Robert K. Merton, the giant of modern sociology, coined the term the Law of Unanticipated Consequences. He identified two types of consequences: intended, or what he called ‘manifest’ consequences; and unintended, or ‘latent’ ones. Okay, but what does social theory have to do with sustainability? Hmmm. What if we told you that a huge portion of the…
Over twenty years ago, I was talking to a pharma VP who was in charge of their medicine donation programs in Africa. He was lamenting that he couldn’t quantify the value of his work. “Too bad,” he said, “that it’s impossible to measure the impact we create, on our business and on the world, by…
Previously, we discussed Submerged Value and made a point of noting how significant a chunk of the total value of sustainable actions it represented. We closed with the rather bold statement that often, submerged value actually rivals — or even exceeds — visible value. Well, we’re here now to back that up. Over more than…
