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(Just click on the book title to go to the description/review.)

 

Green Biz: 50 Green, Profitable Companies Reveal Their Strategies and Successes, American Benchmark Press (2008)

The sustainable strategies created by these dynamic, positive innovators – detailed in the individual “greenprints” within – will inspire and instruct other businesses to implement their own environmental initiatives.

 

 

Ethical Marketing and The New Consumer, Chris Arnold (2009)

 Ethical marketing isn’t just about environmentalism; it’s far bigger than that. This book challenges a lot of conventional thinking and introduces you to a wider range of ethics and the many types of ethical consumers.

 

Green Intentions: Creating a Green Value Stream to Compete and Win, Brett Wills (2009)

Provides organizations with a simple, straightforward, and practical approach to green—the Green Value Stream (GVS) process—that is as mindful as it is profitable.

 

The Mirror Test: Is Your Business Really Breathing?, Jeffrey W. Hayzlett (with Jim Eber), Business Plus (2010)

To paraphrase Woody Allen in Annie Hall, business “is like a shark – You know, it has constantly move forward or it dies.” And keeping your business from being a dead shark is what The Mirror Test is about. But from where I sit, it’s also about sustainability.

I’m sure that author Jeff Hayzlett , former Kodak CMO, “celebrity CMO,” and now just plain “celebrity,” had no intention of writing a book that had anything to do with sustainability. But, somehow, he did.

Sustainability, as the eco-cliché says, is a three-legged stool. With each of the legs – environmental, social and economic – intact, the stool is stable. When one is missing, the stool falls over. The Mirror Test is about the leg that gets short shrift in the green community: economic sustainability. Without economic sustainability as the driver of your business, all of your other sustainability initiatives are going to fail. Why? Because your whole business will be failing – and it may even be much down for the count.

Already a business best-seller (and available as an audio book for those afraid of paper cuts), Hayzlett’s book asks you to answer some pretty tough questions about your business – stuff that seems too often to gets relegated to the back of your mind. “Why are you in business?” Where are you going?”  “What do you want to be when you grow up?” “Why are you selling on price?” And “Why are you content to do the same old thing, even when the market has shifted?”

Hayzlett weaves this line of inquiry through a fabric of insights and anecdotes gathered from his own speckled career (he once ran a print shop in South Dakota, and tried to launch a pheasant farm) and some apocryphal tales as well. He makes you laugh, and he makes you groan. But mostly he makes you think, and think hard.

As fun and entertaining as The Mirror Test is, its messages are stone-serious: If your business isn’t  growing, its dead. If it is not growing as fast as your competition, it is dying. Never stop selling. And never, ever, stop moving forward.

Sustainable Value: How the World’s Leading Companies Are Doing Well by Doing Good, Chris Laszlo, Stanford Business Books (2008)

Why have major companies such as DuPont, Wal-Mart and Cargill embraced the transformation toward greater sustainability? Its simple – they have found a way to derive significant shareholder value from it.

In Sustainable Value, Chris Laszlo takes the reader through the transformational process, first through a parable about an executive in a fictitious multinational company (which is, admittedly, a little hokey), and then through interesting case studies of four real corporations.

Laszlo follows these up with a discussion of how stakeholder value and shareholder value intersect to create the opportunity for the creation of sustainable value, and concludes by laying out “eight disciplines of sustainable value” – the pathway that leads to positive and profitable transformation.  The two big take-aways are that seeking sustainable value enhances one’s business strategy and ability to compete in the marketplace, and that collaboration is essential to arrive at truly sustainable solutions.

It’s a fast, interesting read – one that should be of value whether your company is on the path toward greater sustainability, you have clients that are transforming their businesses, or you are just wondering what all the fuss is about.

(Added to the “Reading List” on June 6, 2010)

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Print and Production Finishes for Sustainable Design, Edward Denison, RotoVision (2009)

Print and Production Finishes for Sustainable Design is an indispensable ideas sourcebook and practical guide to what has become an important consideration for many designers: sustainability. The book shows examples of environmentally friendly inks, varnishes, pigments, and finishes that can be used in a wide range of standard printed media. Printing innovations and specialized printing techniques using environmentally friendly ingredients are also included.

The book provides an overview of different printable materials available to both 2-D and 3-D designers, including recyclable paper, paper substitutes, and biodegradable plastics. Innovative 3-D designs that demonstrate clear environmental benefits derived from the application of printing, types of manufacturing techniques or use of specific materials are showcased and explained.  Environmentally sound printing and production finishes are often one of the outcomes of a lengthy design process by companies dedicated to reducing their impact on the environment.

Print and Production Finishes for Sustainable Design includes case studies of companies where the entire organizational objective is based on achieving organizational sustainability (i.e. zero net impact) and where printing and production processes have been integral to achieving this. (Amazon product description.)

(Added to the “Reading List” on April 21, 2010)

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The Responsibility Revolution: How the Next Generation of Businesses Will Win, Jeffrey Hollender and Bill Breen, Jossey Bass (2010)

In The Responsibility Revolution, Jeffrey Hollender, co-founder of Seventh Generation, and Bill Breen, coauthor of The Future of Management, reveal how the smartest companies compete in a world where the marketplace demands that every business build a better future.

Through vigorous reporting and insightful analysis, Hollender and Breen create a road map for building financially, socially, and environmentally sustainable organizations. The Responsibility Revolution brings together a potent mix of corporate giants, big brands, and emerging companies—from pioneers in sustainability to those now forging their own path—including Nike, Timberland, eBay, IBM, Marks & Spencer, Patagonia, Novo Nordisk, Organic Valley, Etsy, Linden Lab, and Seventh Generation. Revealing how these top businesses redefine what it means for companies to act responsibly, each chapter offers new models for building the kind of exemplary companies that will thrive in this new era of sustainability.

This is a first-of-its-kind book for leaders, entrepreneurs, managers,and change agents everywhere. Filled with fresh ideas and actionable strategies, The Responsibility Revolution shows how to commit your company to a socially and environmentally responsible business and culture—one that not only competes on values, but wins. (Amazon product description.)

(Added to the “Reading List” on February 12, 2010)

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Green Marketing and Management: A Global Perspective, John F. Wasik, Wiley (1996)

Green Marketing and Management is a timely guide to the complex issues involved in making and selling a product in an environmentally responsible way. It is an essential resource for anyone doing business in today’s environmentally conscious global marketplace.

John F. Wasik, managing director of the New Consumer Institute, believes that doing business with a real commitment to environmental concerns will ultimately reduce costs, increase productivity, and boost profits. In Green Marketing and Management: A Global Perspective, he offers a complete guide to balancing various corporate and ecological goals and provides hundreds of examples of profitable companies all over the world that already are merging the two seemingly disparate interests with great success. (Amazon review)

(Added to the “Reading List” on January 29, 2010)

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Stakeholder Politics: Social Capital, Sustainable Development and The Corporation, Robert Boutilier, Stanford Business Books (2009)

Corporations are now publicly committed to sustainability. But, beneath the public relations happy face, executives and managers are perplexed. The majority of them have a genuine desire to work in an ethical and sustainable manner, yet, when they engage with their stakeholders for that purpose, they often encounter a world of hardball politics, full of hostile activists, self-interested elites, and unpredictable attacks.

Stakeholder Politics: Social Capital, Sustainable Development and The Corporation gives companies a “how to” guide for addressing the twin problems of maintaining political legitimacy and promoting sustainable development.

(Added to the “Reading List” on January 5, 2010)

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Radical IndustrialistConfessions of a Radical Industrialist: Profits, People, Purpose – Doing Business by Respecting the Earth, Ray Anderson, St. Martin’s Press (2009)

“Ray Anderson is a personal inspiration for me and for anyone trying to find their way in this new world of green business.  He may be radical but he s also a profit-seeking businessman. Confessions tells an amazing first-hand story of a personal and business transformation, a journey  from being a cold-eyed capitalist to being…a cold-eyed capitalist, but just with a much larger perspective on what profitable really means.  Ray has found a new path that s good for the planet and great for his business.  He’s showing the world how it s done yet again.” (Andrew Winston, environmental strategist, author of Green Recovery and co-author of Green to Gold)

We are in desperate need of hope in this world, but if hope is to be credible and trustworthy, it has to walk a straight line to reality.  No one does this better than Ray Anderson. (Paul Hawken, author of Ecology of Commerce, Natural Capitalism, and Blessed Unrest)

My only hesitation is that we cannot clone Ray Anderson…or perhaps we can? Let’s hope that Confessions of a Radical Industrialist becomes required reading in all business, industrial design, and economics classes so that our next generation of business leaders continue in the direction that Anderson has begun. (Annie Leonard, author of The Story of Stuff)

(Added to the “Reading List” on December 29, 2009)

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Sustainable MarketingSustainable Marketing: Managerial – Ecological Issues, Donald A. Fuller, Sage Publications (1999)

Sustainable Marketing is structured around the traditional “4Ps” of marketing and explains how marketing mix decisions can and do influence environmental outcomes. Throughout the book, Fuller advocates for conversion of consumption systems to a sustainable paradigm that represents a circular use of resources, not the linear approach that leads to the pollution of ecosystems.

The book’s running theme is that marketers can reinvent strategy and craft “win-win-win” solutions, where customers win (obtaining genuine benefits), organizations win (achieving financial objectives), and ecosystems win (ecosystem functioning is preserved or enhanced). The theme is vividly illustrated by 49 in-text exhibits of successful corporate environmental initiatives. (Description taken from the back of the book jacket.)

(Added to the “Reading List” on November 26, 2009)

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Design for EnvironmentDesign for Environment, Joseph Fiksel, McGraw Hill (2009)

Now in its second edition, Design for Environment draws on the experiences of numerous major corporations in offering a business rationale for developing sustainable products and processes.

The book also provides a comprehensive toolkit for practicing the Design for Environment approach in the context of product lifecycle management.

GreenBiz.com Executive Editor Joel Makower, author of Strategies for the Green Economy, calls Fiksel’s book is a “must-read for all practitioners of a Design for Environment approach.”

The book covers how to:

  • Practice integrated product development and concurrent engineering,
  • Select appropriate metrics to represent product lifecycle performance,
  • Maintain and apply a portfolio of systematic Design for Environment strategies,
  • Use analysis methods to evaluate design performance and trade-offs, and
  • Apply systems thinking to reduce the supply chain environmental footprint.

(Read the rest of the review on the GreenBiz Bookstore.)

(Added to the “Reading List” on November 26, 2009)

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Graphics Gone GreenGraphics Gone Green: Ways to Go Green Without Losing Your Shirt, Rita Amladi and Erica Aitken, Self-Published (2009)

An incredibly rich and useful ebook about what to change for the good of the planet, and for you.

  • How to design products and campaigns with the environment in mind. Streamline your efforts, costs and waste.
  • Meet eco-innovators like Terri Stone of InDesign Magazine, Don Carli of the Institute for Sustainable Communication, Michael Hodgson of Ph.D, A Design Office, Ellen Gittins of Blurb, Travis Lee and Scot Herbst of LUNAR, Yvette Perulho and Eric Benson of Renourish.com, and many more.
  • Find all the tools for an easy transition: Paper calculators, energy audit, recycling information, efficient and green workflow ideas.

This ebook is designed for online viewing: Easy to read, color-coded, hyperlinked cross-references and glossary, relevant external links and resources, video interviews, and a visual colophon full of invaluable information.

Purchase as an e-book or POD book. Thanks to Sabine Lenz, PaperSpecs for the head’s up!

(Added to the “Reading List” on November 24, 2009)

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Beyond Green MarketingBeyond Green Marketing, Christiane Katharina Murr, VDM Verlag Dr. Mueller ( 2008)

New approaches for a possible implementation of sustainability in marketing.

Would you like to add a review to this book listing? I can’t find anything that describes the book on any of the sites offering the book for sale. It looks very interesting! What do YOU think?

(Added to the “Reading List” on November 23, 2009)

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Marketing in the GroundswellMarketing in the Groundswell, Charlene Li and Josh Bernoff, Harvard Business School Press (2009)

“Since Groundswell was published in April of 2008, two things have happened: The global economy has gone into the dumper; and at the same time, marketers have fallen in love with social technologies.” So states author Josh Bernoff in his introduction to Marketing in the Groundswell, which offers vital information that everyone involved in marketing or in communicating with customers’ needs to know.

The book includes three core chapters from the original bestseller that focus on market research, marketing, and spreading word-of-mouth among your best customers. Sure, you already know that customers are writing about your products on blogs or talking about your brand on Twitter and Facebook. Now, turn that interest into opportunity and profit.

In these economic times, marketers like you are increasing their investment in social technologies, while cutting back on more traditional expenses. Why? Because they work–no matter the economic climate. Marketing in the Groundswell shows you how you can build social applications, measure their results, and use the social technology movement to your company’s advantage. (Amazon review)

(Added to the “Reading List” on November 23, 2009)

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Greening Your Small BusinessGreening Your Small Business: How to Improve Your Bottom Line, Grow Your Brand, Satisfy Your Customers – and Save the Planet, Jennifer Kaplan, Prentice Hall Press (2009)

Greening Your Small Business is the definitive resource for those who want their small businesses to be cutting- edge, competitive, profitable, and eco-conscious.

Filled with stories from small business owners of all stripes, Greening Your Small Business addresses every aspect of going green, from basics such as recycling, reducing waste, energy efficiency, and reducing the IT footprint, to more in-depth concerns such as green marketing and communications, green business travel, and green employee benefits.

For companies too small to hire consultants to draft and implement green policies and practices, this guide is designed for easy use, featuring:

  • Simple ways to make the workplace greener
  • Two plans of action for going green (divided into two levels)
  • Definitions for green terminology and jargon

(Added to the “Reading List” on November 10, 2009)

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Sustainablity MarketingSustainability Marketing: A Global Perspective, Frank-Martin Belz and Ken Peattie, Wiley (2009)

Sustainability Marketing: A Global Perspective provides a new sustainability-oriented vision of marketing for the twenty-first century. It has a consumer marketing focus with an emphasis on integrating sustainability principles into both marketing theory and the practical decision making of marketing managers. The book shows how the complexities of sustainability issues can be integrated into marketing decisions through a systematic step-by-step approach.

The steps involve an analysis of socio-environmental priorities to complement conventional consumer research; an integration of social, ethical and environmental values into marketing strategy development; a new consumer-oriented sustainability marketing mix to replace the outmoded and producer-oriented ‘4 Ps’; and finally an analysis of how marketing can go beyond responding to social change to contribute to a transformation to a more sustainable society. Without taking such steps, marketing will continue to drive global crises linked to climate change, poverty, food shortages, oil depletion and species extinction, instead of helping to tackle them.

(Added to the “Reading List” on October 23, 2009)

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Paper in DesignUnfolded-Paper in Design, Art, Architecture and Industry, Petra Schmidt and Nicola Stattmann, Birkhäuser (2009)

Publisher Birkhäuser says: In Unfolded-Paper in Design, Art, Architecture and Industry paper conquers the third dimension and demonstrates the undreamed-of possibilities it holds today for lightweight construction, product design, fashion and art. From the collection of bags by Stefan Diez, to Konstantin Grcic’s paper models, and the scented paper garments of Issey Miyake, this book presents paper as a high-quality contemporary and ecological material.

An enormous selection of projects, the lavish design and numerous illustrations provide designers with invaluable inspiration for their work. The content core of the book is a comprehensive list of state-of-the-art paper products and innovative paper technologies, supporting designers in their everyday work with detailed information on the “high-tech” material paper. From Japanese washi paper and paper foam, to ceramic paper and carbon fiber paper, “Unfolded” presents the latest in research and development, as well as the most important methods and technologies in handcrafts and industry.

(Added to the “Reading List” on October 13, 2009)

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A_Fine_LineA Fine Line: How Design Strategies Are Shaping the Future of Business, Hartmut Esslinger, Jossey-Bass (2009)

A Fine Line offers a step-by-step overview of the innovation process — from targeting goals to shepherding new products and services to the marketplace — in order to reveal how to arrive at an authentic human design that connects strongly with consumers. With a unique perspective, rich stories, and a global mindset, Esslinger explores business solutions that are environmentally sustainable and contribute to an enduring global economy.

Read more about the author here.

(Added to the “Reading List” on September 21, 2009)

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The Gort CloudThe Gort Cloud, by Richard Seireen, Chelsea Green Publishing (2009)

“The Gort Cloud” is a term coined by Seoreen to describe the vast and largely invisible network of NGOs, trendspotters, advocacy groups, social networks, business alliances, certifying organizations, and other members of the green community that have the power to make or break new green brands.

Integrating The Gort Cloud into brand development and marketing strategies is critical to the success of any aspiring green brand. This “green community” can supply technical assistance, venture capital, the first line of core customers, and tremendous “echo effect” in getting the word out quickly and inexpensively.

In 12 case studies, Seireeni examines the cloud’s make-or-break abilities, particularly to reject, fairly or not, claims of eco-utility as “greenwashing.” Seireeni’s focus is on “exactly how others have built green brands” with loyal followings; among others, he covers Seventh Generation cleaning supplies, Tesla Motors electric cars, Stonyfield Farm dairy, the financial institutes “creating Green Street,” and Southwest Windpower. (Amazon review)

Read more about the author here.

(Added to the “Reading List” on September 4, 2009)

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