Abby Joseph Cohen on the "greening" of business
Abby Joseph Cohen is a world-renowned investment strategist and a partner at Goldman, Sachs & Co.
Abby Cohen: _A company needs to measure its success not just on the basis of things like earnings and revenues, but also on the basis of whether they’re doing what they should be doing in the environmental area, whether they’re doing what they should be doing with regard to worker safety and other issues. –
Last year, Forbes magazine named Cohen the 19th most powerful woman in the world. When she talks, people listen.
Abby Cohen: I think it’s fair to say that companies who turn a deaf ear to problems, background issues, often find that they don’t evolve as quickly as they should. And so, basically some of the corporate theory that’s out there now says that those companies that are the most flexible are also the ones that are most likely to recognize that environmental sustainability issues are things that they need to build into their normal business plan.
Cohen said that doing the right thing for the environment might also turn out to be good for business in the long term.
Abby Cohen: Because if you think about what survives the longest, it’s those entities which are adaptable, those entities which are flexible. And that’s what gives them sustainability.
