Archive for the ‘Unruh, Gregory’ Category

By Gregory Unruh, Ph.D.

Market forces are the ultimate Darwinian competition machine, and many environmentalists blame them for focusing executives on short-term profit maximization at the expense of long-term sustainability. But in talking to several companies, I’ve found that market competition is having the counterintuitive effect of driving business leaders toward sustainability. Read the full article in the Harvard Business Review. For additional research and commentary, visit my Huffington Post blog or read my new book, Earth Inc.: Using Nature’s Rules to Build Sustainable Profits.

By Gregory Unruh, Thunderbird Professor

A few years ago, I was invited to give a talk on climate change at a top European B-School. When I asked why they wanted me, the answer was: “My boss wanted Al Gore but couldn’t afford him.” So I am the Cheap Al Gore, and it’s getting to be a hard job. When I speak about climate change now, I frequently encounter an outspoken minority that belittles the scientific evidence and sidetracks the discussion with misinformation gleaned from the mass media. Science advances through skepticism and healthy debate. However, it is informed skepticism that improves our understanding. What I seem to be confronting now is popular skepticism. Read more in my Huffington Post blog. Recent posts include: Man is the Measure of All Things | The Cheap Al Gore | Sustainability Management vs. Sustainability Leadership | The Olympic Effect

By Gregory Unruh, Thunderbird Professor

I admit I got caught up in all the climate optimism. In last year’s election the candidates of both parties were vocal climate policy advocates. President-elect Obama’s YouTube-blasted speech “A New Chapter on Climate Change” raised expectations that policy action would come at this month’s Copenhagen Climate Summit. But even if a face-saving, compromise agreement can be forged at the last minute, the reality is that Hopenhagen has become Nopenhagen. I, of all people, should have known to be skeptical. Read the full commentary at www.forbes.com.

By Gregory Unruh and Fernanda Arreola

Since its reunification in 1975, Vietnam has emerged as one of Southeast Asia’s dynamic economies. The success is impressive given the country’s recent history of war, invasion and massive migration, as well as the loss of support from the old communist bloc. The country’s resurgence began with economic liberalization in 1986 and the implementation of the doi moi or “renovation” policies. Its openness to the free market has made Vietnam the United States’ fastest-growing trading partner in Southeast Asia and fostered international economic achievements, including the Vietnam-U.S. Bilateral Trade Agreement in 2001, acceptance into the World Trade Organization in 2007, and nonpermanent membership on the United Nations Security Council in 2008.
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By Greg Unruh, Thunderbird professor

Ethical scandals are recurring theater on the business stage, coming most often in the wake of financial booms that feed individual greed and push business leaders to make decisions that favor personal gain over organizational good. The second act of ethical scandals is also predictable: public and shareholder outrage; governmental pronouncements of indignation coupled with demands for new regulation; and business claims that the problem can be self-regulated, making any new legislation costly overkill. Sound familiar?
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In a world where the price of oil is fluctuating, government regulation of greenhouse gases is tightening and consumers are switching to more ecofriendly products, sustainable product development has become core to corporate survival. The challenge will only become more acute as a billion Chinese and a billion Indians pursue Western lifestyles.
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