Profits And Sustainability

Today we imagine green business to be a new thing. This book shows that it is not, and that there were green entrepreneurs who had huge concerns about environmental sustainability, and built businesses that they hoped could address these issues, including Whole Foods Market, Aveda, and The Body Shop, among others.

Are profits and sustainability compatible? This book brings unique perspectives to this key debate by exploring the history of green entrepreneurship since the nineteenth century, and its spread globally in industries including renewable energy, organic food, natural beauty, ecotourism, recycling, architecture, and finance. The book uses the lens of the extraordinary and often eccentric men and women who defied convention and imagined that business could help save the planet, rather than consume it. The social and religious beliefs that drove many of these individuals are explored as the book looks at how they overcame huge obstacles to execute their strategies. The green entrepreneurs seen here are shown to have created new markets and industries, and driven innovations in sustainable practices, even at times when most consumers and governments marginalized the entire subject. The struggles of early pioneers appear to have been rewarded by the growth of environmental awareness among consumers, business leaders, and others in recent years, but the Earth's environmental health continues to deteriorate. If profits and sustainability have proved challenging to reconcile, the book argues that one reason was how they were both defined.

Social and environmental issues are more important than ever and consumers are committed to supporting change. 'Doing good' is no longer a peripheral activity but fundamental to every aspect of how we do business, every day, for everyone. People, Planet, Profit is the first book to truly address business growth in the context of social and environmental concerns. It's a practical guide to new business opportunity, operational improvement and competitive advantage. Full of inspiring case studies, it looks at the challenges faced by key players such as Google, Microsoft, Apple, Nokia, Nike, Amazon, M&S and Walmart. With plenty of comments from industry insiders, it's essential reading for CEOs and business managers who are searching for new ways to create value, to make sense of business in a rapidly shifting landscape, and to deliver profitable growth whilst also doing "the right thing".

Things that are good for the planet are also good for business. Numerous studies from the likes of the Economist Intelligence Unit, Harvard, MIT Sloan, and others indicate that organizations that commit to goals of zero waste, zero harmful emissions, and zero use of nonrenewable resources clearly outperform their competition.Like lean thinking, gre

Smart sustainability strategies to benefit the bottom line.

Many companies recognize the importance of corporate social responsibility, but seek to understand how this can be harmonized with current profitability. This new approach draws upon many contemporary examples to show how to balance short term profitability with long term sustainability.

The value chain is the tried and true foundation of any profitable business.Sustainability Decoded is a no-nonsense business book that shows you how to increase profits by integrating sustainability into your company's value chain. This practical guide provides innovative tools and approaches for adding value at each station, including: Sustainability Matrix Decision Tool for Codes of Conduct; Triple Bottom Line Short Form; Eco-Label Graphic Matrix; Sustainability Ratio Guide; Life Cycle Analysis Grid; Local-Global Scorecard; the Redesign Card; the Green IT Checklist; the Balanced Scorecard for Life; the Biomimcry Backwards Forwards Tool.Sustainability Decoded provides a profitable means to practice sustainability. It is as useful to the non-business person who needs a quick guide to the practicalities and principles of adding value right across business processes as it is to the seasoned business professional looking for practical and profitable inspiration from sustainability. Includes case studies on Patagonia, and One PacificCoast Bank.

The Business of Less rewrites the book on business and the environment. For the last thirty years, corporate sustainability was synonymous with the pursuit of ‘eco-efficiency’ and ‘win-win’ opportunities. The notion of ‘eco-efficiency’ gives us the illusion that we can achieve environmental sustainability without having to question the pursuit of never-ending economic growth. The ‘win-win’ paradigm is meant to assure us that companies can be protectors of the environment whilst also being profit maximizers. It is abundantly clear that the state of the natural environment has further degraded instead of improved. This book introduces a new paradigm designed to finally reconcile business and the environment. It is called ‘net green’, which means that in these times of ecological overshoot businesses need to reduce total environmental impact and not just improve the eco-efficiency of their products. The book also introduces and explains the four pollution prevention principles ‘again’, ‘different’, ‘less’, and ‘labor, not materials’. Together, ‘net green’ and the four pollution prevention principles provide a road map, for businesses and for every household, to a world in which human prosperity and a healthy environment are no longer at odds. The Business of Less is full of anecdotes and examples. This brings its material to life and makes the book not only very accessible, but also hugely applicable for everyone who is worried about the fate of our planet and is looking for answers.