Issue link: https://www.e-digitaleditions.com/i/56535
Converging on Green by Stuart L. Hart Davos, Switzerland, where the dominant perspective was one of reformation. Forum founder Klaus Schwab, for example, declared that the world would never be the same, that we will need to reformulate our global institutions to meet the economic reality of the 21st century. That economic reality ap- W pears all the more dire because it must be considered in con- junction with the dark picture growing around climate change. As author Thomas Friedman wrote in a March column for The New York Times, 2008 was the year the problem of depleted natural re - sources collided with the world's unsustainable demands for more and more material goods. Friedman quoted Australian environ- mental business expert Paul Gilding in calling this inevitable moment "The Great Disruption." More colorfully, Friedman dubbed this confluence of events as the day "Mother Nature and Father Greed have hit the wall at once." We've reached a point where everyone in the world knows something is fundamentally wrong. Sustainability is no longer preached by a few crazy, wild-eyed environmentalists or social activists screaming from the sidelines. We've reached what Mal- colm Gladwell calls the tipping point. 24 BizEd JULY/AUGUST 2009 hile the current economic crisis has been devas- tating to many, it actually could be a blessing in disguise for the sustainability movement. This year I attended the World Economic Forum in An economy in turmoil, an environment in distress, a vast worldwide population living in poverty. All these factors are converging to make it more imperative than ever that businesses—and business schools—focus on sustainability.