ABSTRACT
Writing as the then Chairman on the World Business Council for Sustainable development (WBCSD), Livio DeSimone—Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of the 3M Company—argued that a paradigm shift has taken place since the 1992 Earth Summit in Rio de Janeiro. ‘Business … used to be depicted as a primary source of the world’s environmental problems. Today, it is increasingly viewed as a vital contributor to solving those problems.’ 1 Although it is very doubtful that the change took place only—or even primarily—because of the WBCSD, all evidence suggests that this change has indeed happened, and that at some level WBCSD has both contributed to and capitalized upon it.
