Should the polluter always pay? In the latest blog post as part of The B Team's 'Plan B for Business' series being produced in partnership with Huffington Post, Matthew Agarwala describes a classic economic externality in the form of downstream pollution from farms and livestock effecting the water supply.

Here, Agarwala disputes the classic 'polluter pays' solution, arguing instead, that a 'payments for ecosystem services' or PES scheme is much more effective at solving the problem. Though somewhat contentious, he describes a scenario in which water treatment companies opened competitive bids for upstream polluters, offering a sum of money to pay for the best solutions to reducing pollution.

While counterintuitive, the case illustrates a business case for actually paying a polluter to address pollution, and found a solution that was a win for people, planet and profit.

To read the full post click here.

This blog post is part of a series produced by The Huffington Post and The B Team community to help articulate a Plan B for Business. To see other posts in the series, click here.