Even if some of our politicians are slow to catch on, business leaders are starting to realize that protecting the environment does not mean sacrificing the economy.

"The basic fundamental of ecology is efficiency," says Jeff Wacker, director of corporate strategy for EDS Corp., a Texas-based technology firm that was just bought by Hewlett-Packard Co. Mr. Wacker was speaking to business and government leaders from around the world at the Global Business Forum in Banff on Friday.

According to a Vancouver Sun article, Mr. Wacker "argued that corporate environmentalism has evolved with the realization that ecological measures have a positive impact on the bottom line. In other words, environmentalism is profitable."

According to the article, Mr. Wacker said that, unlike the environmental awareness in the late 1980s, which was fuelled by rising oil prices and soon forgotten, today's environmental concern is here to stay.

"Anything that is cheap or free is abused. Take a look at air, water, lumber," said Wacker. "Now the fundamentals of that have changed. We have numbers that are working against us. We can't take the cheap, easy way out."