The Bottom Line on Corporate Sustainability

New York Times (9/2, Lorinc) – “Bottom-up change without top-down change is not going to be fast enough,” said Ram Nidomulo, a co-author of a new study on corporate sustainability. Corporate sustainability is a “key driver” of innovation that also yields real financial rewards rather than extra cost, a new study in the Harvard Business Review has found (PDF). “By treating sustainability as a goal today, early movers will develop competencies that rivals will be hard-pressed to match.” Tracking efforts by the likes of Wal-Mart, Hewlett-Packard and Clorox, the authors identified a five-stage process companies must navigate as they adopt green business models. Green Inc. posed a few questions by e-mail to Ram Nidumolu, the founder and chief executive of InnovaStrat, a California consulting firm that helps companies develop sustainability strategies. He is one of the three co-authors of the paper. Read more…