The environmental debate is changing. Yesterday’s debate was all about living simpler, more basic lives, banning foreign holidays and beating up the market economy. But today, more environmentalists are recognising the importance of business and economic vitality in promoting good environmental ends.

This change is starting to materialise in Brussels. I was pleased when recently one of the environmentalist movement’s top Brussels lobbyists handed me a book. It wasn’t a copy of The Limits of Growth - the infamous 1970s doomsday book. It was a copy of Green to Gold: how smart companies use environmental strategy to innovate, create value, and build competitive advantage.

I haven’t read it fully yet, but basically it explains how forward-looking companies can both do good things for the environment and in so doing also benefit the bottom line. Great stuff. The authors have a website and blog here.