Although sustainability efforts in business are still a work in progress, it is increasingly clear that key elements of a new generation of enterprises will be radically different from those of our contemporary modern industrial economy. The core distinctions between what currently exists and what is being created are communicated in this book through the compelling metaphor of "Ants, Galileo, and Gandhi."This collection, developed from The Natural Step's conference on Sustainability and Innovation in 2002, provides radical ideas for generating a new perspective on the dynamics of business systems. 'Ants' symbolize the lessons to be learned from nature and the dependence of individual beings on broader, complex systems. "Galileo" embodies brilliance in perceiving and proving that the current paradigm is flawed. "Gandhi" exemplifies exceptional compassion in fighting for fundamental change. All of these attributes are increasingly relevant in a world where, globally, we are experiencing both a steady decline in life-supporting resources and rising demands. Recognition of these challenges is sparking innovation within the private sector where the first glimmers of systemic change can be seen. The book examines the emergence of 21st-century enterprises that recognize their reliance on broad social and ecological systems ("ants"), incorporate sparks of genius rooted in rigorous analyses ('Galileo'), and acknowledge the importance of compassion and determination within any endeavour ('Gandhi'). With contributions from Ray Anderson, Gretchen Daily, Karl-Henrik Robert, Alois Flatz, Allen White and many more, the book illustrates that pioneering companies recognize that new opportunities emerge from recognizing the broader systems on which all businesses rely. Efforts to work with ecological and social dynamics of vibrancy and resilience offer a new space for innovation. Companies are stepping into this space and exploring innovative approaches to developing sustainability-focused products, operations and strategies. These sustainability-inspired business efforts are considering new ways to address human needs and desires. The most promising approaches are based on systems thinking and recognition of the linkages between 'upstream' and 'downstream' effects of actions. Understanding the undesired 'downstream' impacts of a firm's practices draws attention 'upstream'. This assessment highlights the most expedient approach: to design these impacts out of enterprises from the very start.The book is divided into five sections to present a set of theories emerging about sustainability and its application to: business strategy and operations; financial-sector practices; accountability and reporting drivers; and organizational change pathways. Together, these sections illustrate the current range of sustainability theories and applications."Ants, Galileo, and Gandhi" will be essential reading for both academics looking for robust teaching material, practitioners looking for inspiration and the general reader interested in exploring the state of the art in the realignment of 21st-century business."

This open access book develops a framework for advancing agroecology transformations focusing on power, politics and governance. It explores the potential of agroecology as a sustainable and socially just alternative to today's dominant food regime. Agroecology is an ecological approach to farming that addresses climate change and biodiversity loss while contributing to the Sustainable Development Goals. Agroecology transformations represent a challenge to the power of corporations in controlling food system and a rejection of the industrial food systems that are at the root of many social and ecological ills. In this book the authors analyse the conditions that enable and disable agroecology's potential and present six 'domains of transformation' where it comes into conflict with the dominant food system. They argue that food sovereignty, community-self organization and a shift to bottom-up governance are critical for the transformation to a socially just and ecologically viable food system. This book will be a valuable resource to researchers, students, policy makers and professionals across multidisciplinary areas including in the fields of food politics, international development, sustainability and resilience.

With Earth on the brink of total annihilation, can a new universal language unite the world enough to save it? It’s 2422 and the world’s governing mathematicians have calculated that society’s struggles with rampant war and homicide have put humanity on a crash-course with extinction. With an estimated fifteen months left until humankind’s total annihilation, the World Council of Mathematicians (WCM) determine the only way out of the crisis is to create the optimum language for humans, creating common understanding across all cultures and allowing them to work together for their joint salvation.   The WCM and Charles De Costa, a brilliant mathematics student, must rely on LIFT, a scientific breakthrough that allows them to enlist the aid of the greatest minds in history, to create this new world language based on mathematics, linguistics, and music. Can the great minds of the past help lead humanity to a better future? Can this new language be created in time? Or will society’s continued evil and miscommunication lead the world to an inevitable end?

Everyone hikes the Trail for a reason. Some reasons are more deadly than others. After committing the most recent in a series of murders, Paul Leroux goes on the lam the last place the police would look for an out-of-shape chain-smoker. Haunted by his past, Desert Storm veteran Karl Bergman leaves his wife and home behind and sets out on the Appalachian Trail in search of something missing in his life. He never dreams that his quest will force him to confront a serial killer. When their paths collide, a tense battle of wills ensues. Will Leroux make it to Canada before the police can track him down? Can Bergman put his demons to rest and help stop him? And how many more people will die if he cannot? Written with an eye for the details only those who have hiked the Appalachian Trail can give, The Trail combines the solitary world of trail life with the harrowing story of two men desperately trying to escape their pasts.

This is not a book about theory, it is a book about life. This volume is in the excellent Practical Theology Series published by Jessica Kingsley and under the general editorship of John Swinton of Aberdeen University who writes the Foreword. Ray Anderson is an American pastor and academic of many years standing. His starting point is (pre) theoretical, arguing vigorously that practical theology has a particular end in view and therefore differs from the empirical (social) sciences. It is well worth sticking with his argument to see how it works out in practice. Early chapters with phrases in their titles such as "Spiritual Praxis of Practical Theology", "Integrative Gestalt of the Human Self", "Ecological Matrix of the Human Person" and "Social Ecology of Human Spirituality" might seem heavy going at times. Don't be put off! The reader is rewarded with highly relevant contemporary understandings of spirituality illuminating and illuminated by both Scripture and modern theologians and therapists. This book comes highly recommended for anyone involved in the field of mental health care.' - Leveson Newsletter 'This is a book that deserves to be read, and perhaps re-read, by those who deliver spiritual care and wish to reflect on what they do.' - Scottish Journal of Healthcare Chaplaincy Bridging the gap between clinical and religious professionals, this book examines how both can understand the spiritual needs of the individual, and the importance of this spirituality in bringing about health and wholeness. With an emphasis on mental health, the author explores spirituality in the context of the individual and of society, and discusses how those practicing pastoral or health care can deal with the issues raised outside of any specific religious ideas or practice. Taking an ecological approach to understanding the needs of the individual, Ray S. Anderson shows how professionals can help people move towards a more positive state in the face of pain, distress and illness. Moving religious professionals away from the pursuit of simple edification, and those in health from purely medicalized approaches, Spiritual Caregiving as Secular Sacrament brings together professionals' roles in the context of spirituality to enable them to bring the greatest benefit to those in their care.

Everyone hikes the Trail for a reason. Some reasons are more deadly than others. After committing the most recent in a series of murders, Paul Leroux goes on the lam the last place the police would look for an out-of-shape chain-smoker. Haunted by his past, Desert Storm veteran Karl Bergman leaves his wife and home behind and sets out on the Appalachian Trail in search of something missing in his life. He never dreams that his quest will force him to confront a serial killer. When their paths collide, a tense battle of wills ensues. Will Leroux make it to Canada before the police can track him down? Can Bergman put his demons to rest and help stop him? And how many more people will die if he cannot? Written with an eye for the details only those who have hiked the Appalachian Trail can give, The Trail combines the solitary world of trail life with the harrowing story of two men desperately trying to escape their pasts.

Even in the wilderness, trouble seems to find Karl Bergman. Years after his run-in with a serial killer on the Appalachian Trail, Bergman sets out on a thru-hike of the Pacific Crest Trail with his dog, Blazer, with hopes of returning home a better man. But the discovery of a dead body on the outskirts of the Anza-Borrego Desert threatens to embroil Bergman in another violent chain of events with even higher stakes than his previous ordeal. This time his adversary is not just one man as the dead body appears to be linked to a drug cartel using mules to move product from Mexico to Canada. An uneasy alliance with a San Diego narcotics officer makes things more difficult, but when Bergman reconnects with his estranged son Kenny, a sophomore at UCLA, he puts both of them in grave danger that can only be escaped by bringing down the cartel's operation.

Even in the wilderness, trouble seems to find Karl Bergman. Years after his run-in with a serial killer on the Appalachian Trail, Bergman sets out with his dog, Blazer, on a thru-hike of the Pacific Crest Trail—hoping to return home a better man. But the discovery of a dead body on the outskirts of the Anza-Borrego Desert threatens to embroil Bergman in another violent chain of events with even higher stakes than his previous ordeal. This time his adversary is not just one man as the dead body appears to be linked to a drug cartel using mules to move product from Mexico to Canada. An uneasy alliance with a San Diego narcotics officer makes things more difficult, but when Bergman reconnects with his estranged son Kenny, a sophomore at UCLA, he puts both of them in grave danger that can only be escaped by bringing down the cartel's operation.

In this newest Awol hiking thriller, Karl Bergman, whose trail name is Awol, begins to thru-hike the 3,100-mile-long Continental Divide Trail at the Mexican border. By the time Awol and his dog, Blazer, reach the Colorado Rockies, he has uncovered information about a terrorist plot. Awol asks his son, a graduate student at UCLA, to give details to old friend, Detective Vincent Sacco. Awol tells his son he doesn’t want to get involved and continues his thru-hike. Awol is beyond annoyed when FBI agent, Diana Santos, finds him on the CDT and asks him to work with her and infiltrate.

In this, the second volume in "The Chosen" trilogy, Jastin and his son Eliyah, the Chosen, try to find answers in the past experiences of others to help them in their continuing battle with Azriel, the witch who worships the "Holy Void".

Fifteen years after the adventure of the Eye of Eternity, the False Key, and the Last Dragon, Jastin and Gwyneth's son is ensnared by a new dark evil that seeks to bring the Void into the real world. How will Eliyah and his parents deal with this threat?

Tale of the adventures of a brother and sister who become involved in the search for a magical object that could destroy everything.

In this, the final volume of "The Eye of Eternity" trilogy, the false key is destroyed at last, with the reluctant assistance of the last remaining dragon in the land.

The second volume in the Eye of Eternity trilogy. When the Eye of Eternity was destroyed in the first book, there was something forgotten by the adventurers: the false key created by the wizard Zauber. Now it must be found before it causes havoc in the universe.

In 1994, Ray Anderson felt a 'spear in the chest': he realised that his company, billion-dollar carpeting manufacturer Interface, Inc, was plundering the environment with its unsustainable business practices, and that it desperately needed to change direction. Under his leadership, Interface went on to set unprecedented targets for cutting waste, instigated revolutionary recycling initiatives, and encouraged employees at every level of the company to contribute ideas on how to save resources. As a result, the company's greenhouse gas emissions decreased by 82% and are on target to reach zero level by 2020. Not only that, these changes also brought down costs, improved quality, and increased profits. In Confessions of a Radical Industrialist, Ray Anderson shares the remarkable story of how Interface turned itself around, and proves that running your company sustainably isn't radical at all - it's just good business.

With Earth on the brink of total annihilation, can a new universal language unite the world enough to save it? It’s 2422 and the world’s governing mathematicians have calculated that society’s struggles with rampant war and homicide have put humanity on a crash-course with extinction. With an estimated fifteen months left until humankind’s total annihilation, the World Council of Mathematicians (WCM) determine the only way out of the crisis is to create the optimum language for humans, creating common understanding across all cultures and allowing them to work together for their joint salvation.   The WCM and Charles De Costa, a brilliant mathematics student, must rely on LIFT, a scientific breakthrough that allows them to enlist the aid of the greatest minds in history, to create this new world language based on mathematics, linguistics, and music. Can the great minds of the past help lead humanity to a better future? Can this new language be created in time? Or will society’s continued evil and miscommunication lead the world to an inevitable end?

This anthology, designed for use in undergraduate courses in environmental ethics, includes new and classic readings by leading writers in the field, full-length case studies, and many short discussion cases. Introductions and discussion questions are provided for all the essays, with each chapter introduced by a summary of the issues and appropriate philosophic, historical and scientific background. Exploring ethical theory, environmental ethics, science and the environmental movement, Earthcare also offers suggestions for students on how to think about ethics and the environment. Through many worldviews, religions and philosophical perspectives, this collection grapples with environmental ethics issues from valuing nature, concerns about the atmosphere, water, land, animals, and human population as well as the interlocking and often problematic interests of business, consumption, energy and sustainability. This book also features examples of a wide variety of environmentally engaged individuals, giving students a way of seeing the connections between the material studied and what they themselves might accomplish.

This anthology, designed for use in undergraduate courses in environmental ethics, includes new and classic readings by leading writers in the field, full-length case studies, and many short discussion cases. Introductions and discussion questions are provided for all the essays, with each chapter introduced by a summary of the issues and appropriate philosophic, historical and scientific background. Exploring ethical theory, environmental ethics, science and the environmental movement, Earthcare also offers suggestions for students on how to think about ethics and the environment. Through many worldviews, religions and philosophical perspectives, this collection grapples with environmental ethics issues from valuing nature, concerns about the atmosphere, water, land, animals, and human population as well as the interlocking and often problematic interests of business, consumption, energy and sustainability. This book also features examples of a wide variety of environmentally engaged individuals, giving students a way of seeing the connections between the material studied and what they themselves might accomplish.