NEW APPROACHES IN HRM

30 TOPIC 2 GREEN ECONOMY - A HRM PERSPECTIVE Saša POPOVIĆ University of Montenegro Faculty of Economics Montenegro HRM - GE The main purpose of this topic is to explore linkages between human resources management ( HRM ) and the green economy ( GE ) approach to business and to present real-life practices that will create economic value added based on sustainable development principles. The core issue is how to run modern businesses without depletion of natural resources and degradation of the environment. Although simple, this question triggers a very complex set of theoretical and practical responses to this problem. Intensive use of natural resources is the main characteristic of traditional economic models, which, from the other side, have a negative impact on the environment and people's well-being. According to the Global Resource Outlook (2019) „ since the 1970s, the global population has doubled and global Gross Domestic Product (GDP) has grown fourfold. These trends have required large amounts of natural resources to fuel economic development and attendant increase in human well-being. Indeed, there has not been a prolonged period of stabilization or decline in global material demand in the last 50 years. Rather, global resource extraction has grown rapidly in that time. Extraction reached 92 billion tons in 2017, compared with 27 billion tons in 1970 . ” No doubt that such an intensive growth of the global GDP has resulted in significant economic progress while lifting billions of people out of poverty. However, if we reconsider the notion of poverty beyond the decrease of personal income and living standard, taking into account biodiversity loss, degraded health of people, and other problems caused by the greenhouse gas ( GHG ) emissions, people's poverty increased. The economy-ecology relationship still suffers from wrong perceptions based on an „ either-or ” approach. Only an inverse approach reveals the right perception that ecology implies the most demanding economy, and the economy implies the most demanding ecology. This is why governmental regulations need to encourage the transition via environmental taxation, product passports, and other GE supportive measures. The green economy should be mainstream, not only a niche business line. However, one major issue is the practical implementation of theoretical and framework driven solutions.