Sustain ability: the next wave.

• Author: Rock, Robrer H.

As, HEAD OFF this fall to my 40th business school reunion I am reminded of the political, social, and environmental campaigns that took place during both my Harvard College years (AB 1972) and my Harvard Business School years (MBA 1972, DBA 1974). A red-fisted "Strike Shirt" came to embody the heightened awareness and student activism swirling around the Vietnam War, the Women's Movement, and Earth Day. We also campaigned for the establishment of socially responsible investment policies, most notably divestment from companies doing business in apartheid South Africa. Recently I read that Yale University's $21 billion investment office is asking its money managers to "discuss with company management the financial risks of climate change." Though stopping short of asking them to divest shares in companies with a large greenhouse footprint, Yale's chief investment officer is underscoring the increasing attention being placed on corporate sustainability.

Corporate sustainability has become a watchword of progressive business management. Sustainability can refer to anything from building wind and solar farms, to combating income and social inequality, to monitoring political spending and lobbying. According to a recent KPMG survey 95% of the top 250 global companies are now reporting their sustainability performance, and according to a recent IRRC Institute report, more than half of S&P 500 companies are providing board-level oversight of environmental and social issues.

Up until now sustainability policies have been relatively easy to implement because...