Sustainable Value Added

This book aims to advance the discussion on concepts such as value, wealth and richness, both from a country and a corporate perspective. Buying junk food, the consumption of legalized drugs such as tobacco, or even the compulsive purchasing of new models of smart phones, the second or third car bought by a city dweller or any other tangible property characterized by a short transient joy, compute positively in the GDP calculation. However, all of these have no, or almost non-existent, marginal utility, for the person who obtains them. The GDP approach does not consider the harmful effects on physical and mental health, on the environment, and the legacy to future generations that these consumptions bring about. At a corporate level, to secure a long-lasting achievement, companies must pay attention to the wide sphere of stakeholders relating to them - employees, customers, suppliers, financial partners, State, local authorities and public administration, natural environment and local communities - in addition to shareholders only. The validity of the corporate sustainable approach is empirically analyzed in this book through an analysis of a sample of European listed companies.

A small but influential group of mainstream global industry leaders are now reinventing the role of business in society. They are shifting the focus away from minimizing negative impacts to offering new solutions to global problems that the public sector has been unable to tackle alone. In this new competitive environment, societal challenges such as climate change or the alleviation of global poverty are not only risks, but huge business opportunities, not only for niche players, but for mainstream business. These leaders are creating "Sustainable Value". They are creating it through the provision of value to both their shareholders and their stakeholders – an ever-growing list of diverse constituents impacted by the social, environmental, and financial performance of global business. In short, they are doing well by doing good. In this outstanding book, Chris Laszlo defines, illustrates, and shows how business can action 'Sustainable Value' in three profoundly different ways. First, a management fable looks at the experiences of a dynamic business leader as she grapples with the new business realities of managing stakeholder, as well as shareholder pressures. Second, with the real thing – inside stories from some of the largest corporations in the world that are successfully integrating sustainability into their core activities, not only from a sense of moral correctness, but because it makes good business sense. And, finally, with frameworks, tools, and methods that will make sustainable value creation concrete for business practitioners everywhere. This book is a masterful synthesis – part novel and part executive briefing – a refreshing kind of prophetic pragmatism, helping leaders anticipate and see the future in the context of the actual. In Sustainable Value Chris Laszlo speaks with resounding clarity to the living challenges, the real dilemmas, and haunting questions of CEOs everywhere.

Sustainable value management reveals a new space for studying business models. The traditional approach is based on the assumption that the goal of any business is to make money. All decisions regarding supply and production should be made to maximize profit. The discrepancy in creating non-economic value is sometimes the result of separating ownership from control over an enterprise. Although shareholders are interested in maximizing profit, management that actually makes decisions can also pursue other goals. In addition to economic aspects, the management intentions of modern managers are also influenced by factors arising from the organizational culture built, co-created within the organization and sometimes with the participation of external actors such as suppliers and customers. The sources of the creation of social values will be the management intentions of top management, often initiated by the adopted values and rules on the basis of which resources are bound within the structure of the business model. The value of sustainability is based on the identification of those creative sources that relate to economic and social value. Economic value is created through social value and vice versa. This allows the complementarity of the value created to be mutually supportive. The business model that integrates both of these values should be more resistant to crises than the one that is oriented only toward producing economic value. Concurrent implementation of economic and social goals increases resilience and affects the success of modern business models. This is due to the specificity of the business ecosystem that is built as part of the business model, which, in essence, is based on the use of social factors to merge the business model into a complex ecosystem capable of producing value.

This book introduces the integrated management concept of "Sustainable Value Creation", which delivers sustainability ‘inside-out’ from the core business. It is based on the premise that sustainability can provide a platform for growth, if it is implemented in a company’s products, services and supply chains (combined also known as the 'Value Chain'). Managing the Value Chain from the outset with a sustainability mindset subsequently allows profitable economical, ecological and societal growth. It combines the need for increased sustainability and its implementation in the operations of a company. The book addresses the following issues: How do economic, environmental and societal factors impact the value-creation process of a company? What requirements and expectations need to be met to balance economic, ecologic and societal value creation? What are the building blocks and measures that can be utilized on the journey towards building a sustainable value chain? What benefits can be achieved through sustainable value chains? What are the practical examples of sustainable value chains in leading companies that can inspire others to follow? The book includes contributions from the following organisations and companies: Beiersdorf, SAP, Klenk und Hoursch, VAUDE, Infineon Technologies, Independent Capital Management, BASF, Nanogate, the Federal German Council for Sustainable Development, Henkel, Symrise, shared.value.chain, Siemens, Fairphone and Thin Air Factory

The goal of this book is to define Sustainable Value Creation in terms of a set of principles that differentiate it from existing definitions of CSR, and from related concepts such as sustainability and business ethics. To internalize these ten principles is to understand how the firm can respond to stakeholder needs to optimize value creation over the medium to long term. Ultimately, this second edition book aims to reform both business practice and business education. By building a theory that redefines CSR as central to the value creation process, the ten principles of Sustainable Value Creation redefine how firms approach each of their operational functions, but also how these subjects should be taught in universities worldwide. As such, this book will hopefully be of value to instructors as a complement to their teaching, students as a guide in their education, and managers as a framework to help them respond to the complex, dynamic context that they are expected to navigate every day. This book is a manifesto for success in today’s complex, dynamic business environment. The book is designed as an easy-to-digest, critical introductory text to CSR. With supporting online teaching resources, it is aimed primarily at the MBA and Executive MBA market, and for CSR, sustainability, and business ethics courses taught by instructors skeptical of existing definitions and organizing principles of CSR, sustainability, or business ethics.

This edited book discusses various processes of feedstocks bioconversion such as bioconversion of food waste, human manure, industrial waste, beverage waste, kitchen waste, organic waste, fruit and vegetable, poultry waste, solid waste, agro-industrial waste, cow dung, steroid, lignocellulosic residue, biomass, natural gas etc. Nowadays, the industrial revolution and urbanization have made human life comfortable. However, this requires excess usage of natural resources starting from food and food products, to energy resources, materials as well as chemicals. The excess use of natural resources for human comfort is expected to high fuel prices, decline natural resources as well as cause a huge hike in the cost of raw materials. These factors are pushing researchers to grow environmentally friendly processes and techniques based on inexpensive and sustainable feedstock to accomplish such worldwide targets. Bioconversion, otherwise called biotransformation, is the change of natural materials, for example, plant or animal waste, into usable items or energy sources by microorganisms. Bioconversion is an environmentally friendly benevolent choice to supplant the well-established chemical procedures utilized these days for the production of chemicals and fuels. A variety of alternatives advancements are being considered and are directly accessible to acquire diverse valuable end-products through bioprocesses. This book discusses in detail the process and techniques of bioconversion by focusing on the organic feedstock of animal and plant origin. It brings solutions to the bioconversion of various feedstock into value-added products.