The essential guide for forward-thinking business leaders who see the Green Wave coming and want to profit from itThis book explores what every executive must know to manage the environmental challenges facing society and business. Based on the authors' years of experience and hundreds of interviews with corporate leaders around the world, Green to Gold shows how companies generate lasting value, cutting costs, reducing risk, increasing revenues, and creating strong brands, by building environmental thinking into their business strategies. Daniel C. Esty and Andrew S. Winston provide clear how-to advice and concrete examples from companies like BP, Toyota, IKEA, GE, and Nike that are achieving both environmental and business success. The authors show how these cutting-edge companies are establishing an “eco-advantage” in the marketplace as traditional elements of competitive differentiation fade in importance. Esty and Winston not only highlight successful strategies but also make plain what does not work by describing why environmental initiatives sometimes fail despite the best intentions.Green to Gold is written for executives at every level and for businesses of all kinds and sizes. Esty and Winston guide leaders through a complex new world of resource shortfalls, regulatory restrictions, and growing pressure from customers and other stakeholders to strive for sustainability. With a sharp focus on execution, Esty and Winston offer a thoughtful, pragmatic, and inspiring road map that companies can use to cope with environmental pressures and responsibilities while sparking innovation that will drive long-term growth. Green to Gold is the new template for global CEOs who want to be good stewards of the Earth while simultaneously building the bottom line. 

The Business Owner's Bookshelf

Natural Capitalism: Creating the Next Industrial Revolution by Hawken, Paul
The Triple Bottom Line: How Today's Best-Run Companies Are Achieving Economic, Social and Environmental Success -- and How You Can Too by Savitz, Andrew

Earth Day Meets Pay Day
Yes, money makes the world go 'round. Money can also help make it go green. That's the striking core message of this 2006 business tome, which spotlights the cause of environmentalism with a decidedly capitalist slant. At the core of capitalism's success, they say, is innovation. That same innovation, when applied responsibly by businesses of many types, has resulted in big gains against pollution, resource depletion, and other sustainability issues, often helping those businesses add to their bottom line. Authors Daniel C. Esty and Andrew S. Winston back up this central point with numerous examples of industries reaping the rewards of a green strategy, dating back to Toyota's milestone launch of the Prius hybrid in 1993. Not every earth-friendly idea is so rewarding, but even the hardest-cost items can be useful in demonstrating a corporation as a good citizen, something critical in the face of growing regulatory pressure and activist advocacy. "No company can afford to ignore green issues," the authors write. "Those who manage them with skill will build stronger, more profitable, longer-lasting businesses - and a healthier, more livable planet." Two groups of people are likely to find this book not to their liking. One are the group that believe climate change - presented as a simple case of fact in this book - is the product of phony science. However, as I write this on an 85-degree day in April, many of these people would likely agree with me that in the world of stock markets particularly, perception is reality and there's little value now in digging one's heels in the ground and calling Al Gore names. The other group, interestingly, is hard-core environmentalists. "Green To Gold" is an eco-positive book, but its message will likely anger those who believe capitalism itself is the world's greatest environmental threat. Esty and Winston even go so far as to point out examples of where a green-first philosophy won't work for most businesses. Patagonia, for example, can charge more for its earth-friendly products because its a privately held company. For other businesses, as a Shell executive notes, the environment can be most effective as a "third button", not a reason for making a purchase in itself, but as a kind of feel-good value add. There is a good deal of repetition, PowerPoint graphics, and acronymic dross in "Green To Gold", which at least establishes that it is indeed a business book. It's a little too rah-rah at times, like about cap-and-trade, which is pure taxation and only helpful in the way it can hurt your competitor more than you. At one point, the authors suggest businesses should embrace even stricter regulations, after preparing themselves to meet those regs, in order to gain competitive advantage against their scrambling peers. There's a green strategy Gordon Gekko would have liked! I liked "Green To Gold" less for its message (no treehugger me!) than for the solid way it is presented. There's also useful information about how companies can foster an eco-friendly culture that will affect change within the organization, thus priming it for the tough regulatory stretch ahead. The fact is the world is taking green issues more seriously, and smart businesses need to stay ahead of this development. "Green To Gold" offers the kind of guidance that speaks to the comptroller as well as the dreamer.