Sustainable Development Sust. Dev. 7, 121–131 (1999) AN ACCOUNT OF THE SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT PROCESS IN BANGLADESH Mohammed Solaiman 1 and Ataur Rahman Belal* 2 1 University of Rhode Island, USA 2 Cardiff Business School, UK With the accelerating industrialization process, even further increasing population and mass deforestation, ‘sustainability’ as a concept has only recently been popularized in Bangladesh. This paper sheds light on the sustainable development process in Bangladesh. It points out the major challenges to this process and identifies the motivating factors for a sustainable society in Bangladesh. The paper concludes with some strategies that are considered essential for the development of a sustainable society in Bangladesh, e.g., strong and effective regulatory framework, emphasis on rural entrepreneurship, development of indigenous technology and an integrated environmental management system. Copyright  1999 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd and ERP Environment. Received 1 September 1998 Accepted 28 October 1998 INTRODUCTION T here is an intimate link between the pro- cess of development and the environment. Development activities inevitably require exploitation of natural resources. However, the resource endowments of nature are limited. These natural resources are used for production of goods, and people have a crucial role in the process. The process of production may affect the environment in various ways, such as air pollu- tion, water pollution, soil pollution and depletion of the natural resource base. Nowadays, the industrialists are compelled to consider the environmental effects of their production and marketing activities. Thus, they are made account- able to society for the discharge of industrial effluents, carbon emissions into the air, handling of waste and other environmental fall-outs arising from their industrial activities. Environmental effects of economic develop- ment have been an important agenda in the economic, social and political arena of the modern world. The growing concern of consumers and government about the state of the living environ- ment and the mounting pressures of environ- mentalists on business to excel in environment friendly behaviour have forced the management of business organizations to become more con- cerned about environmental issues. It is expected that business functions such as production, mar- keting and finance may be changed in response to the challenges posed to business by the environ- ment. The current trend is to minimize the environmental effects of production activities. Products and production processes are adopting cleaner technology. In the industrialized countries, more and more companies are becoming environ- ment friendly as they realize that they can reduce pollution and increase profits simultaneously *Correspondence to: Ataur Rahman Belal, 8 Cwmdonkin Terrace, Uplands, Swansea, SA2 0RQ, UK CCC 0968-0802/99/030121–11 $17.50 Copyright  1999 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd and ERP Environment.