ABSTRACT
From reading much of the literature on business and sustainable development you could be forgiven for thinking that the only things preventing businesses from behaving sustainably are organisational inertia and a lack of management knowledge. A widely shared view is that there are an abundance of 'win-win' opportunities, where managers can take action that is both good for business and for sustainable development (Rappaport and Flaherty 1992). The concept of 'eco-effidency', where novel systems for saving energy and reducing waste can deliver financial benefit as well as reducing a company's environmental impact, has guided many managers in their conversion to environmentalism. Beyond eco-effidency, success stories of environmental marketing, where a company has successfully sold its products on the basis of environmental criteria, reinforce the idea of a win-win world (Hartmanet al. 1999). Discussions of the corporate benefits of high staff morale, good community support, and sustained interest from highcalibre applicants, which arise from trust in a company's leadership position on sustainable development, broaden the win-win paradigm (Fukuyama 1995). Good relations with all of a company's stakeholders is understood to be beneficial by ensuring the company has an ongoing exchange of knowledge that can lead to beneficial innovation (Zadek 1999). On the flip-side, bad relations with stakeholders can create risks to corporate reputation, which, ironically from a win-win world-view, means that good corporate performance on sustainable development is effective risk management (see Chapter 2). The win-win world-view is not restricted to environmental issues and has been mentioned in the context of labour standards and human rights; 'win-win-win' has even been mentioned in this context, to emphasise the inclusion of social considera-
• I would like to thank Rene Rivera (FUNDE, El Salvador), who asked me to work on GM crops, and Rupesh Shah (University of Bath) and Simon Heap (INTRAC) for their contributions to the business-NGO relations discussion group, which stimulated my thinking for this chapter.
