Mark Milstein has been thinking and talking about sustainable enterprises for a quarter century.
In this conversation—which continues the Amiel Show’s series on climate change, sustainable business, and clean tech—Mark and I discuss his professional and intellectual journey, how the field of sustainable enterprise has grown, what he’s created at Cornell, why the private sector matters, where sustainability happens inside companies, and who signs up for his classes these days.
Mark and I hadn’t spoken for 15-20 years, so this was also a fun chance to catch up and debate whether or not “Mimbo: The Gentle Art of Japanese Extortion” is relevant for people leading in politically complex environments.
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Highlights
- 9:00 Mark is dissatisfied intellectual with his MBA program and adds a second degree
- 15:00 A professor tells Mark, “I do not like you people.”
- 20:00 Mark reverses a huge decision at the mailbox
- 28:00 Are companies the problem and/or the solution?
- 36:30 Mark creates a curriculum in sustainability at Cornell
- 52:00 Faculty resistance to talking about sustainable enterprise has broken down
- 58:00 Different strokes by different folks: CSR, environment management, sustainable enterprise
- 1:06:00 Unilever, living wages, frontier markets, Base of the Pyramid
- 1:12:00 What is greenwashing?
- 1:19:00 Overtourism, ecotourism, and destination managers
Listen to the Podcast
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