Green Business Is Good for Saving Planets, Helping Companies, Selling Books
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The most recognizable companies in the world every week boast about how sustainable they are. Day to day, it's not always exciting. Yet it's hard to deny that they add up to something big.
None of these changes -- like last week's commitments to recycle toothpaste tubes (Colgate Palmolive) and develop vegetarian meatballs (Ikea) -- by themselves signal a noteworthy break with the history of business. Yet at some point in the last 10 years, one has occurred. Environmentalists no longer need to make "the business case" for resource efficiency to companies. The latter know it's in their best interests, for both the costs it saves and the halo it sets atop their brand.