The Business of Sustainability is a core resource for policy makers, members of the development community, entrepreneurs, and corporate executives, as well as business and economics students and their professors. It contains rich analysis of how sustainability is being factored into industries across the globe, with enlightening case studies of businesses serving as agents of change. Contributing authors provide a groundbreaking body of research-based knowledge. They explain that the concept of sustainability is being re-framed to be positive about business instead of being tied to the old notion of a trade-off between business and society (that is, if business wins, society and the environment must lose), and they explore how economic development can contribute to building our common future.

This is a practical guide to embedding sustainability into the DNA of an organization. The book addresses today's ecological and social pressures and provides advice for businesses on how to incorporate green initiatives into core strategies without compromising on shareholder and stakeholder requirements.

A small but influential group of mainstream global industry leaders are now reinventing the role of business in society. They are shifting the focus away from minimizing negative impacts to offering new solutions to global problems that the public sector has been unable to tackle alone. In this new competitive environment, societal challenges such as climate change or the alleviation of global poverty are not only risks, but huge business opportunities, not only for niche players, but for mainstream business. These leaders are creating 'Sustainable Value.' They are creating it through the provision of value to both their shareholders and their stakeholders - an ever-growing list of diverse constituents impacted by the social, environmental, and financial performance of global business. In short, they are doing well by doing good.In this outstanding book, Chris Laszlo defines, illustrates, and shows how business can action 'Sustainable Value' in three profoundly different ways. First, a management fable looks at the experiences of a dynamic business leader as she grapples with the new business realities of managing stakeholder, as well as shareholder pressures. Second, with the real thing - inside stories from some of the largest corporations in the world that are successfully integrating sustainability into their core activities, not only from a sense of moral correctness, but because it makes good business sense. And, finally, with frameworks, tools, and methods that will make sustainable value creation concrete for business practitioners everywhere. This book is a masterful synthesis - part novel and part executive briefing - a refreshing kind of prophetic pragmatism, helping leaders anticipate and see the future in the context of the actual.In Sustainable Value Chris Laszlo speaks with resounding clarity to the living challenges, the real dilemmas, and haunting questions of CEOs everywhere.

The notion of responsible business has infiltrated our markets, and "going green" is now a part of our mind set. 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 will 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 ethical, sustainable business.

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.

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.

Explores how a green economy can be created and sustained - using sustainability in both the environmental and financial sense of the word. Articles written for the nonexpert reader cover topics such as green-collar jobs, energy and foreign investment law, public-private partnerships, the World Bank, smart growth, the financial services industry, the "base of the pyramid," (i.e., the world's poor), social enterprise, green taxes, and the concept of the triple bottom line, sometimes described as "people, planet, and profit.

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.