A recent headline, “JCPenney Releases 2013 Sustainability Report,” reads like the punch line to a bad joke.  Apparently the struggling department store company, which is closing 33 underperforming stores and incurred a net loss of nearly $500 million in its last reported quarter, felt it was important to promote a report detailing its sustainability activities.  What JCPenney probably intended as a reassuring message about the company came off more like an effort to distract people from the realities of its fundamental business problems.