Profit vs. Progress: An inside look at the failure of sustainable finance
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Wall Street promises that sustainable finance can make the world better while making investors rich. But in reality, "doing well by doing good" is a myth.
A new book by an insider pulls aside the curtain.
Profit vs. Progress, to be published by MIT Press in March 2026, shows that socially responsible investing fails to live up to its name-- despite attracting trillions of dollars from credulous investors.
The sustainable finance industry flourishes by selling the dream of having it all. But when it comes to real social progress -- slowing climate change or easing the hardship that blights the lives of billions -- sustainable finance doesn't deliver.
The book points out that finance has the potential to make businesses more sustainable -- without blunting their competitive edge. But if we want the game to generate more corporate social responsibility, we will have to revise the rules.
"A devastating takedown of [sustainable] investing"
"An invaluable critique of the failure of the social investing model"
"Show[s] how we can do better "
See more endorsements here
Profit vs. Progress: Why Socially Responsible Investment Doesn’t Work and How to Fix It
will be published on 24 March 2026 by MIT Press.
Pre-order it here
The author knows the social finance industry from the inside out
Brad Swanson has made and directly managed over $100 million in private equity investments in sustainable businesses in developing countries for more than two decades.
He is also a former diplomat and a current adjunct finance professor.
A brief personal history is here
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