Product Description

This book explains what every executive should know to manage the environmental challenges facing society and the business world. Based on the authors' rich experience with forward-thinking companies around the world, "Green to Gold" demonstrates how corporations create value by building environmental thinking into their overall business strategies. Daniel Esty and Andrew Winston provide clear 'how to' advice for making sense of environmental challenges, and they offer detailed case examples of how companies achieve both environmental and business success - establishing an eco-advantage in the marketplace. "Green to Gold" is written for executives at all levels and businesses of all kinds. It guides the business leader through pollution and natural resource management issues and the growing pressure from outside stakeholders to strive for 'sustainability'. While highlighting successful strategies, Esty and Winston also examine why environmental initiatives may fail despite best intentions. With practical suggestions for incorporating environmental thinking into core business strategy, and with a clear focus on execution - not legalisms, platitudes, and abstractions - Esty and Winston present a thoughtful, pragmatic roadmap that shows how companies can use environmental pressures and responsibilities to spark innovation and drive growth.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #288939 in Books
• Published on: 2006-10-31
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Hardcover
• 384 pages

Financial Times, September 23, 2006
'A manual on how to turn your company into an eco-success.'

Review
`... [a] must read.'

About the Author
Daniel C. Esty is Hillhouse Professor of Environmental Law and Policy at Yale University with appointments in the Environment and Law Schools. He is also a former top official with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and has advised companies across the world on corporate environmental strategy. He lives in New Haven, CT. Andrew Winston is director of the Corporate Environmental Strategy Project at Yale's School of Environmental Studies. He has advised companies on corporate strategy while at Boston Consulting Group and held management positions in strategy and marketing at leading media companies such as Time Warner and Viacom. He lives in New York City.

Customer Reviews

Straightforward sustainability manual
Sesame Street's Kermit the Frog famously observed, "It's not easy being green." Whether easy or not, environmental and social pressures are pushing more and more companies to ride the "green wave" to ecological sustainability. In this beautifully organized, crisply written book, Daniel C. Esty and Andrew S. Winston, both Yale professors, describe how sustainability can create competitive advantage. They succinctly make the business case for sustainability, and then provide a playbook of green strategies and tactics. The presentation is neither too abstract nor too detailed: It's just right. Nor is their presentation one-sided: They enumerate many ways sustainable products and strategies can go wrong. While some of their suggestions may seem obvious, the authors deserve praise for collecting so many excellent tips and tricks, and for describing them in memorable (mostly) jargon-free prose. We highly recommend this smart book to any business leader who wants to move beyond rhetoric to action. While Kermit's wisdom is doubtless correct, this handbook makes being green much easier.

Great strategy book
This book provides a very straightforward and non-emotional approach to sustainability. The authors succeed in putting forward a logical case for why sustainability matters in business terms. There are plenty of examples along the way that help to flesh out their argument and provide food for thought.

The first part of the book provides background and context to the issues that we are all facing today. The latter parts of the book explores the strategies that the "best in class" companies are using.

I found the book a really useful introduction to the business rationale behind sustainability. We didn't get bogged down in environmental facts and figures and it didn't try to scare us into action. Just a well balanced, practical approach to making businesses more sustainable. Highly recommended reading for those interested in strategies around building sustainable business.