Law Commons^™

Defining Sustainable Business - Beyond Greenwashing, Becky Jacobs

College of Law Faculty Scholarship

Consumers are increasingly prioritizing the "sustainability" of their purchases, even when products labeled as "sustainable" sometimes are more expensive than their ostensibly unsustainable counterparts. Businesses have responded to this trend by promoting a wide range of fair trade and "sustainable" services and products, from items packed in bio-degradable, post-consumer recyclable paper to those supplied by companies seeking to reduce their carbon footprints, water use, paper consumption, and waste generation.There are not, however, agreed criteria for what makes a business "sustainable," nor is there a precise, authoritative definition of sustainability or of the products, practices, or services that the term includes …