Last fall, I was teaching a business ethics course at the American University of Beirut and explaining the ‘double bottom line,’ the concept that in modern business, a healthy bottom line must also include a firm commitment to corporate social responsibility and corporate governance. Two of my students, Omar Touma and Linda Sawaya, asked me how Executive could call itself a responsible company, and presumably claim to have a double bottom line, when it prints 25,000 copies of a magazine every month. They had a point. So much so that Executive immediately set about improving its green profile. We started by only sourcing paper made from wood grown in sustained forests, while internally we began recycling. But it still wasn’t enough. We still felt we were falling short of being on good terms with our carbon footprint. It was only back in the classroom this spring, this time teaching strategic
