June 2013
| Business World Magazine | 101
D
uring a recent gathering of conservationists who amassed by-the-thousands
in South Korea, the President and CEO of the World Business Council for
Sustainable Development stood before the audience and made a bold declara-
tion - “I am a capitalist!” Whatever reactions that statement could have prompted were
quickly allayed as he went on to explain that he was there, because regardless of beliefs,
there is sharing of common goals and common fates. The achieving of a sustainable world,
he said, “is something we must work on together if we are to succeed.”
That WBCSD philosophy is equally embraced by its American equivalent, the United
States Business Council for Sustainable Development (US BCSD). A non-profit associa-
tion of businesses created in 2002, the US BCSD serves to produce and deliver value-
driven, sustainable development projects. Initiatives are member-led and generate value
in not only economic terms, but environmental and societal benefits too. Andrew Man-
gan is the organization’s co-founder and executive director. His view of the next few years,
2012 to 2020, is likened to “turbulent teens.”
