Society and democracy are ever threatened by the fall of fact. Rigorous analysis of facts, the hard boundary between truth and opinion, and fidelity to reputable sources of factual information are all in alarming decline. A 2018 report published by the RAND Corporation labeled this problem "truth decay" and Andrew J. Hoffman lays the challenge of fixing it at the door of the academy. But, as he points out, academia is prevented from carrying this out due to its own existential crisis—a crisis of relevance. Scholarship rarely moves very far beyond the walls of the academy and is certainly not accessing the primarily civic spaces it needs to reach in order to mitigate truth corruption. In this brief but compelling book, Hoffman draws upon existing literature and personal experience to bring attention to the problem of academic insularity—where it comes from and where, if left to grow unchecked, it will go—and argues for the emergence of a more publicly and politically engaged scholar. This book is a call to make that path toward public engagement more acceptable and legitimate for those who do it; to enlarge the tent to be inclusive of multiple ways that one enacts the role of academic scholar in today's world.

Join teacher John R. Ehrenfeld and his former student now professor, Andrew J. Hoffman as they discuss how to create a sustainable world. This book goes beyond the typical stories that we tell ourselves about repairing the environmental damages of human progress. Through their dialogue and essays that open each section, the authors uncover two core facets of our culture that drive the unsustainable, unsatisfying, and unfair social and economic machines that dominate our lives.

This book offers a glimpse into the future. The companies it describes are pioneers, the first-movers in market shifts that will eventually become mainstream. These hybrid organizations or what others call values-driven or mission-driven organizations operate in the blurry space between the for-profit and non-profit worlds. They are redefining their supply chains, their sources of capital, their very purpose for being; and in the process they are changing the market for others."

Re-engaging with Sustainability in the Anthropocene Era applies organization theory to a grand challenge: our entry into the Anthropocene era, a period marked not only by human impact on climate change, but on chemical waste, habitat destruction, and despeciation. It focuses on institutional theory, modified by political readings of organizations, as one approach that can help us navigate a new course. Besides offering mechanisms, such as institutional entrepreneurship, social movements, and policy shifts, the institutional-political variant developed here helps analysts understand the framing of scientific facts, the counter-mobilization of skeptics, and the creation of archetypes as new social orders.

"Flourishing: A Frank Conversation about Sustainability" invites you into a conversation between a teacher, John R. Ehrenfeld, and his former student now professor, Andrew J. Hoffman, as they discuss how to create a sustainable world. Unlike virtually all other books about sustainability, this one goes beyond the typical stories that we tell ourselves about repairing the environmental damages of human progress.
Through their dialogue and essays that open each section, the authors uncover two core facets of our culture that drive the unsustainable, unsatisfying, and unfair social and economic machines that dominate our lives. First, our collective model of the way the world works cannot cope with the inherent complexity of today's highly connected, high-speed reality. Second, our understanding of human behavior is rooted in this outdated model. Driven by the old guard, sustainability has become little more than a fashionable idea. As a result, both business and government are following the wrong pathOCoat best applying temporary, less unsustainable solutions that will fail to leave future generations in better shape.
To shift the pendulum, this book tells a new story, driven by being and caring, as opposed to having and needing, rooted in the beauty of complexity and arguing for the transformative cultural shift that we can make based on our collective wisdom and lived experiences. Then, the authors sketch out the road to a flourishing future, a change in our consumption and a new approach to understanding and acting.
There is no middle ground; without a sea change at the most basic level, we will continue to head down a faulty path. Indeed, this book is a clarion call to action. Candid and insightful, it leaves readers with cautious hope.

Business leaders have tremendous power to influence our society, how it operates, whether it is fair, and the extent to which it impacts the environment. And yet, we do not recognize or call out the responsibility that comes with that power. This book is meant to challenge future business leaders to think differently about their career, its purpose, and its value as a calling or vocation, one that is in service to society. Its message is for current and prospective business students, business leaders thinking anew about the role of business in society, and the business educators that train all these people. We face great challenges as a society today, from environmental problems like climate change and habitat destruction, to social problems like income inequality, unemployment, lack of a living wage, and poor access to affordable health care and education. Solutions to these challenges must come from the market (as comprised of corporations, the government, and nongovernmental organizations, as well as the many stakeholders in market transaction, such as the consumers, suppliers, buyers, insurance companies, and banks), the most powerful institution on earth, and from business, which is the most powerful entity within it. Though government is an important and vital arbiter of the market, business is the force that transcends national boundaries, possessing resources that exceed those of many nations. Business is responsible for producing the buildings that we live and work in, the food we eat, the clothes we wear, the forms of mobility we employ, and the energy that propels us. This does not mean that only business can generate solutions or that there is no role for government, but with its unmatched powers of ideation, production, and distribution, business is positioned to bring the change we need at the scale we need it. Without business, the solutions will remain elusive. Indeed, if there are no solutions coming from the market, there will be no solutions. And without visionary and service-oriented leaders, business will never even try to find them.

Though the scientific community largely agrees that climate change is underway, debates about this issue remain fiercely polarized. These conversations have become a rhetorical contest, one where opposing sides try to achieve victory through playing on fear, distrust, and intolerance. At its heart, this split no longer concerns carbon dioxide, greenhouse gases, or climate modeling; rather, it is the product of contrasting, deeply entrenched worldviews. This brief examines what causes people to reject or accept the scientific consensus on climate change. Synthesizing evidence from sociology, psychology, and political science, Andrew J. Hoffman lays bare the opposing cultural lenses through which science is interpreted. He then extracts lessons from major cultural shifts in the past to engender a better understanding of the problem and motivate the public to take action. How Culture Shapes the Climate Change Debate makes a powerful case for a more scientifically literate public, a more socially engaged scientific community, and a more thoughtful mode of public discourse.

This is a pathbreaking account of how the environmental movement has led to profound changes in the perceptions and practices of large-scale corporations, as shown here in the chemical and petroleum industries. The book traces how market, social, and political pressures drive corporations to respond to environmental issues, analyzes the cultural frames that organizations use to come to terms with these external influences, and describes the resulting changes in organizational culture and structure. For this expanded edition, the author has written a new chapter that brings his original assessment up to date, expands and modifies the model and data used in the original edition, and offers a broad picture of the current state of corporate environmentalism and where it is going.

Flourishing: A Frank Conversation about Sustainability invites you into a conversation between a teacher, John R. Ehrenfeld, and his former student now professor, Andrew J. Hoffman, as they discuss how to create a sustainable world. Unlike virtually all other books about sustainability, this one goes beyond the typical stories that we tell ourselves about repairing the environmental damages of human progress. Through their dialogue and essays that open each section, the authors uncover two core facets of our culture that drive the unsustainable, unsatisfying, and unfair social and economic machines that dominate our lives. First, our collective model of the way the world works cannot cope with the inherent complexity of today's highly connected, high-speed reality. Second, our understanding of human behavior is rooted in this outdated model. Driven by the old guard, sustainability has become little more than a fashionable idea. As a result, both business and government are following the wrong path-at best applying temporary, less unsustainable solutions that will fail to leave future generations in better shape. To shift the pendulum, this book tells a new story, driven by being and caring, as opposed to having and needing, rooted in the beauty of complexity and arguing for the transformative cultural shift that we can make based on our collective wisdom and lived experiences. Then, the authors sketch out the road to a flourishing future, a change in our consumption and a new approach to understanding and acting. There is no middle ground; without a sea change at the most basic level, we will continue to head down a faulty path. Indeed, this book is a clarion call to action. Candid and insightful, it leaves readers with cautious hope.

"Deftly employing the tools of institutionary theory, the authors in this edited collection link natural and organizational environments in a variety of new and challenging ways. Theoretically rich and analytically sophisticated, Organizations, Policy and the Natural Environment is a veritable treasure trove of useful approaches and strategies that should appeal to researchers and practitioners in organizational behavior, management studies, environmental sociology and public administration."--John Hannigan, Professor of Sociology, University of Toronto and author of Environmental Sociology: A Social Constructionist Perspective
"Organizations, Policy, and the Natural Environment is a much welcomed and timely contribution to the growing body of literature on corporate environmentalism and environmental policy. Not only do the contributors to this volume clearly demonstrate the applicability of institutional theories of organization in analyzing environmental issues, they use environmental issues to extend theory in organizational sociology and strategy. Positioned at the intersection of environmental sociology, environmental policy studies and management, and organization theory, this book provides insights relevant and important for audiences in all these fields."--Susse George, Department of Organization and Industrial Sociology, Copenhagen Business School

Environmental issues now loom large on the social, political, and business agenda. Over the past four decades, "corporate environmentalism" has emerged and been constantly redefined, from regulatory compliance to more recent management conceptions such as pollution prevention, total quality environmental management, industrial ecology, life cycle analysis, environmental strategy, environmental justice, and, most recently, sustainable development. As a result, understanding the intersection of business activity and environmental protection has become increasingly complex, and there has emerged a focus in academic research on business decision-making, firm behavior, and the protection of the natural environment. This handbook reviews the state of the field as it grows into a mature area of study within management science, its achievements, and its future avenues of research. It brings together original contributions in the field along several lines of enquiry. The first six focus on disciplines as delineated in contemporary business schools: business strategy; policy and non-market strategies; organizational theory and behavior; operations and technology; marketing; and accounting and finance. The seventh section reviews emergent and associated perspectives, whilst a concluding section, written by long-standing leaders in the field, discusses the future outlook for research.

Environmental issues now loom large on the social, political, and business agenda. Over the past four decades, "corporate environmentalism" has emerged and been constantly redefined, from regulatory compliance to more recent management conceptions such as "pollution prevention," "total quality environmental management," "industrial ecology," "life cycle analysis," "environmental strategy," "environmental justice," and, most recently, "sustainable development."
As a result, understanding the intersection of business activity and environmental protection has become increasingly complex, and there has emerged a focus in academic research on business decision-making, firm behavior, and the protection of the natural environment. This handbook reviews the state of the field as it grows into a mature area of study within management science, its achievements, and its future avenues of research. It brings together original contributions in the field along several lines of enquiry. The first six focus on disciplines as delineated in contemporary business schools: business strategy; policy and non-market strategies; organizational theory and behavior; operations and technology; marketing; and accounting and finance. The seventh section reviews emergent and associated perspectives, whilst a concluding section, written by long-standing leaders in the field, discusses the future outlook for research.

"Climate change's impacts cut across all functional areas of a business. The systematic approach proposed in this report will be very helpful to business managers concerned with integration of business activities in operations, marketing, finance, and human resources to support a consistent, pro-active strategic response to climate change."--Karen Flanders, Director, Corporate Responsibility, The Coca-Cola Company ""Carbon Strategies" captures the risks, and opportunities, for companies in an increasingly carbon-constrained marketplace. This book will be invaluable to any executive seeking insight into strategies for success in this changing business climate."--William L. Thomas, Americas Environment Head, Clifford Chance US LLP "For any manager who has been charged by the CEO to develop a climate change strategy, this book is for you. It offers plainspoken wisdom garnered from over 30 companies on how best to address climate change as a business issue. It takes much of the guesswork and expense out of testing unproven ideas, and puts you on the right path towards addressing this critical issue in a way that benefits the bottom line and the environment."--Fred Krupp, President, Environmental Defense "In order to preserve the stability and growth of the world's economy and all of the opportunities it affords, we must protect the global environment. Climate change represents one of the most significant issues of risk and reward facing CEOs and investors today. Hoffman offers a very helpful framework for the analysis."--Michael Klein, Chairman and Co-Chief Executive Officer, Citi Markets & Banking Vice Chairman, Citibank International PLC "Future generations will look back with eitheradmiration or despair, judging how well we, in these early years of the twenty-first century, addressed critical climate-change issues. Over the past six years, even as Entergy's sales increased more than 20 percent, our emissions have been held to near 1990 levels. We applaud Andy Hoffman and the Pew Center's success in creating a fact-based constructive dialogue among various stakeholders, while offering effective solutions to meet the needs of future generations. With the best intentions of everyone, we can give our grandchildren a planet that we changed for the better."--J. Wayne Leonard, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, Entergy Corporation "While climate change presents a daunting array of potential challenges, there are also real opportunities if you know where to look for them. "Carbon Strategies" provides approachable, pragmatic, and actionable guidance for companies who are ready and willing to turn climate-related risks from a liability into a competitive advantage."--Brian M. Storms, Chairman and CEO, Marsh Inc. "We hear far too often that the constraints of 'business as usual' prevent real action on global warming. In this important and timely book Andrew Hoffman demonstrates that real action is already under way in many of the world's leading corporations. Moving far beyond simple anecdotes to detailed analysis and careful case history, Hoffman lays out a practical road map to enduring corporate change."--Rebecca M. Henderson, Eastman Kodak LFM Professor, MIT Sloan School "Carbon Strategies" describes specific steps any business can take to implement sound, practical, climate-related corporate policies. Based on Andrew J. Hoffman's widely praised report from the PewCenter on Global Climate Change, and significantly revised in light of subsequent developments, "Carbon Strategies" teaches practitioners and students about the importance of timing policy implementation, establishing appropriate levels of internal and external commitment, influencing beneficial policy development, and creating new business opportunities based on climate policy. Hoffman presents real-life "lessons learned" at each step of the climate-strategy development process and concludes this concise guidebook with six case studies (Cinergy, Swiss Re, DuPont, Alcoa, Shell Group, and Whirlpool) that demonstrate the principles of corporate climate policymaking in action.