Taking care of the planet's health makes business sense for companies

Paul Polman and Andrew Winston argue for a broader corporate mission than just the bottom line. Here are excerpts from their new book, Net Positive: How Courageous Companies Thrive By Giving More Than They Take.

If we don't tackle climate, everything else is moot. PHOTO: AFP
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We humans have created an amazing and ruthless contraption, capitalism, to trade goods and efficiently match supply and demand. The machine has produced exponential economic growth and lifted hundreds of millions of people out of poverty. But it has also brought about existential crises that threaten humanity. Our current economic system has two fundamental weaknesses: It's based on unlimited growth on a finite planet, and it benefits a small number of people, not everyone.

Humanity's consumption of resources can't continue at this pace, unless we find another planet.

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