Shareholders Not Convinced "Going Green" Is Great For Business

New York Times:

Green is green has become a mantra of environmentalists and, increasingly, corporate chiefs. Between money saved by energy efficiency and money made from selling environmentally sound products, they say, going green is great for shareholders as well as the planet.

But apparently many shareholders remain unconvinced.

Two professors at the Amos Tuck School of Business Administration at Dartmouth College have tracked the movement of stocks immediately after companies proclaimed their commitment to sustainability. And they found that share prices dropped much more often than they rose.

Read the whole story: New York Times

Comments

[sheila]

sounds to me like the smart money is on those underpriced Climate Leaders members' stocks, eh?

conservation technology, energy storage technology and point of use generation is the only thing worth pursuing since large-scale wind and solar kill thousands of acres of vital wilderness for each plant, so let your broker know you won't pay for killing the planet and trying to pretend it's "green."

[Cathexis]

Part of the problem, I suggest, is that externalities such as pollution haven't been measured in $s -- the only measure that seems important, in Business.

If these costs, currently foisted off on "society," were incorporated in General Accounting rules, then investors all over would have a far greater interest in addressing these costs, IMO.

[ZingoBonMot]

Good take on the situation, Cathexis. Once companies are made to pay for their "carbon footprint", they'll see "green" in a whole new light.

[Shaddup]

Investors never look at the long term. It's all about making a quick buck, taking shortcuts. That's why corporations have been screwing America or a hundred years.

[joebaggadonuts]

Long term, green is the way to go. The article points to short term trends, which are counter to the tide.

[OneVoiceInACrowd]

It was the same deal with the flat earth. People don't like to change their beliefs, those that do can actually use this behaviour to their gain. The efficiency improvements in green technologies should be lesson enough, but many still believe that we are going to once again find cheap energy sources in oil.