Product Description

As planetary anxieties about globalization, poverty and climate change grow, where does the international business community stand? Are they a barrier to change or an engine for it? One outcome of the Rio Earth Summit in 1992 was Changing Course, the hugely influential book by Swiss industrialist Stephan Schmidheiny which argued that business needed to be part of the solution to global environmental degradation. Now, Schmidheiny has joined with fellow prime movers in the World Business Council for Sustainable Development (WBCSD--the key business organization focusing on policy research and development in this crucial area), Chad Holliday, Chairman and CEO of DuPont; and Philip Watts, Chairman of Shell; to spell out the real business case for addressing sustainable development as a key strategic issue. The results are ground-breaking. For the first time, leading industrialists are arguing that not only is sustainable development good for business, the solving of environmental and social problems is essential for future growth. Drawing on a wealth of specially written case studies and personal interviews from business leaders operating around the world, Walking the Talk clearly demonstrates that the vanguard who have operationalized leading-edge environmental and social initiatives are benefiting in a myriad of ways that benefit the bottom line--and the planet. The book argues that the time for rhetoric is over. The business of business has changed. Even more remarkably, the authors insist that a global partnership--between governments, business and civil society--is essential, if accelerating moves towards globalization are to maximize opportunities for all--especially the world's poor. As Chad Holliday recently stated in an address to the United Nations: 'Given existing technology and products, for all six billion people on the planet to live like the average American, we would require the equivalent of three planet Earths to provide the material, create the energy and dispose of the waste.' Such an option is evidently not available and the book argues that far more eco-efficient and socially equitable modes of development must be pursued in order to allow poorer nations to raise their standards of living. The solution provided by Walking the Talk is to mobilize markets in favour of sustainability, leveraging the power of innovation and global markets for the benefits of everyone--not just the developed world. This means a further liberalization of the market--a move that would be condemned by anti-globalization protestors. Yet, as the authors argue, business cannot succeed in failing societies. When the global market fails poor countries, where most of the world's people live, it will also eventually fail business. Subsidies for rich countries' products and tariffs against poor countries' products do not constitute a 'free' market, or one that best serves people or business. Similarly, governments cannot subsidize fossil fuels or water and expect businesses, or ordinary citizens, to use them efficiently. So, a new, fair and equitable market is needed. A market that can work for all. The authors therefore call on protestors against globalization to stop protesting against the market and instead to campaign instead against the perverse policies that impoverish people and their environment. Walking the Talk explores the opportunities and challenges inherent in eco-efficiency (producing more with less), corporate social responsibility, and a transparent, 'wired' world where reputations can be irreversibly damaged--or enhanced--in real time. It also devotes a chapter to ways in which corporations can and must 'learn to change'. It examines the new partnerships needed among companies, governments, and civil society to produce real change, and the ways in which these alliances can work for all concerned. And it argues that consumer choice and consumer information should be encouraged as a positive force for sustainable development. Only what is valued is carefully used and so creating markets for environmental goods and services may be the best way to protect scarce resources. This is especially true in efforts to mitigate the effects of climate change, where businesslike approaches, such as the development of carbon trading, offer workable solutions to policy-makers. Whether small, medium or large, all businesses must innovate and change to meet the social and environmental challenges of the coming years. Walking the Talk provides a broad set of proven roadmaps to success as well as real-life inspiration for business to embrace the real challenge--to build a global economy that works for all the world's people.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #492353 in Books
• Published on: 2002-08
• Original language: English
• Binding: Hardcover
• 288 pages

From the Back Cover
" 'Changing course' was the message of the book published by Stephan Schmidheiny for the Earth Summit in 1992. Ten years on, Stephan Schmidheiny, Chad Holliday and Philip Watts demonstrate how a number of leading companies have started to 'walk the talk'. I hope that the concrete examples provided in this book will catalyze the necessary change of course in the millions of companies that still continue with business as usual. I also hope that this publication will encourage business leaders to work with governments to adopt the necessary regulatory and economic frameworks that will enable market forces to drive a life-cycle economy and a more equitable world. Congratulations for this important undertaking."
Dr Klaus Toepfer, Executive Director, United Nations Environment Program

"In growing numbers, business leaders are coming out of the closet to acknowledge the design problems of our outlaw industrial system. Evolving an economic system consistent with the laws of nature is the challenge of our times. It will require harnessing imagination and innovation of businesses around the world. In this process, the leadership of large global corporations will be pivotal. 'Walking the Talk' is an important next step in the beginnings of a very long journey."
Peter M. Senge, MIT and SoL (Society for Organizational Learning)

"This book shows us that the most successful companies will be those that achieve sustainable development through learning from the marvelous mechanism of nature and power of life - Nature's Wisdom - and innovate accordingly."
Dr Shoichiro Toyoda, Honorary Chairman, Member of the Board, Toyota Motor Company

"In the global era not only commerce, but also information and civil society are global. In "Walking the Talk" these forward-thinking business leaders make a powerful case that in the global era an enterprise's license to operate depends on strategies that respond to broad societal values: protecting the environment, respecting human rights, promoting development that meets human needs, sharing information, and embracing scrutiny and input from civil society."
Jonathan Lash, President, World Resources Institute

"Ten years after Rio, we approach the next Earth Summit in Johannesburg. Much has been accomplished in the corporate sector over the past decade. Ten years ago, the agenda was about 'changing course', 'eco-efficiency', and 'market failures'. Today, it is about 'sustainable growth', 'the bottom of the pyramid', and 'walking the talk'. Ten years from now we will look back and be amazed at how far the business sector has pushed the sustainable development agenda forward."
Professor Stuart Hart, Director, Center for Sustainable Enterprise, Kenan-Flagler Business School, University of North Carolina

"Within the environmental arena, a strategy of business as usual will lead to some very unusual forms of business, if only because of environmental forces that are becoming ever-more forceful. Fortunately a number of corporate leaders, including the three authors, are coming to understand that there can be no sustainable business except within an overall context of sustainable development. This book presents a compelling case, and does it in a very readable fashion."
Dr Norman Myers, Fellow, Green College, Oxford University

"For me, the appearance of the World Business Council for Sustainable Development (WBCSD) was one of the most important unofficial outcomes of the Rio Summit in 1992. It signaled the beginning of a period where it became clear that governments alone cannot achieve sustainability, and preconceptions about business being all about profit and NGOs all about ethics and voluntarism disintegrated. "Walking the Talk" demonstrates that we are all sitting in the same planetary boat."
Dr Claude Martin, Director General, WWF International

About the Author
Charles O.Holliday,Jr. Chairman &CEO,DuPont An industrial engineer by training, Chad Holliday parlayed a summer job at DuPont into a full-time position in 1970.In his 30-year DuPont career, he has touched virtually every aspect of the business -from fibers and chemicals to agricultural products and biotechnology. His diverse assignments have spanned nearly all key functional areas, advancing through various manufacturing and supervisory assignments to product planning and marketing positions and, more recently, to executive responsibilities and his current role as Chairman and CEO, Chad is the first DuPont chief executive with extensive experience outside the United States, having been based in Tokyo for seven years as head of the DuPont Asia Pacific operations. Chad is the current chairman of the World Business Council for Sustainable Development. He also serves on the board of directors of Analog Devices,Inc and Catalyst and is a senior member of the Institute of Industrial Engineers. Stephan Schmidheiny Chairman,Anova Holding AG Swiss industrialist Stephan Schmidheiny founded the Business Council for Sustainable Development (BCSD)after he was named in 1990 Principal Advisor for Businesses and Industry to the Secretary General of the 1992 'Earth Summit in Rio. He was principal author of the 1992 book 'Changing Course: A Global Business Perspective on Development and the Environment (MIT Press),which was published in 15 languages. Mr.Schmidheiny is now honorary chairman of the World Business Council for Sustainable Development. His business interests are centered in the Nueva Group holding company, more than 40 companies (30 production plants)in 15 Latin American countries. Companies on whose boards he has served include the Union Bank of Switzerland, ABB, Leica, Swatch and Nestle. He is also founder, Funder and president of the AVINA Foundation, which promotes sustainable development in Latin America. Philip Wattts Chairman of the Committee of Managing Directors of the Royal Dutch/Shell Group of Companies Philip Watts has been Chairman of The Shell Transport and Trading Company plc and of the Committee of Managing Directors of the Royal Dutch/Shell Group since July 2001. He has been a managing director of Shell Transport and a Group managing director since 1997. His functional and geographical responsibilities as a Group managing director are:Finance; Human Resources; Legal;Planning, Environment and External Affairs; and the United States He joined Shell in 1969 and worked in Indonesia, the UK, Norway and the Netherlands. In 1991 he went to Lagos as Chairman and Managing Director of the Shell Petroleum Development Company of Nigeria, returning to The Hague as Regional Co-ordinator Europe in 1994.From the beginning of 1996 until becoming a managing director, he was director of Planning, Environment and External Affairs for Shell International in London. Philip Watts was born in 1945 in Leicestershire, England. He graduated from Leeds University with a BSc in Physics and an MSc in Geophysics.In between these two degrees he taught in a secondary school in Sierra Leone for two years. He is married and has a daughter, a son and two grandchildren. His interests include reading and gardening. He is chairman of the World Business Council for Sustainable Development and of the UK chapter of the International Chamber of Commerce.