Are We Ready for God?: Value and Profit in Sustainable Development and Market Capitalism

Introduced by a cover story promising "a skeptical look at corporate social responsibility," The Economist recently published four articles under the title "The Good Company: A Survey of Corporate Social Responsibility" (January 22-28, 2005). The second of these, "The World According to CSR," is uncompromisingly critical of sustainable development and its triple bottom line. Although The Economist does not offer definitions of sustainable development (or, for that matter, of corporate social responsibility), they are not difficult to locate elsewhere. The United Nations World Commis sion on Environment and Development, for example, defines sustainability with respect to the present and the future: "Sustainable development meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future gener ations to meet their own needs" (Smart Communities Network). The envi ronmental architect Muscoe Martin cites the etymological origin of the word, and describes its scope to include "physical, cultural, and . . . spiri tual characteristics":