Sustainability Taken Seriously 34.4

Gordon McBean, a lead author, review editor and one-time head of Canada’s delegation to the IPCC meetings, is now a professor at the University of Western Ontario. He responds to The Deniers, Lawrence Solomon’s “proof” that there is an international conspiracy underway to stifle debate and persecute world-renowned scientists who stand up against “global warming hysteria." ...

As revolutions go, this is no big deal: stain-resistant pants, sunscreens that go on clear, hockey sticks with extra zing. But perhaps that’s the point with nanotechnology. When the real transformation is occurring in spaces dwarfed by the thickness of this page, the results may seem inconsequential at first. Yet with science and capital now collaborating in manipulating atoms, these products are only the start. Its promoters predict that nanotechnology will become as common as plastic. Its critics agree, and warn of impacts as inescapable as the plastic jetsam now littering the globe.

It seems that every time I open the newspaper, turn on the television or check for online news, some company is touting its environmental commitment. I am encouraged to use reusable shopping bags, purchase more concentrated detergent and wear organically grown, cotton T-shirts. Done in the name of saving the planet, these promotions, not coincidently, highlight the corporate responsibility of the product or service’s purveyor.

It's been over 20 years since Gro Harlem Brundtland coined the phrase “sustainable development” in the landmark publication, Our Common Future. Since then, few terms have been so widely applied and produced such positive change, yet been so misunderstood.

To pursue sustainable development, companies must minimize their environmental footprint, while simultaneously working to create social and economic value. Although many corporations embrace sustainable development, practitioners often wonder whether this commitment adds value to their bottom line.