Discussions at a recent sustainable business event in New York sponsored by the Guardian, a British newspaper, suggest that American companies are approximately two years behind their English equivalents in the realm of sustainability.
This conclusion was reached by Jo Confino, a Guardian writer who attended the conference. She writes that many of the American companies attending the event focused their sustainability efforts on their bottom lines, while British organizations focused on additional rubrics for evaluating their environmental impact as well.
According to the Sustainable Business Institute, corporate sustainability involves balancing business and profits with the use of natural resources and efforts to safeguard the social and physical well-being of the community.
Another major roadblock to U.S. corporations catching up to their U.K. counterparts is the culture in Washington. Confino writes that many lobbyists often advocate for positions that run counter to the interests of those in the sustainability divisions of their own corporations, while politicians have refused to take a leading role in fighting climate change.
