Practical Sustainability Strategies (eBook)

How to Gain a Competitive Advantage

Nikos Avlonas, George P. Nassos (Autoren)

eBook Download: EPUB

2013 | 1. Auflage
328 Seiten
Wiley (Verlag)
978-1-118-78737-3 (ISBN)

Infos

Strategies that enable organizations to succeed as businesses and as responsible corporate citizens Based on the authors' many years of research and hands-on experience, this book provides tested and proven practical strategies that make it possible for organizations to develop, maintain, or extend their competitive advantage without causing harm to the environment and society. Moreover, it explains how to set goals and objectives and then monitor, measure, and report on progress towards achieving corporate social responsibility and environmental sustainability. Most importantly, readers will discover that this can all be accomplished while, at the same time, improving bottom-line profitability. Practical Sustainability Strategies: How to Gain a Competitive Advantage is divided into four parts: Part 1, Introduction to Sustainability, underscores the urgency for organizations to adopt and develop sustainable practices Part 2, Sustainable Strategies, details numerous strategies that have been proven to work, including environmental innovation through biomimicry, green buildings, and green chemistry Part 3, Tools and Metrics, offers practical information on implementing strategies and measuring sustainability and reporting, including global standards and guidelines for managing sustainability, life-cycle analysis, carbon and water footprints such as GRI, GHG Protocol, UN Global Compact Part 4, Conclusion, provides an expert forecast of the future of sustainability Case studies based on the authors' research and fieldwork illustrate how leading companies have implemented each of the sustainability strategies discussed in the book. There's also an appendix with additional case studies exploring various aspects of business practices and sustainability. Practical Sustainability Strategies is ideal as a graduate textbook as well as a reference for business managers. All readers will not only gain a greater appreciation for sustainable development, but also the skills needed to integrate sustainability into all aspects of their organization's business practices.

Autor

NIKOS AVLONAS is founder and President of the Centre forSustainability and Excellence (CSE), a global advisory and trainingorganization active in more than twenty-five countries. He has beendistinguished as one of the "Top 100 Thought Leaders in TrustworthyBusiness Behavior" by Trust Across America. He is a well-knowninternational educator and sustainability advisor in Fortune 500companies in North America, Europe, the Middle East, and Asia. GEORGE P. NASSOS, PhD, is Principal of George P. Nassos& Associates, a consulting company dedicated to renewableenergy and environmental sustainability and also leads SustainableEnergy Systems, which markets a new waste-to-energy technology.After thirty-two years as a corporate executive in the chemical andenvironmental industries, Dr. Nassos entered academia for the nextfourteen years as the Director of the Master of Science inEnvironmental Management and Sustainability program at the StuartSchool of Business of the Illinois Institute of Technology, whereit gained recognition as one of the best such programs in theworld.

Inhalt

Preface xiii

PART 1 INTRODUCTION TO SUSTAINABILITY 1

1. Urgency to Adopt Sustainability 3

2. Development of the Sustainability Concept and CSR 17

PART 2 SUSTAINABILITY STRATEGIES 25

3. The CERES and Other Principles 27

4. The Natural Step 39

5. Eco-effective Versus Eco-efficient: Sustainability Versus Being "Less Bad" 55

6. Extended Product Responsibility and "Servicizing" 65

7. Systems Thinking Leads to "Tunneling Through the Cost Barrier" 79

8. E nvironmental Innovation Through Biomimicry 89

9. Base of the Pyramid 107

10. Sustaining Fisheries 119

11. Environmentally Effective Buildings 131

12. Green Chemistry, Nanotechnology, and "Big Hairy Audacious Goal" 145

13. Sustainable Strategies and Beyond 159

PART 3 TOOLS AND METRICS 161

14. Standards and Guidelines for Managing Corporate Social Responsibility towards Sustainability 163

15. The Corporation and Its Stakeholders 177

16. Sustainability Reporting 189

17. Metrics for Sustainability 199

18. Life Cycle Analysis and Carbon Footprint 217

19. Water Footprint 227

20. Green Marketing, Communication, and Greenwashing 235

Part 4 Conclusion 247

21. Epilogue: Where Do We Go Now? 249

References 251

Appendix Additional Case Studies for a Practical Understanding of Sustainability 253

Index 291

Rezensionen

"Sustainability is now part of the lingo for most corporationsand business school. Yet, the practical implications and integratedvalues that sustainability represents are often superficiallyaddressed or sectorially disjointed. Practical SustainabilityStrategies offers a comprehensive overview of the innovativesignificance and practical implications that sustainability has inbusiness practices and for business education. It is a tool forunderstudying the breath and depth of sustainability practices inthe real world of business. The book offers numerous practicalmessages endorsing socially responsible and environmentallyconscious business practices that are the building stones for oursustainable future."
--Marco Tavanti, President, Sustainable CapacityInternational Institute (SCII) and Senior Wicklander Fellow,Institute for Business and Professional Ethics (IBPE).

''The authors have brought together a wide range of methods forthinking about, measuring, and improving corporate sustainabilityinto a single cohesive framework. Their effort will be appreciatedboth by those who are steeped in these issues (as a reference theycan use to refresh and sharpen their view) and by those who are newto the area (who need a single reference that will help themorganize the many theories they are exposed to).

This book would make a good text for sustainability programs. Itcovers all of the major paradigms and reviews the arguments infavor of shifting corporations towards more sustainable behavior.It can't give specific examples for each company's situation or forevery industry. But it does give a number of useful examples basedon the performance and behavior of well-known companies.

Our area has needed a work like this for a long time. We should allthank the authors for the huge amount of work they have done tobring together so much knowledge in one place''
--Bahar Gidwani, CFA, Co-founder & CEO,CSRHub

If we're to address our environmental challenges at thescale, speed and scope needed to effect change, it will take freshthinking and big ideas. George Nassos and Nikos Avlonas havecreated an excellent guide to the opportunities at the intersectionof business and sustainability. It's a no-nonsense, highlyreadable survey of the landscape that shows what's possiblewhen companies align sustainability with business success.
--Joel Makower, Chairman and Executive Editor,GreenBiz Group

"Nikos Avlonas is a global leader in developing and implementingsustainability strategies for organizations--including SERF. He has teamed with his colleague George Nassos to masterfullydistill their decades of experience in to this powerful and usefulwork.

With an all-too-rare mix of accessible prose and hard data, thesegentlemen have produced a work that belongs on the bookshelf ofevery corporate sustainability officer and concerned citizen of theworld."
--Joseph Maguire, MS, SFP, President, Society ofEnvironmentally Responsible Facilities

This work by George Nassos and Nikos Avlonas is an important newresource for both the seasoned sustainability professionals like meas well as those new to the topic. The authors have compiledand describe in a clear and easy-to-read way a vast collectionof tools and case studies of utmost value to anyoneinterested in moving an organization toward sustainability. Welldone!
--Bill Blackburn, President, William Blackburn Consulting,Ltd.

Produkt-Details

• Erscheint lt. Verlag: 21.10.2013
• Sprache: englisch
• Themenwelt: Naturwissenschaften ► Chemie
• Themenwelt: Technik
• Themenwelt: Wirtschaft ► Betriebswirtschaft / Management ► Unternehmensführung / Management
• Themenwelt: Wirtschaft ► Volkswirtschaftslehre
• Schlagworte: Arbeitsschutz u. Arbeitssicherheit • Business & Management • Chemie • Chemistry • Gesundheits- u. Sozialwesen • Health & Social Care • Nachhaltige u. Grüne Chemie • Nachhaltige u. Grüne Chemie • Nachhaltigkeit • Occupational Health & Safety • Production Operations Management • Produktionssteuerung • Sustainable Chemistry & Green Chemistry • Wirtschaft u. Management
• ISBN-10: 1-118-78737-4 / 1118787374
• ISBN-13: 978-1-118-78737-3 / 9781118787373