Publications
Publications
- 2025
- A Business History of Latin America
Sustainability and Green Business in Latin America
By: Geoffrey Jones
Abstract
This chapter argues that since the nineteenth century capitalism has created much wealth, but at the cost of massive ecological destruction, which has been particularly severe in Latin America. During the first global economy before 1929, considerable wealth was created from the exploitation of natural resources for primarily the land-owning elite in Latin America, at the cost of large-scale destruction of the natural environment. During the so-called Great Reversal between 1929 and 1979, strategies to catch up resulted in the proliferation of hydro-electric schemes which caused further environmental damage co-created by business and governments. As globalization resumed from the 1980s, renewed economic growth and consumerism resulted in mountains of waste in increasingly polluted cities. However ecological horror stories also created opportunities for a cohort of green businesses across sectors ranging from beauty and health to eco-tourism.
Keywords
Citation
Jones, Geoffrey. "Sustainability and Green Business in Latin America." Chap. 8 in A Business History of Latin America, edited by Andrea Lluch, Martin Monsalve Zanatti, and Marcelo Bucheli, 159–174. New York, NY, United States: Routledge, 2025.