I commend everyone to Joel Makower’s clear-eyed assessment of Worldwatch’s otherwise great report on the greening of business, which reflects the "relatively myopic perspective that nonprofits typically have of business."

If I may summarize:

  • Expecting an industry to do something that confers no business advantage in a sustained, systemic way is silly. (Luckily, there are plenty of sustainable moves they can make that do confer advantage.)
  • Criticizing a sustainable move on the part of an industry because industry "only" did it out of self-interest is also silly, for the same reasons.