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FORTUNE.COM // SEPTEMBER 2019
Now the adults of
the global economy
are launching a sec-
ond, more structural
sustainability push.
Fortune 500 companies
and leading financiers
are pouring billions
into clean alternatives
to dirty technologies.
In May, for example,
Daimler AG announced
that 50% of the new
Mercedes-Benz cars
it sells in 2030 will be
fully electric or plug-in
hybrids and that its new-
car fleet will be carbon
neutral by 2039.
The multinationals
making this shift are
keen to protect not
merely the planet but
also their returns.
Which raises thorny
questions. A crucial
one: Which companies
and countries will win
in this shift, and which
will lose?
Exploring all this—
as well as sharing best
practices and creating
a community of leaders
who will gather to shape
this transformation
over time—is the goal of
the inaugural Fortune
Global Sustainability
Forum. Global execu-
tives, policymakers,
investors, entrepre-
neurs, activists, and
innovative thinkers will
gather Sept. 4 to 6 at
the Hilton Yuxi Fuxian
Lake in China’s Yunnan
province—in a country
that is critical both to
business and to the
environment, at a spot
of breathtaking beauty.
The forum will focus
on four key areas: clean
energy, green finance,
food and agriculture,
and waste and plastics.
What started as
CSR—corporate social
responsibility, widely
seen as a fringe pur-
suit—is increasingly
seen by the C-suite
as strategically core.
Action on the environ-
ment is starting to look
smarter than inaction.
But whose profits that
helps or hurts—not
to mention whether
it does much for the
earth—will depend
on countless future
decisions. The goal in
Yunnan is to start shap-
ing them.
From Fringe to Core:
‘Green’ Grows Up
Convening global leaders to define what it takes
to win in the new sustainability economy.
By Jeffrey Ball
FORUM
CENTRAL BANKERS aren’t hired to be
tree huggers. But lately the pinstriped
protectors of global capitalism are sounding almost
like environmental activists. In June, the Bank of
England said it will ask U.K. insurers, as part of the
bank’s biennial insurance-industry “stress test,” to
assess how climate change might hurt their bottom
lines. That same month, François Villeroy de Galhau,
governor of the Bank of France, urged central bankers
worldwide to gauge a bank’s exposure to climate risk
when deciding how much collateral to demand in
exchange for central-bank money— calling for “thor-
oughly integrating climate change into the monetary
policy framework.” By next year, China’s securities
regulator plans to require publicly listed companies
in the country to disclose environmental data to
investors. What’s behind this green awakening?
In short, something big is happening in the global
economy: Green is growing up.
A decade ago, “cleantech” was the overhyped
darling of venture capital firms and corporate public
relations departments—boosters sure they could do
well by doing good. Many lost big.
$2.1
TRILLION
Aggregate financial
impact of climate-
related business
opportunities
recently identified
by 225 of the
world’s largest
companies
SOURCE: CDP
Daimler’s Smart
ForTwo Cabrio
electric-drive car.
CO
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OF
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