Mark Tercek

Can you explain what, exactly, is the Goldman Sachs Center for Environmental Markets and a little bit about your role as its managing director?

We partner with think tanks and academic institutions to explore opportunities where great environmental thinking can be brought in touch with businesses to make progress in tackling big environmental problems.

When did your company adopt environmental policies?

We published an environmental policy framework in November of 2005. We don't want to preach and we don't want a halo for what we are doing—we just want to get each of our businesses focused on environmental matters. The idea is to take our global network and global capabilities and apply them to environmental problems. We hope we can do some good by doing that, but we also think it's very good for our business.

What were you doing before?

My background is as an investment banker. I was asked to take on this job because we thought that given our strategy of getting our businesses focused on the problem, somebody with a business background would be best suited to drive this effort.

Did you ever have a moment when you didn't think it was going to work?

I had a lot of hesitancy and wondered whether business people would really embrace this kind of initiative. But we've encountered very little opposition. People get it.

Was there a moment when you knew it was going to work?

There were lots of small things that happened day in and day out that made us conclude that this is a smart thing to do. We’re not alone—many companies now have environmental programs and we think it’s a positive trend among businesses.

What was the last really difficult decision you had to make where your business interests conflicted with your environmental policies?

I thought I would run into a lot of opposition to our environmental program. To the contrary, people get it and have been really supportive. We always advise our corporate clients that they should expect the same receptivity should they launch comparable programs.

Where do corporations figure in the debate around social responsibility and who is the standard-bearer?

Corporate social responsibility seems to be changing. In the past it was more of a philanthropic effort. But what we're excited about at Goldman Sachs, and we are not alone, is more than viewing corporate social responsibility as philanthropy is about rallying employees and resources in the way you do your business. What's exciting about corporate social responsibility is that it's very consistent with running your business well. If you look at what Wal-Mart is doing on the environmental front, it's very impressive. Every time they launch a new environmental initiative, it seems to also be good for their bottom line.

What does "green" mean to you?

For business, it's about being aware of your own environmental footprint and being smart about environmental opportunities as well as environmental liabilities. The second thing is take a good look at your environmental footprint—most companies that do that find there are ways to be more environmentally sound and it usually saves you a lot of money and lets you run your business better. Most companies will find many opportunities to be green—both environmentally green and dollars and sense green.

Can you tell us a little about the new World Headquarters you're building in Manhattan?

We're building it downtown, across from the World Trade Center site. It will be a LEED certified building. [The Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) Green Building Rating System, developed by the U.S. Green Building Council, provides a list of standards used for environmentally sustainable construction.] We've basically found that as we make it sounder from an environmental perspective, it makes it a more comfortable and also cost-efficient building.

There's a lot of trendiness right now in going green. What do you make of that trend?

We think it's great. Companies watch one another and they're seeing peer companies do smart things on the environmental front and it accumulates and builds momentum in a very constructive way. It might look like trendiness, but more companies are doing more things and that we think it’s a very positive trend.