In recent years, a series of factors have converged to initiate a fundamental restructuring of business in the United States. These factors include:
  • The growing scientific and public consensus that climate change and other environmental challenges threaten to cause significant local, regional, and global environmental, economic, and social disruptions within our lifetimes;
  • The expansion and use of the internet as a tool for information sharing and organizing by consumers, activists, and shareholders; and
  • An emerging understanding that market forces must be engaged to respond to the critical environmental challenges facing us at the start of the 21st century.
 While many businesses in the United States such as GE and Wal-Mart are responding to this market shift, hundreds of thousands of other businesses are just beginning to consider the implications of this transformation or are unaware that this transition is already underway.

The five-week on-line dialogue hosted by the Harvard University Graduate School of Design and The Clark Group explored the market forces that are already driving change and the tools that companies are using to become more sustainable. The roundtable discussion on March 13, 2007 furthered this discussion by exploring whether there are market or policy options that can dramatically accelerate this transition in light of today's pressing environmental challenges.

The "Turning the Ship" dialogue is being coordinated by Brian Kuehl, a 2007 Loeb Fellow at the Harvard University Graduate School of Design and a Partner in The Clark Group, LLC. For more information on the Loeb Fellowship, click here.