How High Are Sustainable Financial Returns?
The investment ecosystem has reached a tipping point and the interest in responsible, sustainable investing is surging. Asset owners with over $10 trillion have signed up to the UN Principles for Responsible Investment. The Investor Network on Climate Risk now has over $5 trillion behind it. The leading investment consultant […]

You hear a lot of talk from Wall Street these days about how climate change presents “unprecedented business risks and opportunities.” While investment action doesn’t yet fully match this rhetoric, many major firms are establish­ing research shops focused on the investment implications of climate change. Some of the early (and quite excellent) work has been […]

Business Takes the Rap Again in “Michael Clayton” and “There Will Be Blood.”
In the category of advertising known as “institutional,” com­panies try not to sell products or services but to craft an image of themselves as decent, upright, responsible corporate citi­zens. You can see these messages on the Op Ed page of the New York […]

In Memoriam: Anita Roddick, Frizzy-Haired Lady Who Pioneered Social Responsibility in Business
Anita Roddick, fiery founder of the Body Shop cosmetic stores, died last September 11. She was only 64. No one who ever met Anita is likely to forget the passion, energy and dedication that she brought to building the Body Shop into an […]

Do Markets Need Government?
When I studied and taught economics 25 years ago, the basic model of efficient markets was straightforward. Investors and businesses maximize profit, consumers seek value for money, workers search for lucrative jobs. Competitive market forces were central, although market failures were acknowledged: the maldistribution of income and “externalities” such as pollution and […]

Now You Can Hire an Advertising Agency to Spread Your Social Responsibility Messages
I have been a journalist for virtually all my working life, except when I took up residence at the J. Walter Thompson Company from 1963 through 1967, then the largest and one of the oldest advertising agencies in the land. I didn’t write […]

I spent my summer vacation being educated and inspired on an eye-opening trip through the Honduran rainforest as a new board member of the EcoLogic Development Fund.* EcoLogic is a U.S.-based nonprofit dedicated to community-led sustainable development that strengthens the conservation of rural Latin American’s unique and threatened biological diversity. (Some readers may recognize the […]

What Fair Trade Means for Alejandro and Elida Maldonado
This summer I had the honor and the privilege to live for several days with Alejandro and Élida Maldonado, who own a small coffee farm in northern Peru. I saw first hand how fair trade is improving their lives, and those of 25 other families in the […]

“FOODFIGHT: The Citizen’s Guide to a Food and Farm Bill” by Daniel Imhoff.

Who Says We Have Made No Progress?