Emergence of a sustainable business community

Global population and environmental pressures are challenging multinational companies to develop new business strategies founded upon the principles of sustainability-assuring that they can meet the needs of both present and future generations of customers and stakeholders. Corporate sustainability requires understanding the "triple bottom line", which includes economic, societal, and ecological performance. It involves designing products and processes with a full awareness of their life-cycle costs and benefits, and seeking new technologies to create more value with fewer resources. To put sustainability into practice, companies are beginning to transform their core business processes and develop environmentally and socially responsible products and services. Many are adopting the concepts of industrial ecology and green chemistry in an effort to transform their operations from a linear to a closed-loop business model. This changing climate is creating new opportunities for break-through research and development, ranging from nanotechnology to green chemistry.