Sustainability expert talks on strategies of greening

Author and sustainability expert Stuart Hart said sustainability is all about “creative destruction.”

Hart, founder and president of Enterprise for a Sustainable World, was the guest speaker for the Peter F. Secchia Breakfast Lecture, sponsored by the Seidman College of Business May 1, at the L. William Seidman Center.

Hart, author of “Capitalism at the Crossroads” and S. C. Johnson Professor of Sustainable Global Enterprise at Cornell University, said there are two levels of business sustainability: strategies for greening and strategies for beyond greening. “Strategies for greening include product stewardship, energy reduction, conservation and reducing our carbon footprint,” said Hart. “We must begin strategies for beyond greening which include a new focus on emerging technologies.”

Hart said people have been brainwashed into thinking going green is expensive. “We must get past that and compete in price,” he said.

Hart added, “The single biggest business opportunity is, ‘How do we lift the poor without destroying the natural capital that supports all life on earth, and make money doing it?’”