The industrial processes in use today were developed at a time when no one had to consider what the environmental impact was. Who cared? But making ecological concerns matter to a company’s bottom line will help it do the research and development that will reinvent everything we buy.

Goleman contrasts the historical origins of modern industry—built in an era when pollution and resource depletion were treated as externalities—with today’s need to internalize environmental costs. The blunt “Who cared?” underscores how little incentive firms once had to measure ecological harm. His argument is pragmatic rather than purely moral: if environmental impacts affect profitability (through regulation, consumer demand, pricing of carbon, supply-chain risk, or reputational costs), companies will fund the innovation needed to redesign products and processes. The quote frames sustainability as a driver of R&D and systemic redesign, suggesting that market signals and accounting practices can accelerate a broad reinvention of what and how we manufacture and consume.