Green to Gold: How Smart Companies Use Environmental Strategy to Innovate, Create Value, and Build Competitive Advantage

by Daniel C. Esty, Andrew S. Winston, Fred Stella (Read by)

Overview

The essential guide for forward-thinking business leaders who see the Green Wave coming and want to profit from it.

This 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.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781501284151
Publisher:	Brilliance Audio
Publication date:	08/11/2015
Edition description:	Unabridged
Product dimensions:	5.25(w) x 6.75(h) x 0.50(d)

About the Author

Daniel C. Esty is the Hillhouse Professor at Yale University with appointments in the Law and Environment Schools. He also serves as director of the Center for Business and Environment at Yale (www.yale.edu/CBEY). Andrew S. Winston is the founder of Winston Eco-Strategies and helps leading companies use environmental thinking to innovate and grow.

Andrew S. Winston is the founder of Winston Eco-Strategies and helps leading companies use environmental thinking to innovate and grow. He was formerly the Director of the Corporate Environmental Strategy Project at Yale, a strategy consultant with the Boston Consulting Group, and an executive in marketing and business development at Time Warner and Viacom.

Fred Stella has worked as an actor and voice talent in radio, TV, independent films, the web and audiobooks. Fred was awarded the Publishers Weekly Listen Up Award for Best Male Narration in 2002. He makes his home in Grand Rapids, Michigan, and is on the adjunct faculty staff of Muskegon Community College.

Table of Contents

Preface to the Paperback Edition x i

Preface xvii

Acknowledgments xxi

Introduction: The Environmental Lens 1

Part One Preparing for a New World

1 Eco-Advantage 7
Issues and opportunities for business in an environmentally sensitive world

2 Natural Drivers of the Green Wave 31
Environmental problems and how they shape markets

3 Who’s Behind the Green Wave? 65
Stakeholders and the power they wield

Part Two Strategies for Building Eco-Advantage

4 Managing the Downside 105
Green-to-Gold Plays to reduce cost and risk

5 Building the Upside 122
Green-to-Gold Plays to drive revenues and create intangible value

Part Three What WaveRiders Do

6 The Eco-Advantage Mindset 145
Looking through an environmental lens

7 Eco-Tracking 166
Understanding your company’s environmental “footprint”

8 Redesigning Your World 195
Designing for the environment and “greening” the supply chain

9 Inspiring an Eco-Advantage Culture 206
Creating an organizational focus on environmental stewardship

Part Four Putting It All Together

10 Why Environmental Initiatives Fail 235
Pitfalls to avoid on the way to Eco-Advantage

11 Taking Action 260
Execution for sustained competitive advantage

12 Eco-Advantage Strategy 281
Key Eco-Advantage plays, tools, and plans

Appendix I: Additional Resources 305

Appendix II: Methodological Overview 311

Appendix III: Frequently Asked Questions 317

Notes,* 323

Index 353

* References are not noted in the text but are shown by page number and key words beginning after the Appendixes.

Editorial Reviews

"An excellent, updated primer that tracks the A to Z of getting a grip on green as a business leader." (CNBC European Business, April 2009)

From the Publisher

"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

"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

"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

"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

"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

"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

The authors provide an excellent survey of the opportunities and potential pitfalls global businesses face as they “go green.” There are many great examples of successful implementation. The material is also an excellent treatise on how to increase brand value through green business practices. Fred Stella's enthusiasm for his subject sounds genuine and powerfully draws the listener into the material. He might have familiarized himself a bit more with some of the jargon and iconic names in the arena; however, this is hardly a large problem. If you want to know who the best performers are so you can buy, invest, or model your enterprise with a clear environmental conscience, then listen here. M.C. © AudioFile 2009, Portland, Maine

APRIL 2009 - AudioFile