We are in the midst of profound political, economic and environmental change. The complexity of operating a business amidst these challenges is greater than ever. Businesses have been challenged by the credit crisis, energy supply and price fluctuations, increased requirements for product stewardship and end-of-life management, concern over climate change and adaptation strategies, carbon mitigation and management, managing water and other resources in a natural resource constrained world, managing security and sustainable development.
These challenges are directly affecting business strategy, product development and consumer preferences for more sustainable (“green”) products and services. We see a global transformation in how corporations are responding to these challenges, while building stronger brands, stronger operations and stronger bottom lines. Whether you are a newcomer to the “green movement”, or a “true blue” early adopter, there are many new and old books that are excellent additions to your growing library. Here are ten books to add to your holiday gift list for the business sustainability guru in your life:
1. Hot, Flat, and Crowded – Why we Need a Green Revolution – And How it Can Renew America by Thomas L. Friedman. Building upon his brand
and success as an author and global strategists, Friedman now introduces us to Hot, Flat, and Crowded examining how America can recapture its greatness in ingenuity, innovation and economic vibrancy through the creation of green collar workforce, greater investment in alternative energy and newfound respect for energy conservation and management.2. Strategies for the Green Economy by Joel Makower. In Strategies for the Green Economy, Joel Makower distills his more than twenty years of watching the green business scene and offers insights and inspiration for understanding and untangling the complexities and controversies of profiting in the growing green economy.
3. Green to Gold: How Smart Companies Use Environmental Strategy to Innovate, Create Value, and Build Competitive Advantage by Daniel C. Esty and Andrew S. Winston. In Green to Gold Esty and Winston bring to life the notion of a “Green Wave” that is cresting and carrying with it, some of the largest corporations in the world. Green to Gold highlight the drivers, like climate change, resource constraints in a global economy, and natural resource management issues including fisheries, forests and fauna that are impacting how corporate boardrooms are thinking about, creating policy around, and addressing these classical business challenges.
4. Outliers – The Story of Success by Malcolm Gladwell. The autho
r of the bestselling books “Blink” and “The Tipping Point” brings us the story of Outliers, seemingly ordinary people that through unique circumstances in their upbringing and culture, have gone on to do great things and bring much success to their lives. The book is an easy read, engaging and thoughtful. It makes one think of all of the intricate influences on a persons life, and how seemingly small things, like when you were born or where your ancestry dates back to hundreds of years ago, can have enormous impact on your success as an individual. Outliers makes me think of the evolving green revolution and the many firms that have found very early success through their own commitment to social responsibility because it is part of the fabric of their business values, philosophy and strategy. Firms like Green Mountain Coffee, Patagonia, Nike, Apple, Starbuck’s and HP exhibit elements of this “outlier” philosophy. Some continue to harness that in their business growth; while others seemingly heed to their corporate bureaucracy. I see with innovative firms, more the “outlier” philosophy still embedded in their culture.5. The Green Collar Economy: How One Solution Can Fix Our Two Biggest Problems by Van Jones. Published in 2008, political advisor and social activist Van Jones uses the power of storytelling in The Green Collar Economy to offer another side to our current worldly woes involving the economy and the environment. Some have referenced Jones book as a prescription for a sustainability stimulus package that addressed economic and environmental challenges in our modern society.
6. Blessed Unrest: How the Largest Social Movement in History Is Restoring Grace, Justice, and Beauty to the World by Paul Hawken. Published in 2008, Blessed Unrest provides a history perspective behind the social justice movement and how modern environmental and social
issues will be influenced largely from a bottoms up movement involving billions of people.7. Biomimicry: Innovation Inspired by Nature by Janine M. Benyus. I will confess, I have not yet read Janine Benyus’ book Biomimicry. It was released a decade ago in 1998, yet it will be, in my view, one of these lasting books because of its profound ability to entertain, delight and inspire. Biomimicry is essentially the ability to look toward nature as the ultimate innovator. In nature we can find solutions to our own challenges with waste, better utilization of natural resources, security and sustainability. Benyus has inspired an entire generation of “Biomimics” and many in the design, engineering and building professions have used principles of biomimicry in their work since this book launched.
8. Cradle to Cradle: Remaking the Way we Make Things by William McDonough & Michael Braungart. Another classical book (published in 2002), Cradle to Cradle was and remains one of the launching pads for the McDonough revolution. In Cradle to Cradle McDonough and Braungart examine the flawed logic behind doing business as usual in a post-industrialized nation. They present how numerous unintended consequences have emerged from our machines and industrial society, many which can be avoided in the future and minimized with new thinking and nature inspired design.
9. World Inc.: When It Comes to Solutions — Both Local and Global — Businesses Are Now More Powerful Than Government by Bruce Piasecki. Published in April 2007, World Inc. was Bruce Piasecki’s sixth book. Some of his notable other works include “Corporate Environmental Strategy: The Avalanche of Change Since Bhopal” and “In Search of Environmental Excellence: Moving Beyond Blame”. World Inc. introduces the concept of “social response product development” and “social response capitalism”. Piasecki examines how the largest economies of the world are now corporations, not nation states, and how corporations are shaping a better world through an advanced form of capitalism, social response capitalism. World Inc. also digs deeper than many similar books on the financial and money side of sustainability, offering insights into how companies are evaluated by rating agencies for superior environmental and social performance and why these indicators are transforming company values and strategies from the boardroom to the shop floor. In a time when economic crisis has taken center stage, World Inc. offers both example and solution for companies to design/innovate new products and offer society and shareholders greater return on their investment. For those interested in having a social and business history on the transformation of business as well as an “insiders” account of how large multinational firms are redirecting their products and services toward an advanced form of capitalism, World Inc. is a welcome
d read.10. Small is Beautiful: Economics as if People Mattered by E.F. Schumacher. First published in 1973, the book Small is Beautiful is a collection of essays by British economist E.F. Schumacher. The book was published on the eve of the 1973 energy crisis as well as the emergence of globalization. Schumacher frames the modern economy (some forty years ago) as unsustainable based upon its pricing, valuation and consumptive use of natural resources. The E.F. Schumacher Society was founded in 1980. Its programs demonstrate that both social and environmental sustainability can be achieved by applying the values of human-scale communities and respect for the natural environment to economic issues. Small is Beautiful is a great addition to anyone’s library.
The ten selections above are great resources for providing context, insight and new ideas in this time of tumultuous challenge and change. We hope you enjoy these selections this holiday season.
Mark C. Coleman
Senior Associate & World Inc. Case Leader, AHC Group, Inc.
Mark@ahcgroup.com
Want to get real about the future of energy, natural resources and capitalism, go to www.ahcgroup.com and www.worldincbook.com to learn more on how leading companies are reinventing the future of business through social response product development and social response capitalism.
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