ABSTRACT
MICHAEL PORTER AND CLAAS VAN DER LINDE’S SEMINAL Harvard Business Review article of 1995 made a powerful argument about the false dichotomy between environmental control and profitability. As evidenced by recent corporate annual reports, numerous large corporations are beginning to appreciate this argument and are starting to make significant modifications to their corporate strategies to simultaneously advance the cause of corporate profitability and sustainability. It is interesting to note, however, that there is at least one example of a major international company that arrived at this conclusion over half a century ago and adjusted its strategy accordingly, driven by a powerful force of circumstance that threatened its very existence.
