CWRU Faculty & Staff Authors

Contains authoritative coverage from experts around the world on the ways to restore the planet. Focused on solutions rather than on environmental problems, this work is suitable for twenty-first century students and professionals working to transform our common future.

Business Strategies and Management for Sustainability, a Berkshire Essential, explores how a green economy can be created and sustained. Its well-known authors look at the sustainability of business in both the environmental and financial senses of the word. Articles are designed and written for the nonexpert reader, covering topics such as green gross domestic product, "greenwashing," risk management, and the economics of renewable energy and "going local." An article on corporate social responsibility (CSR)—and what some hail as its more realistic successor, CSR 2.0—assesses the ways in which we can make a measurable difference in how business is conducted.

We are in the midst of a sea-change. In years past, corporate social responsibility may have been seen as a feather in a corporation's cap but, today, ecological and social pressures require a new type of business response. In Embedded Sustainability, authors Chris Laszlo and Nadya Zhexembayeva convincingly show how companies can better leverage global challenges for enduring profit and growth. In this outstanding book, readers will learn about the marquis concept of "embedded sustainability": the incorporation of environmental, health, and social value into core business activities with no trade-off in price or quality. When Clorox introduced its new line of Green Works cleaners or Nissan developed its Leaf 100% electric car, these firms were pursuing a profit shift in mainstream markets. In addition to churning out smarter (instead of just greener) products for consumers at large, embedded sustainability is capable of hugely motivating employees. Most of all, it enables companies to create even higher returns for investors, while responding to the new market realities of declining resources, radical transparency, and rising customer expectations. This book helps readers to comprehend--and act on--the notion of embedded sustainability, explaining why it is now a requisite in every sector, how smart companies are creating even higher value for their customers and investors, and what new management competencies are needed to compete in today's marketplace.

The notion of responsible business has infiltrated our markets, and "going green" is now a part of our mindset. But, sustainability as we know it is not enough. Flourishing--the aspiration that humans and life in general will thrive on the planet forever--should be a key goal for every business today. This is a bold concept, like sustainability was a decade ago. Just as sustainability has become a matter of course, so too will flourishing become a cornerstone of business tomorrow.How are companies to attain this big-picture goal? Drawing together decades of research along with in-depth interviews, Flourishing Enterprise argues that many strategic, organizational, and operational efforts to be sustainable reach the potential of flourishing when they incorporate one additional ingredient: reflective practices. Offering more than a dozen such practices, this book leads readers down a path to greater business success, personal well-being, and a healthier planet.Readers will find that adding reflective practices to existing business efforts does not require more work; it simply changes the way we do our work and, more importantly, the results we achieve. Cultivating emotional and spiritual health is the next frontier; this future-oriented guide develops these core competencies while stretching the ongoing conversation about profitable, sustainable business.

"This is not a book of fluff or feel-good case studies. It's a handbook for organizational change. The instructions are specific, potential pitfalls are highlighted, and the appendix provides a detailed discussion of outside evaluation tools." -GREEN MARKET REPORT "The Sustainable Company offers some genuinely practical insights into what it really takes to improve stakeholder impacts." -ETHICAL CORPORATION "Laszlo endeavors to translate social and environmental concerns into the language of marketing and corporate strategy...well-meaning executives will find much food for thought here." -PUBLISHERS WEEKLY "What Mr. Laszlo calls 'Planetary Ethics' or the integration of economic, environmental, social and high ethical objectives into long-term business strategy, is the new price of entry for corporate survival. Those who 'get' this and do it best will enjoy increasing shareholder value. I believe this book carries a critical message for today's corporate executives."-DEBORAH D. ANDERSON, PH.D., FORMER VICE PRESIDENT, ENVIRONMENTAL QUALITY WORLDWIDE, THE PROCTER & GAMBLE COMPANY The Sustainable Company shows how to create value for shareholders while balancing responsibilities to society and the environment. Its step-by-step approach and tool-kit for managers make this book the solutions manual for the twenty-first-century manager.

In Sustainable Value, Chris Laszlo illustrates how the competitive strategies of some of the world's largest businesses are changing as their leaders begin to take on a number of the world's most important social, environmental, and economic issues. Part I of the book is a management fable about a young CEO and the challenges she faces in addressing her company's impact on society and the environment, while remaining profitable. Based on forward-thinking business leaders the author has worked with over the past twenty-five years, her character reveals how a small but influential group of leaders are re-inventing the role of business in society by offering new solutions to global problems that the public sector has been unable to tackle alone. Part II outlines the new competitive environment in which societal challenges are becoming huge business opportunities. It showcases global industry leaders who are successfully integrating sustainability into their core activities as they respond to issues such as climate change, ecosystem health, and global poverty--not only from a sense of moral correctness, but because it makes good business sense. It demonstrates that, in the "new" competitive environment, stakeholder value built on a company's economic, ecological, and social impact is becoming an effective way to achieve competitive advantage. The real-life sustainability stories of DuPont, Wal-Mart, Lafarge, and Cargills NatureWorks are guided by top management with Profit & Loss responsibility. Part III introduces the Sustainable Value tool-kit--a step-by-step approach to creating and managing value for stakeholders in a broad range of sectors in today's shifting competitive environment. The tool-kit is based on the authors many consulting engagements and executive working sessions in Fortune 1000 companies. These sessions, and this book, are designed to equip managers with the skills to identify how and where they can do well by doing good, thus providing them with the means to build sustainable value and compete effectively in the twenty-first century.

In this new book, Frederick Chavalit Tsao and Chris Laszlo argue that current approaches to leadership fail to produce positive outcomes for either businesses or the communities they serve. Employee disengagement and customer fickleness remain high, resulting in a lack of creativity and collaboration at all levels of entrepreneurial activity. Investor demand for Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) continues to be poorly integrated into profit strategies.

Drawing on extensive research, this book shows how changing a person's consciousness is the most powerful lever for unlocking his or her leadership potential to create wealth and serve humankind. A wide range of practices of connectedness provide the keys. The journey to higher consciousness changes people at a deep intuitive level, combining embodied experience with analytic-cognitive skill development. Tsao and Laszlo show how leaders who pursue this journey are more likely to flourish with significant benefits to both business and society. These include greater creativity and collaboration along with an increased capability to inspire people and produce lasting change. Readers will come away with a deep understanding of quantum leadership and the day-to-day practices that can help them achieve greater effectiveness and wellbeing at work.