Check out this week's Business Week cover story: Beyond the Green Corporation: www.businessweek.com/magazine/content/07_05/b4019001.htm. Also check out Innovest's Top 100 Global Companies that are socially responsible: http://www.global100.org/
The good news this week in preparation for the Davos World Economic Forum is "Green Is In." The difficulty, as a legal and market formation matter, is it's hard to tell the greens from the browns.
Here are some elements for standardizing market definition of "green" that seem missing or inadequate:
- Transparency accounting and how to make FASB/GASB reporting include sustainability and social justice factors
- Branding the supply chain as accountably "green", and sorting out the confusion of a proliferation of brands to that effect
- Providing monetary incentives for companies to restrict themselves to being "green", without imposing the cost of "green" as a premium price for consumers to pay
- Seeing the landscape of all actors in the sustainable business space so as to find trade association-like benefits and political power
Social capital and consumer markets are evolving market formation concepts. The more attention on them, the faster they'll evolve.
Well, campaigns for a greener planet started back in the 70's maybe even beyond. Back then they were dismissed but today, consumer pressure might be starting to pay off.. an example; here in the UK, supermarkets now do a chart called 'green miles' to let consumers know how far the food has travelled.. maybe in future when more and more consumers choose to spend their money to responsible businesses, everybody will join the 'Green Bus'