Professor Daniel Esty: Creating an Eco-Premium

A vision for environmental sustainability is not enough. Neither is a one-time report with a series of well-intentioned recommendations. Instead, companies need to integrate sustainability into their core strategies to make it a viable part of their businesses, according to Daniel Esty, Hillhouse Professor of Environmental Law and Policy at the Yale Law School and Yale School of Forestry and Environmental Studies.

Esty spoke as a guest of the Economic Development Club, outlining how some companies have made sustainability practices an “eco-premium.” Instead of simply increasing recycling efforts or adding other short-term agenda items, successful companies have found ways to make sustainability initiatives part of their long-term goals.

“This is what separates the new picture of going forward from the old view of sustainability,” Esty said.