Synopses & Reviews
Whether you are a climate-change skeptic or an ardent environmentalist, sustainability issues cannot be ignored in today’s corporate world. With rising energy and natural resource costs, intensified regulations, investor pressures, and a growing demand for environmentally friendly products, sustainability is no longer an option—it’s a business imperative.
Building on the bestselling book Green to Gold by Dan Esty and Andrew Winston, The Green to Gold Business Playbook tells how to put sustainability considerations into practice for competitive advantage. While Green to Gold explained why every business needs a sustainability strategy, the Playbook spells out how to achieve an Eco-Advantage. This concrete guide shows the way to sustainability for companies of any size in any industry.
Filled with essential tools and real-world examples, the Playbook gives job-specific advice that can be read selectively or from cover to cover. Whether you’re a CEO or a team leader, you’ll get step-by-step guidance on how to:
- Cut costs and increase profit margins by driving greater efficiencies in buildings and facilities, information technology, manufacturing, supply chain and logistics, and more
- Grow revenues by designing and marketing environmentally superior goods and services that meet your customers’ desires for energy efficiency, reduced pollution, and healthier products
- Build your brand and image by connecting with the values and rising expectations of consumers, employees, and other key stakeholders
- Identify and reduce regulatory risks across your value chain
Failing to stay on top of sustainability trends will hurt your company. But implementing an Eco-Advantage strategy could vault you into industry leadership with huge revenue gains and unmatched customer loyalty. The Green to Gold Business Playbook will tell you everything about the how of sustainability. The only question you’ll have left is when.
Review
The Green to Gold Business Playbook shows how the solutions to mammoth, global problems can turn a good business into a great one - one ready to compete and win.
— Jeff Immelt, Chairman and CEO, GE
There are many books out there exhorting companies to reduce their environmental impacts, but very few that give detailed practical guidance. From product design to facilities management, from information technology to logistics and transport, this book contains insightful suggestions as to how businesses can be more sustainable, reduce carbon emissions, and yet at the same time save money and drive top line growth.
— Paul Polman, CEO, Unilever
Environmental performance has become an essential part of company strategy. Esty and Simmons provide a clear road map for how companies can turn this agenda into a competitive advantage.
—Michael Porter Bishop William Lawrence University Professor, Harvard Business School
The Green to Gold Business Playbook is a terrific practical roadmap to help companies reduce their environmental impact while also improving economic performance.
— Andrea Jung, CEO, Avon
We need smart corporate engagement for major environmental efforts to be successful. Here's the guide to realizing both environmental and bottom-line gains through eco-strategy.
— Mark Tercek, The Nature Conservancy
Economic gravity always wins – The Green to Gold Business Playbook reveals how simple economics can drive greener businesses.
— Vinod Khosla, Khosla Ventures
Business is what changes the world. Esty and Simmons’ seasoned guidance is pure gold for 21st century entrepreneurs who know that sustainability comes out of a drive to innovate.
—Gary Hirshberg, CE-Yo of Stonyfield Farm
Leading companies are now embedding sustainability into every aspect of their business -- not as a PR exercise but as a core strategy to be a successful enterprise in the 21st Century. The Green to Gold Business Playbook is an invaluable resource.
— Muhtar Kent, Chairman and CEO, The Coca-Cola Company
The private sector’s decisions to design, source, and distribute products will in no small part determine the future of the world’s wildlife. The most progressive companies are looking ahead and charting a course for sustainability. Dan Esty and P.J. Simmons' book provides them with invaluable tools to move in that direction.
— Carter Roberts, World Wildlife Fund
Part of Waste Management’s strategy has been to gain an Eco-Advantage. This book picks up where Green to Gold left off with a really practical playbook for companies seeking to execute their own eco-strategies.
—Dave Steiner, CEO Waste Management
Synopsis
Implement the green strategies outlined in the bestselling book Green to Gold
While the logic of going green is now widely accepted across the business world, many executives want trusted, experience-based advice on how to bring a sustainability lens to day-to-day operations. The Green-to-Gold Business Playbook offers step-by-step guidance on integrating environmental sustainability considerations into business plans and practices.
Unlike many green business books, the Playbook deals exclusively with tools and strategies that have been proven to work in real-world businesses. Free of environmental ideology or broad theory, this guide offers 100% practical know-how that you can use in your business today. Shows businesses how to achieve an eco-advantage in the marketplace–by focusing on sustainability as a tool for reducing risks, cutting costs, driving revenues, and building brand identify Provides job-specific advice aimed at executives responsible for supply chain and logistics, product design, manufacturing, marketing, information technology, buildings and real estate, accounting, and other key functions Offers frameworks, checklists, and action plans applicable to any business–big or small, in manufacturing or services, in the old economy or new industries The Playbook builds on Dan Esty and Andrew Winston’s prizewinning Green to Gold, which has become a business classic and a staple of management training across the world. Not another book aimed only at environmental true believers, The Green to Gold Business Playbook gives you the tools to make green work-and work profitably-for your business.”
Synopsis
"Implement the green strategies outlined in Dan Esty's and Andrew Winston’s bestseller
Green to Gold"Hard-nosed business advice for gaining competitive advantage through sustainability action in buildings and operations, information technology, product design, sourcing, manufacturing, logistics and transportation, marketing, accounting, and other key business functions
Whether you are a climate change skeptic or an environmentalist, sustainability issues cannot be ignored in today’s corporate world. With rising energy and natural resource costs, intensified regulations, investor pressures, and a growing demand for environmentally friendly products, sustainability is no longer an option—it’s a business imperative.
Unlike many green business books, the Playbook skips the environmental ideology and deals exclusively with tools and strategies that have been shown to cut costs, reduce risks, drive revenues, and build brand identity.
- Builds on Dan Esty and Andrew Winston’s prizewinning Green to Gold, which has become a business classic and a staple of management training across the world.
- Shows in detail how each business function or department can achieve an eco-advantage over the competition
- Offers frameworks, checklists, and action plans applicable to any business–big or small, in manufacturing or services
The Green to Gold Business Playbook gives you the tools to make green work-and work profitably-for your business.
About the Author
Daniel C. Esty is the coauthor of the sustainable business bestseller
Green to Gold. He is the Hillhouse Professor of Environmental Law and Policy at Yale University and Director of the Center for Business and the Environment at Yale. He served as a senior official at the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and more recently as an energy and environmental advisor to the Obama presidential campaign and transition team. As Chairman of Esty Environmental Partners (www.EstyEP.com), he’s advised CEOs across the world and designed strategies for 100+ companies in dozens of industries.
P. J. Simmons is Chairman if the Corporate Eco Forum (www.ecoforum.com), a preeminent network of senior Global 500 executives focused on sharing best and “next” practice in corporate sustainability and driving ecoinnovation. He has worked as a sustainability analyst, strategist, and bridge-builder for fifteen years; is founder of the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars’ Environmental Change and Security Program; and was deputy chair for climate and energy at the Clinton Global Initiative. P. J. is a life member of the Council on Foreign Relations.
Table of Contents
Preface.
Acknowledgments.
Part One Introduction.
1 Why Every Business Needs an Eco-Strategy.
2 How to Use This Book.
Part Two Gear Up: What Leaders Need to Know.
3 Building a Winning Eco-Advantage Strategy: Top 10 Action Items.
4 Making the Internal Business Case for Going Greener.
Part Three Analyze: Identify Your Eco-Risks and Opportunities.
5 Spot the Eco-Issues that Could Impact Your Bottom Line.
6 Assess and Measure Your Environmental Impacts.
7 Benchmark Your Performance against Competitors and Best Practices.
Part Four Strategize: How Each Business Function Can Benefit and Contribute.
8 Office Activities.
9 Buildings and Facilities.
10 Information Technology.
11 Product Design.
12 Sourcing and Procurement.
13 Manufacturing and Processing.
14 Logistics and Transport.
15 Marketing and Sales.
16 Legal and Regulatory Affairs.
17 Accounting and Finance.
Part Five Mobilize: Execute and Engage.
18 Create an Action Plan—and Execute.
19 Build Your Climate Change Plan.
20 Mobilize Employees and Build an Eco-Advantage Culture.
21 Engaging Stakeholders.
Part Six Optimize: Evaluate, Report, and Reassess.
22 Communicate and Report Results.
23 Celebrate Success and Promote Continuous Improvement.
Notes.
Index.