Over the past decade or so, conflicts of economic and business decisions with social inequity and environmental issues are increasingly weighing on the minds of people and governments. The conflict is mainly based on a specific project or issue and differing interpretations and priorities of stakeholders. Consensus and equity based policies and regulations can then be an important factor towards influencing behaviours and changes.

There are a plethora of voluntary principles (like UN Global Compact, AccountAbility, Amnesty, Transparency International etc), Conventions (UN Declaration of Human Rights, ILO etc), codes of conduct (like the Clean Clothes Campaign, Equator principles), management standards (ISO, OSHAS, SA8000 etc), labeling standards (Forest Stewardship Council, Fairtrade, Marine Stewardship council), reporting standards (GRI) and national level policies (like NAPCC, BEE ratings) in the market.

Policies and regulations can play an important role in catalyzing and "enforcing" change. Many are voluntary in nature and encourage organizations to be responsible. Nevertheless, policy making in a complex problem, and like sustainable development is not without its issues. They may look or emphasize resolution of one problem while ignoring the others. Their implementation could lack governance and transparency, resulting in “green washing”. Moreover, policy led change initiatives are top-down and may not be representative of the impacted people and environment.

Schools/Colleges:

How do we have simpler policies? How do we integrate policy making in the various government departments? How do we make inclusive policies – inclusive from the perspective of the affected stakeholder? How do we make policies not look like “policies”? How do we understand and respond to “green washing”?