Because many of us are captivated by the extraordinary goings-on in Washington, on Wall Street and in the presidential campaign, it’s easy to overlook everything else that’s happening in the world of business. But an unusual bi-coastal alliance between GE and Google caught my attention last week, and so it is the topic of my latest Sustainability column at fortune.com and cnnmoney.com. GE and Google don’t have a lot in common, but the industrial giant and the Internet powerhouse share an interest in renewable energy. So they have come together to lobby for a so-called smart electricity grid and to collaborate, albeit in an unspecified way, in research into geothermal energy. Here’s how the column begins: When companies as savvy and as important as General Electric and

Since returning from the Beijing Olympics last month, Hank Paulson has been a nonstop crisis manager. (I don’t think he’s had a day off.) But when we spoke back in August, and again a couple of weeks ago, we spent some time talking about a couple of his long-term passions: China and climate change. Paulson’s take on China and climate are the topic of today’s Sustainability column. These issues will matter when Wall Street settles down—as it will one day, although probably not anytime soon. Here’s how the column begins: Treasury Secretary Hank Paulson has careened from crisis to crisis lately, backing the Bear Stearns rescue, engineering the government takeover of Fannie Mae, refusing to commit taxpayer money to save Lehman Brothers, and Friday announcing a massive

What an incredible time on Wall Street. I’m no expert on the markets, so please don’t ask me how and when the tumult will end. But I’ve spent some time lately with treasury secretary Hank Paulson, and some of his key people, so I can offer some insight into how the former Goldman Sachs CEO is approaching the toughest challenge of his career. The cover story in the current issue of FORTUNE is my profile of Paulson, called The Power of Paulson. You will hear debate about whether Paulson has made the right moves this year—brokering the sale of Bear Stearns, taking over Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, refusing to bailout Lehman Brothers. It all seems ad hoc and in a sense it is—there is no formula for dealing with a crisis like this one. But I came away from my time with Paulson

CEO Neville Isdell is an environmentalist, but making The Coca-Cola Co. sustainable is harder than it looks.