The World Economic Forum ranking--I want to be very even-handed about this--much to my chagrin, didn't take environmental sustainability into account as one of the indices in ranking the countries on their competitiveness. Of course, in the OECD ranking we did late last year, we took environmental performance into account. But the fact that eight countries finished well ahead of Canada in both the competitive ranking and the environmental ranking shows at a minimum that the two are not mutually exclusive. You can do well by the bottom line, by the pocketbook, and you can do well by your citizens and the natural geography of your country.
It may well be, as we assert at the Suzuki Foundation, that there's a positive relationship between environmental responsibility and economic competitiveness. That's born of the fact that you use your resources more efficiently if you're operating in an environmentally sustainable manner. Efficiency always helps businesses thrive, if not in the very short term, certainly in the medium and long terms. So that's probably one of the biggest payoffs if you look beyond the very short term.
You also tend to attract good workers from within your country and around the world. There are these rankings of best places to work and live. You attract that kind of thing, and you maintain a healthy, fit, high quality of life workforce and citizenry. Those are probably some of the first things that come to mind right now on the co-benefits there.