Liz Redman

Just a few years ago “globalization” was all the rage. Books such as Thomas Friedman’s "The World is Flat" was at the top of The New York Times’ Best Sellers list and conference planners across the country lined up speakers to address globalization in keynote addresses. Now, just two years later, the novelty of the “globalization” theme has worn off and people have largely accepted that the United States can’t prevent participating in a global economy. Today's newspaper headlines and conferences are wearing a new color to draw people’s attention. The color is green and it comes in many shapes and sizes: “global climate change,” “sustainability,” “carbon neutrality,” “eco-efficiency,” and the list goes on.

While many attribute America’s recent interest in addressing climate change and assessing our environmental footprint to Al Gore’s persuasive performance in his Academy Award-winning documentary "An Inconvenient Truth," interest in sustainability has been growing steadily over the past decade. A recent study conducted by the United Nations Environment Program showed that the average number of pages for companies’ Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) reports rose by 45 percent between 2000 and 2002. By 2003, the CSR Network concluded that almost half of the world's 100 largest companies issued an environmental, social or sustainability report. And by 2005, estimates for the number of companies publishing CSR reports had grown to nearly 3,000.

Every day, businesses add content to Web pages devoted to explanations of their environmental responsibility or green business practices; increasing numbers of business schools offer green MBAs; and cities come up with new policies or incentive programs to attract cleantech businesses. In the last year the concept has hit a “tipping point” and has become much more than just the topic for discussion at annual conferences for environmental organizations or among progressive companies’ PR strategists.

The evidence of sustainability’s popularity appears in all arenas:

In business: “Sustainability” appears in corporate social responsibility programs, staff titles, public relations campaigns and triple bottom line reports. The new mainstream recognition for the concept has given even Wal-Mart (NYSE: WMT), the world’s largest retailer, the courage to “go green.” Its new program encourage "sustainability" of the world's fisheries, forests and farmlands, decrease energy use and reduce waste, encourage its 60,000 suppliers to move toward more environmentally-safe production processes, and persuade consumers to buy green.