Innovation In Environmental Leadership

Innovation in Environmental Leadership offers innovative approaches to leadership from a post-industrial and ecological vantage point. Chapters in this collection are written by leading scholars and practitioners of environmental leadership from around the globe, and are informed by a variety of critical perspectives, including post-heroic approaches, systems thinking, and the emerging insights of Critical Leadership Studies (CLS). By taking the natural environment seriously as a foundational context for leadership, Innovation in Environmental Leadership offers fresh insights and compelling visions of leadership pertinent to 21st century environmental and social challenges. Concepts and understandings of leadership emerged as part of an extractive industrial system; this work asks its readers to re-think what leadership looks like in an ecologically sustainable biological system. This book provides fresh insights and critical perspectives on the vibrant and growing field of environmental leadership. It shows the latest state of knowledge on the topic and will be of interest both to students at an advanced level, academics and reflective practitioners. It addresses the topics with regard to leadership theory and environmental leadership and will be of interest to researchers, academics, and students in the fields of sustainability, environmental ethics, natural resource management, environmental studies, business management, public policy, and environmental management.

As a result of global dynamics—the increasing interconnection of people and places—innovations in global environmental governance haved altered the role of cities in shaping the future of the planet. This book is a timely study of the importance of these social transformations in our increasingly global and increasingly urban world. Through analysis of transnational municipal networks, such as Metropolis and the C40 Cities Climate Leadership Group, Sofie Bouteligier's innovative study examines theories of the network society and global cities from a global ecology perspective. Through direct observation and interviews and using two types of city networks that have been treated separately in the literature, she discovers the structure and logic pertaining to office networks of environmental non-governmental organizations and environmental consultancy firms. In doing so she incisively demonstrates the ways in which cities fulfill the role of strategic sites of global environmental governance, concentrating knowledge, infrastructure, and institutions vital to the function of transnational actors.

The need for environmental leadership - the ability to cause and guide positive change toward a better future - has never been greater. While some may claim that leaders are born, not made, this book shows that leadership can be learned, and that overt leadership preparation should be made an integral part of professional education and experience. Environmental Leadership captures an approach to teaching leadership skills that has been used successfully at the Yale School of Forestry and Environmental Studies - one of the nation's leading environmental studies programs. It contains a series of personal accounts by a diverse array of successful environmental leaders who discuss their path to leadership, the skills they found useful, and their view of the characteristics and contexts that are important to environmental leadership. By presenting the personal stories of numerous leaders and encouraging them to describe their experiences, the editors demonstrate what they consider to be the soul of environmental leadership - the incredible breadth of both the responses and challenges that environmental leaders face. Environmental Leadership is an important resource for all environmental professionals who seek better stewardship of our environment and natural resources.

Part of the SAGE Reference Series on Leadership, this 2-volume set tackles issues relevant to leadership in the realm of the environment and sustainability. Volume 1 of Environmental Leadership: A Reference Handbook considers such topics as environmental thought leadership (environmental ethics, conservation, eco-feminism, collective action and the commons and what we have termed contrarians); political leadership (the environmental challenge context for the expression of political leadership); governmental leadership (government initiatives to provide leadership in environmental management); private sector leadership (private sector leadership in environmental management as individuals, through organizations or through specific initiatives); nonprofit leadership (nonprofit sector leadership in topical areas such as conservation, advocacy, philanthropy and economic development); signaling events (events and their impact on the exercise of environmental leadership through individual, political and organizational actions); grassroots activism (profiles of individual environmental activists and considerations of how environmental leadership is exercised through activism); environmental leadership in journalism, literature and the arts; and environmental leadership in education. In Volume 2 we cover topics that confront the particular intractable characteristics of environmental problem solving. Individual chapters focus on how environmental leadership actions or initiatives may be applied to address specific problems in context, offering both analyses and recommendations. Overarching themes in this volume include taking action in the face of uncertainty (mitigating climate change impacts, adapting to climate change, protecting coastal ecosystems, protecting wetlands and estuaries, preserving forest resources, protecting critical aquifers, preventing the spread of invasive species, and identifying and conserving vital global habitats); promoting international cooperation in the face of conflicting agendas (designing and implementing climate change policy, reconciling species protection and free trade, allocating scarce resources, designing sustainable fisheries, addressing global overpopulation, preventing trade in endangered species, conserving global biodiversity, and mitigating ocean debris and pollution); addressing conflicts between economic progress and environmental protection (preserving open space, redesigning cities, promoting ecotourism, redeveloping brownfields, designing transit-oriented development, confronting impacts of factory farming, preventing non-point source agricultural pollution, confronting agricultural water use, addressing the impacts of agrochemicals, designing sustainable food systems, and valuing ecosystem services); addressing complex management challenges (energy efficiency, solar energy, wind energy, hydrogen economy, alternative vehicles, solid waste disposal, hazardous waste disposal, electronic waste disposal, life cycle analysis, and waste to energy); and addressing disproportionate impacts on the poor and the weak (preventing export of developed world waste to developing countries, minimizing co-location of poverty and polluting industries, protecting the rights of indigenous peoples, preventing environmental disease, protecting children's health, providing universal access to potable water, and protecting environmental refugees). The final three chapters examine next-generation environmental leaders.

This reference handbook tackles issues relevant to leadership in the realm of the environment and sustainability.

This book deals with the main challenges of sustainable development and the role of sustainable business and corporate social responsibility in implementing these challenges through sustainable leadership and innovations. It includes the economic, social, and environmental dimensions of sustainability and emphasizes the importance of achieving a socio-environmental balance in society. The theoretical frameworks and insights from sustainable development implementations on macro and micro levels, as well as the practical examples and case studies provided to introduce the concept of sustainable leadership and its impact on sustainable business development, are a scientific novelty in the field of sustainability. The book is comprised of six interconnected chapters that sequentially reveal the principal provisions of sustainable development, corporate social responsibility, and sustainable leadership, together with their correlations. Features: Provides cutting-edge examples and case studies of sustainable leadership, viewed as the most significant means for the creation of sustainable organizational culture Includes case studies on the economic, social, and environmental dimensions of sustainability Addresses scientific aspects of sustainable development and its challenges Discusses issues of sustainable development at different scales, ranging from macro to mirco levels Provides policy implications for sustainable business development The theoretical framework and practical case studies presented in Sustainable Development, Leadership, and Innovations make it an invaluable resource and guide to both the academic and business communities. Business leaders, policy makers, and other professionals, as well as academics and graduate students, will all benefit greatly from this text.

The links between a firm's competitiveness and the natural environment have been studied since the mid 90's. This volume explores, both theoretically and empirically, the relationships between environmental product innovation, green image and firm performance.

The debate on sustainable production often ends in discussions on the feasibility of far-reaching changes in relation to the competitiveness of companies. Industry itself and policy-makers tend to back away from engaging in profound processes of industrial transformation. Examples of companies who have voluntarily moved beyond what is seen as 'reasonable' and 'feasible' can overcome this deadlock. This book collects a fine sample of companies who have taken up their responsibility in this respect. To quote the editors of this book: "They are cases that might provide other firms and policy-makers with ideas for innovative environmental responses that are outside the slowly rising trend of improvement that we are currently observing: in short, the cases are of firms and ideas that are ahead of the curve". The editors and many of the authors of this volume are members of the Greening of Industry Network and have been debating with one another for years. Founded in 1991, the Greening of Industry Network comprises over 1500 individuals representing academia, business, public interest, labor and government from more than 50 countries. Participants work together to build policies and strategies toward creating a sustainable future through many vehicles -- coordinating research efforts, publications, planning and participating in workshops, public forums and conferences. To provide benefit to broader society, the Network stimulates public dialogue and brings together academic researchers from many disciplines with other stakeholders who traditionally do not work together in coalitions.