This book explores the history of green entrepreneurship since the nineteenth century, and its spread globally in industries including renewable energy, organic food, natural beauty, ecotourism, recycling, architecture, and finance.

Social and environmental issues are more important than ever and consumers are committed to supporting change. 'Doing good' is no longer a peripheral activity but fundamental to every aspect of how we do business, every day, for everyone. People, Planet, Profit is the first book to truly address business growth in the context of social and environmental concerns. It's a practical guide to new business opportunity, operational improvement and competitive advantage. Full of inspiring case studies, it looks at the challenges faced by key players such as Google, Microsoft, Apple, Nokia, Nike, Amazon, M&S and Walmart. With plenty of comments from industry insiders, it's essential reading for CEOs and business managers who are searching for new ways to create value, to make sense of business in a rapidly shifting landscape, and to deliver profitable growth whilst also doing "the right thing".

An expert on business strategy offers a pragmatic take on how businesses of all sizes balance the competing demands of profitability and employment with sustainability. The demands and stresses on companies only grow as executives face a multitude of competing business goals. Their stakeholders are interested in corporate profits, jobs, business growth, and environmental sustainability. In this book, business strategy expert Yossi Sheffi offers a pragmatic take on how businesses of all sizes—from Coca Cola and Siemens to Dr. Bronner's Magical Soaps and Patagonia—navigate these competing goals. Drawing on extensive interviews with more than 250 executives, Sheffi examines the challenges, solutions, and implications of balancing traditional business goals with sustainability. Sheffi, author of the widely read The Resilient Enterprise, argues that business executives' personal opinions on environmental sustainability are irrelevant. The business merits of environmental sustainability are based on the fact that even the most ardent climate change skeptics in the C-suite face natural resource costs, public relations problems, regulatory burdens, and a green consumer segment. Sheffi presents three basic business rationales for corporate sustainability efforts: cutting costs, reducing risk, and achieving growth. For companies, sustainability is not a simple case of “profits versus planet” but is instead a more subtle issue of (some) people versus (other) people—those looking for jobs and inexpensive goods versus others who seek a pristine environment. This book aims to help companies satisfy these conflicting motivations for both economic growth and environmental sustainability.

Things that are good for the planet are also good for business. Numerous studies from the likes of the Economist Intelligence Unit, Harvard, MIT Sloan, and others indicate that organizations that commit to goals of zero waste, zero harmful emissions, and zero use of nonrenewable resources clearly outperform their competition.Like lean thinking, gre

This book provides rich new empirical evidence on green business as it examines its variation between industries and nations, and over time. It demonstrates the deep historical origins of endeavors to create for-profit businesses that were more responsible and sustainable, but also how these strategies have faced constraints, trade-offs and challenges of legitimacy. Based on extensive interviews and archives from around the world, the book asks why green business succeeds more in some contexts than others, and draws lessons from failure as well as success.

What do Brazil’s top beauty brand, America’s second-fastest-growing restaurant chain, and the world’s third bestselling car have in common--besides achieving enormous success with revenue in the tens of billions? They are doing it all while holding to their convictions of implementing sustainable principles that help consumers live better lives. But they aren’t the only ones. Green Giants examines nine companies--including Chipotle, Toyota, Unilever, Tesla, General Electric, and more--who have established the blueprint for sustainable success that anyone can follow. Author Freya Williams, an early pioneer of the modern sustainable business movement, discovered six factors responsible for the overwhelming success of these nine socially responsible companies: The Iconoclastic Leader Disruptive Innovation A Higher Purpose Built In, Not Bolted On Mainstream Appeal New Behavioral Contract Packed with eye-opening research, exclusive interviews, and enlightening examples, Green Giants serves as your blueprint for merging wild profitability with social responsibility.

Is it possible for an investment to be good for a firm's profitability without also being good for the environment, employees, or community? Bolton connects these seemingly disparate ideas to show how to incorporate economic costs, benefits, cash flows, and risks into the evaluation of any type of investment.