According to a recent United Nations report, that’s being complied by Trucost, the world’s top 3,000 companies cause $2.2 trillion in environmental damage per year¹. The report is said to include all 500 companies on Standard & Poor’s list of the largest publicly traded companies in the United States. Richard Mattison, the chief operating officer of Trucost, commented that the report not only examined company impacts but also goods and services, greenhouse gas emissions, local pollutions, particulate emissions, and use of natural resources like water and timber.  While the aim of the report is to bring light to environmental business ethics, it’s also telling how complicated such reporting can become: many US companies do business and manufacture products globally making regulation, evaluation and monitoring a challenge. Nonetheless, Mr. Mattison notes that the intent of the report is to capture the attention of investors and educate those who want to affect positive environmental change through business decisions. He goes on to say that, one that of the things investors can do is engage with companies in a collaborative way. Seeing as we live in a global society heavily influenced by the corporate model, there may be no other immediate solution to meeting the demands of consumers and the demands of our planet.

^{1. By comparison, the gross world product is on the order of $50 trillion, and in 1997 ecosystem services were valued at $33 trillion; $44,000,000,000,000 in 2009 dollars.}