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³⁶ The remainder of this article draws on the presentations given by the speakers at the conference.

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³⁹ Governmental regulations proved to be the most potent driver behind technological innovations and radical reductions of plant emissions in these industries. Legislative requirements, expressed in permits, urged firms to explore new technological options, to invest in costly R&D, and to develop new organizational capabilities, which resulted in solutions that typically, but not always, proved profitable over time. Bergquist conducts research focused foremost on the history of business and environmental policy.

⁴⁰ See Adam Rome, “DuPont and the Limits of Corporate Environmentalism,” elsewhere in this special issue of Business History Review. Rome's research is focused on the history of environmental activism, business, and the environment.

⁴¹ Gorman conducts historical research analyzing the interaction of technological innovation, uses of the environment, and systems of governance.

⁴² Serafeim conducts research on measuring, driving, and communicating corporate performance and social impact. Among other assignments, he has been involved with several not-for-profit organizations including on the board of directors of the High Meadows Institute, the working group of the Coalition for Inclusive Capitalism, and the Standards Council of the Sustainability Accounting Standards Board (SASB).

⁴³ The European Union enforced the nonfinancial directive 2017, a law that requires large companies to disclose certain information on the way they operate and manage social and environmental issues. Serafeim noted that this affects U.S. firms operating in Europe, while the United States does not have equivalent legislation.

⁴⁴ Elper Wood is the director of the International Sustainable Tourist Initiative at Harvard Chan School of Public Health and is the author of Sustainable Tourism on a Finite Planet (New York, 2018).

⁴⁵ Spinak's current research ties the history of electrification in the rural United States to the evolution of twentieth-century American capitalism and alternative economic visions.

⁴⁶ See Marten Boon, “A Climate of Change? The Oil Industry and Decarbonization in Historical Perspective,” in this issue. Boon currently studies the history of the oil industry and commodity trading.

⁴⁷ Crawford has a background as chief technology officer and executive director, managing global R&D operations for multinational corporations in energy and chemical sectors, and currently teaches at Harvard Business School.

⁴⁸ King conducts research on various topics related to business strategy and business and the natural environment. He is, among other things, a founder of the Alliance for Research on Corporate Sustainability (ARCS).

⁴⁹ In doing so, Ehrenfeld echoed Wilfred Beckerman's argument that weak sustainability “offers nothing beyond traditional economic welfare maximization.” Beckerman, Wilfred, “‘Sustainable Development’: Is it a Useful Concept?,” Environmental Values 3, no. 3 (1994): 191–209CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

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