Markets in Service of Sustainable Development

The claims made for the ability of markets to spontaneously facilitate the transition to a sustainable economy are unrealistic. However, markets are an important feature of the economic system, and their role in facilitating or inhibiting sustainable develop needs careful consideration. Markets are often spoken of with some mystique, as a sort of final objective arbitrator of business success or failure. But whether we’re talking about world financial markets or a local farmers’ market, at the most basic level markets are simply a set of exchange options between people.

Innovative investors, entrepreneurs, and consumers are currently creating a hotbed of change and innovation within regional and global markets. New financial markets are emerging that include consideration of long-term environmental and social returns along with more traditional financial returns on investment. New consumer markets are growing demand for products, services, and organizations to embody ecologically and socially beneficial attributes. Business to business markets are evolving to accommodate new levels of shared responsibility beyond the boundaries of a single organization. Labor markets are becoming an arena for the expression of social and environmental values.

Innovations in business practices, models of organizing, and even new institutional forms are being developed to respond to, and facilitate the growth of, these emerging market dynamics. So markets, as well as the institutions and practices that support them, are as subject to human intentions and values as the other spheres of economic life. Thus the questions become about how the ecological and social imperatives for sustaining human wellbeing are expressed through market exchange, and what the possibilities and limits of such exchange mechanisms are as a tool for sustainable development. The posts in this section are dedicated to a critical and realistic consideration of these issues.