Page 31 - The Green Building Bottom Line The Real Cost of Sustainable Building

10 CHAPTER 1

social justice issues as well) points to the need for a positive vision for the future.
What is yearned for is a narrative that doesn’t merely critique the inadequacies of a
system to address such problems as global warming, energy inefficiencies, water qual-
ity and quantities, fast disappearing biological and cultural diversity, deforestation and
desertification, and global poverty, but provides vistas of how to redress such critical
concerns. The narrative of capitalism with a difference is an effort in that direction.
These two different versions and visions of capitalism are distinct from one another,
as can be seen in a side-by-side comparison in Table 1.1.

TABLE 1.1 A TALE OF TWO CAPITALISMS

CONCEPT INDIFFERENT CAPITALISM CAPITALISM WITH A DIFFERENCE
Basis in economic Adam Smith, The Wealth of Adam Smith, The Wealth of
theory Nations (1776): Free circulation Nations (1776) plus The Theory of
of money, goods, labor, special- Moral Sentiments (1759): Balance
ization providing for market effi- commercial liberty with moral sym-
ciency pathy, holding that the efficient
market is composed of small enter-
prises located in community
Bottom line Financial performance only Includes social and environmental
metrics with financial performance
Governance Shareholder theory: Stakeholder theory: Business is
Business is answerable answerable to a broader range of
to its shareholders people beyond shareholders to
employees, community
Scope Globalization Internationalization (each country
sets its own rules) or localization
(self-sustaining local economies)
Notion of growth Maximize growth: The bigger Optimize growth: Smaller pie, more
the pie, the better equitably distributed
Integration Efficient integration of global Effective integration of economic,
supply chain social, and environmental issues
Mobility Highly mobile in terms of invest- Place-centric, tending to put down
ment, production, capital; will long-term roots in a particular
move quickly in and out of mar- locale. Strong investment in com-
kets based on cheap costs and munity
high returns
Value & investment Focus on quarter-to-quarter Greater focus on long-term value,
threshold short-term returns; value based total return
on stock price
Company profile Large transnational companies, Often (though not necessarily)
typically publicly traded, with smaller companies or larger
short-term investment horizon publicly traded companies with
stable, long-term shareholders