out of oil or if they cannot obtain another license. This flabbergasted me the most. Why would you shut down an extremely well run company, that undeniably is serving a positive purpose and giving support to the community (for example through their very impressive employee education system)? Why would they not even consider looking into alternatives? I understand they may not currently have the knowledge, the research, or the equipment, but those are things they can work on attaining while still producing oil. Whether they look into alternative forms of renewable energy or they shift to something totally different (sort of going back to what Mr. Ruiz said the other day) they could reopen under a difference name, have a new product, but remain the same core company. I understand that is much more complicated and difficult than I just made it sound, but it’s possible. For a company that wants to be environmentally friendly and also help their country economically and socially why wouldn’t they want to move in that direction sooner than they even have to? Use the oil only until they can reimagine the company. Does that mean profit is more important to them?