Green to Gold – How Smart Companies Use Environmental Strategy to Innovate, Create Value and Build a Competitive Advantage: How Smart Companies Use ... Create Value, and Build Competitive Advantage - Hardcover

Daniel C. Esty; Andrew S. Winston

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0300119976 ISBN 13: 9780300119978

Publisher: Yale University Press, 2006

Synopsis

A must-read guide for business leaders who want to profit from the Green Revolution and avoid its many pitfalls 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 C. Esty and Andrew S. 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.

About this title

Review:

"The future of our country and our children's world depends on getting society on a sustainable track with regard to both energy needs and environmental requirements. It is up to corporate leaders to meet this challenge, and Green to Gold blazes a trail for businesses of all kinds to follow."--Michael Morris, CEO, American Electric Power

--Michael Morris

"Every business, big or small, in manufacturing or services, faces environmental risks and opportunities. Esty and Winston show how companies have benefited from taking these challenges as strategic opportunities, but they also detail why corporate environmental initiatives often fall flat. There are important lessons to be learned from both the successes and the failures."--Bertrand Collomb, Chairman, Lafarge

--Bertrand Collomb

"Environment and sustainability issues have become an important focus in business generally and in the financial world in particular. Green to Gold is rich with both big-picture thinking and practical 'how-to' suggestions that will help bankers, analysts, fund managers, and investors stay on top of the 'green wave.'"--Larry Linden, Advisory Director, Goldman Sachs

--Larry Linden

"Esty and Winston have produced a compelling blueprint for how companies can address critical environmental problems, from climate change to water, and improve their performance, gain competitive advantage, make more money, and win friends."--William K. Reilly, Founding Partner, Aqua International Partners and former Administrator, US Environmental Protection Agency

--William K. Reilly

"Green to Gold is a must-read for the twenty-first century CEO. Esty and Winston provide convincing examples of how companies out-compete their peers by tackling sustainability head on, engaging stakeholders, developing NGO partnerships, and folding environmental stewardship into their corporate culture."--Tensie Whelan, Executive Director, Rainforest Alliance

--Tensie Whelan

"No executive can afford to ignore the green wave sweeping the business world. Esty and Winston show how to make sustainability a core element of strategy--and profit from it."--Chad Holliday, CEO, DuPont

--Chad Holliday

"Green to Gold is a must read for anyone interested in investing in the vast emerging environmental markets."--Mark McGough, President and CEO, Pentadyne Power Corporation

--Mark McGough

"Green to Gold provides the definitive thinking on how business leaders can address environmental issues in the new economy, a world where companies win by integrating company strategies with social challenges, rather than treating economic and social as separate and different."--Michael E. Porter, Professor, Harvard Business School

--Michael E. Porter

Synopsis:

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.

About this edition

• Publisher: Yale University Press
• Publication date: 2006
• ISBN 10: 0300119976
• ISBN 13: 9780300119978
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 382