Walking through New York, I wasn't the only one feeling nervous as Air Force One, the president's plane, skimmed the city skyline, sending financial district workers scurrying for the exits. Barack Obama apologised later, but whoever was responsible, the sights and sounds reminded me of the first World Economic Forum annual summit held in New York in the aftermath of 9/11. Unsurprisingly, many who turned up there in January 2002 were too disorientated to pay much attention to broader sustainability issues and many are now back in that space again.

Now there's a new distraction: if the downturn continues for a protracted period, as I suspect it will, corporate accountability, responsibility and sustainability initiatives will be squeezed; budgets will be cut; and departments slimmed, merged or shuttered. But the reason I was in the Big Apple this time underscored the fact that some global companies are engaging the great issues of our day in a more integrated fashion.

Across the street from the UN, Nestlé was holding the first meeting of its new creating shared value (CSV) advisory board, where I found myself alongside the likes of professors Michael Porter, CK Prahalad and Jeffrey Sachs. Our remit? To help guide Nestlé's rollout of the CSV approach that Porter and his colleague, Mark Kramer, trailed in the Harvard Business Review in 2006. As we re-convened the following day for a webcast public forum, to open out the debate, the spread of swine fever from Mexico was on many minds, with speculation as to which market sectors would be hardest hit.

Whether spooked by the credit crunch or potential pandemics, the herd mentality of markets is inescapable. So I was fascinated to learn that Nestlé has long avoided stockmarkets that focus on quarterly earnings, arguing that creating real long-term value requires the vision, leadership and risk-taking that can get you pummelled on Wall Street. So after Air Force One quit the skies and the analysts were back at their desks, I hope some of them tuned in to the CSV webcast. It might have expanded their painfully constrained horizons.

John Elkington is co-founder of Volans. His latest publication is The Phoenix Economy: 50 Pioneers in the Business of Social Innovation