Sustainability: from rhetoric to reality through markets

In 2001 the CEOs from DuPont, Chad Holliday, and from Procter & Gamble, John Pepper, published a report entitled Sustainability through the Market: Seven Keys to Success. This publication made the business case for meeting the needs of burgeoning populations for goods and services while protecting the natural environment at the same time. Further hundreds of millions are working their way out of poverty and demanding more goods and services. This paper highlights business efforts to meet these demands in a sustainable manner by leveraging market frameworks. This is the essence of the sustainable development argument first posited by Gro Harlem Brundtland in 1987 in the landmark book, Our Common Future.