7 - Reform or Transformation?

Summary

Corporations make decisions that are crucial for sustainability. Can corporations, by taking account not just of profits but of impacts on people and the environment, support sustainability through ongoing reforms? Or does sustainability require a transformation of the global political economy? An evolutionary perspective focuses attention on variation across corporations and the selective pressures that shape their actions. Partial solutions can cumulate to substantial change and buy time for further change. But spillover effects where one action either facilitates or retards another can slow or speed change and seem to vary across the types of action considered. Proposals for change need to take account of not only what would happen if the change occurred but also the likelihood the change will occur.