Russian prime minister Vladimir Putin and China's premier, Wen Jiabao, had fun in Davos earlier this year, needling American delegates for what Wen dubbed their "blind pursuit of profit", aggravated by an "unsustainable model of development characterised by prolonged low savings and high consumption". He called for "a new economic order that is just, equitable, sound and stable". He didn't say sustainable, which was a relief after a financial sector conference I had attended in Zurich, where bankers and investors couldn't stop using the "S word".

This reflected a key conclusion of the latest corporate sustainability survey produced by Sustainable Asset Management (SAM) and launched at the event. This year, 367 companies from 57 sectors are ranked as gold, silver or bronze players. Sadly, there is no brass or lead category.

When the survey began in 1999, the adoption of triple bottom line-thinking and practice was driven by regulatory and corporate governance requirements. By contrast, business leaders now embrace corporate sustainability as a source of competitive advantage.

As the SAM report noted: "Management realises that the implementation of sustainability practices helps mitigate risks and seize opportunities arising from economic, social and environmental trends."

The forecast is that within the next decade, 15 to 20 per cent—or more than $26trn (£18trn)—of assets under management will be screened this way, although the criteria will vary between sectors. Energy firms are already rated in terms of the percentage of revenues coming from renewable sources, IT businesses on contributions to bridging the digital divide and pharmaceutical companies on what they are doing to ensure access to drugs in developing nations.

But what excites SAM is the evidence that sustainability leaders have outperformed the laggards over a seven-year period. And this outperformance persists in both bull and bear markets. Clearly, there's an advantage to be had, in terms of consistent, sustained outperformance in the value of managed investments. Something is stirring that could yet turn the tables on Putin and Wen. A new economic model is struggling to be born.

John Elkington's latest book, The Power of Unreasonable People: How Social Entrepreneurs Create Markets That Change the World, is published by Harvard Business School Press