The news is not good: the US is falling behind in the clean-tech race. While the clean technology sector is booming in Europe, Asia and Latin America, its competitive position is “at risk†in the United States because of “uncertainties surrounding key policies and incentives.â€
In my 1997 HBR article, Beyond Greening: Strategies for a Sustainable World, I made the case for sustainability as a key driver of business growth. Now, well over a decade later, as developing-economy competitors take the lead, U.S. companies still don’t get it.
It’s time to wake up, everybody, (as the song says) no more sleeping in bed.
In this recent Harvard Business Review blog post – The Clean-Tech Economy at the Base of the Pyramid – I ask our country to challenge our policy assumptions: America must get past the destructive zero-sum thinking that either it produces in the U.S. or “ships jobs overseas” — that either it “wins” or other countries do.
The U.S. can lead the rise of the global clean-tech economy by collaborating with emerging economy countries and investing in sustainable development at the base of the pyramid, where the lion’s share of future demand will be.
Or it can stay its unsustainable course. The choice seems increasingly clear.
What do you think? Let me know by replying to this email.
Stuart L. Hart
P.S. – I have finally started my own blog called Voice of the Planet. Here are some of the first posts:
Writing the Unfinished Symphony at the Base of the Pyramid
The Key to Future Value Creation: Listening to the “Voice of the Planet”
Is it Time to Take the “Green Leap?”
The End of Corporate Responsibility
Contact Stuart >>
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