I subscribe to Fast Company, a cutting-edge business mag. Their sustainability section is particularly interesting, as are the Social Capitalist Awards. Check out the 2005 winners for some great models; if you think your organization might qualify in 2006, the application kit can be requested from the FC web site. I'm a FC fan and have been for a couple of years as is, but today they gave their readers a heads up about our NextBillion.net community on their staff blog. Thanks, FC! Check them out here.

Q. One of the central ideas of your book — that not only can private enterprises profitably promote global social equity and environmental stewardship, but that they must do so to ensure their own sustainability — requires a major paradigm shift. Aren’t old belief systems — such as the one you term the “Great Trade-Off Illusion . . . the belief that firms must sacrifice financial performance to meet societal obligations” — still widespread? How can they be overcome?

The Great Trade-Off Illusion is still alive and well but there’s been serious damage done to it. It’s no longer impregnable. . . . The quality revolution and the “greening” revolution have put a serious dent in that whole mindset so that there’s an openness now, at least, to the whole idea that it’s possible to make a societal contribution as a for-profit company and still be wildly successful — and maybe be wildly successful because you make a societal contribution.