There are hopeful signs of progress. A commitment made by Interface, Inc., a leading commercial carpet manufacturer with annual sales of $1.2 billion nearly 10 years ago to try to achieve environmental sustainability remains the gold standard in terms of corporate efforts toward sustainability. Thought a visionary CEO Ray Anderson, the company did not just make a commitment to eliminate waste and harmful emissions, and use renewable energy sources, it infused the company's corporate culture with the principles of sustainability based on the vision set forth in the landmark book Natural Capitalism by Paul Hawken, and Hunter and Amory Lovins. The company says it has already saved $262 million since 1995 by focusing on elimination of waste. It has also has decreased greenhouse gas emissions by 52% and increased carpet recycling efforts by 35%.

In 2005, major blue chip companies made commitments towards sustainability-- General Electric launched Ecomagination, Goldman Sachs, JP Morgan announced policies to integrate environmental factors into lending, as did Citigroup in 2004. The path to sustainability is a work in progress and any company that suggests it will be fast or easy is not credible. The seriousness of these new efforts can be evaluated in their early stages by the level of financial and human capital devoted to moving toward sustainability. These commitments toward sustainability are just the beginning of the process and will require many years of monitoring by and collaboration with environmental advocates to be realized.

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