Book Description

Environmental concerns can greatly affect business success, regardless of whether a business person or corporation shares those concerns. Today's corporate managers must understand the power of environmental issues, and shift their mindset from one focused on environmental "management" to one focused on strategy.

Competitive Environmental Strategy examines the effects of environmentalism on corporate management, explaining how and why environmental forces are driving change and how business managers can think about environmental issues in a strategic way. The author discusses:

• the evolving drivers of corporate environmental strategy, including regulators, shareholders, buyers and suppliers, insurers, investors, and consumers
• how environmentalism alters basic conceptions of competitive strategy and organizational design
• how external institutions create both opportunity and limitations for environmental strategy
• how environmental threats can be incorporated into risk management, capital acquisition, competitive position, and other management concerns

Competitive Environmental Strategy offers a valuable overview of the subject, and provides a wealth of real-world examples that demonstrate the validity and applicability of the concepts for business people, clearly showing how managers are turning an understanding of environmental issues to competitive advantage. ... Read more

Book Description

In an era when corporations are under increasing pressure to be stewards of the environment and society as they pursue profits, business expert Bob Willard provides a practical benefit-by-benefit guide for assessing all three areas as a win/win/win proposition. Written in the pragmatic language of business leaders, this book is the first to present compelling and quantitative bottom-line evidence of the profitability of social and environmental initiatives. ... Read more

Reviews (1)

thought provouking
design for sustainability is defnitly a sourcebook for sustainable designers.it spanes through every aspect of our existance and ofers a new way of living it sustainably. from hemp clothes to earth building and even touches thinking patterns of design, giving the profetional designer not only eco-logical solutions but new perspectives to the process of design.
this book opened my mind to new pathes of thought and action. ... Read more

Book Description

Written by the first of a new breed of ``quality gurus,'' Fourth Generation Management is a clear, concise synthesis of the best of current management practice and a host of dynamic prescriptions for the future. The centerpiece of the book is the ``Joiner Triangle'', which provides readers with a conceptual framework upon which to build a new corporate culture--one that positions companies for growing productivity and profit in the years ahead. Focusing on quality as defined by the customer. . .a scientific, databased approach to management. . .and the creation of long-term, team-spirited relationships both internally and externally--the Joiner Triangle is already gaining credence as the management philosophy of tomorrow. And that's only the beginning. Readers will learn why process is more important than short-term results, how to foster a working environment in which all employees feel like winners, a new way of looking at data, processes, and variation, and much more. In short, this major release by a widely respected quality improvement leader is the business person's blueprint for the next phase of the ``Quality Revolution.'' ... Read more

Reviews (5)

A Good Read!
To survive in today's business environment, it's not enough to just keep improving - you have to do it faster than the other guy does. Brian L. Joiner provides valuable direction in how to get better faster. This approach transcends goal-based management by focusing on the needs of the customer. Only then do apparent contradictions between customer service and cost-cutting become manageable again. The author admits that the teachings of management guru W. Edwards Deming heavily influences his advice. We at getAbstract recommend this very helpful work to managers searching for a more enlightened, more effective approach. It will be particularly useful for those who need a strong rationale to do what they already think is right.

Practical and Realistic
Joiner, being Deming's former protégé, has not let the latter down by the technical content of this book. It is straightforward and realistic in its teachings and does not glorify the illustrious side of 'Quality' and its affiliated managerial principles. Most managers should find it relatively easy and practical enough to apply.

A manual well written.

I wish every senior manager would read this book.
While I think the title "Fourth Generation Management" overstates its impact, I wish every senior manager in corporate America would read this book. Many of today's larger corporations are filled with managers so busy fighting for their own promotion (or survival) that their decisions and actions fail to move the organization towards its goals. Adding to the problem is a general laziness in the thought processes displayed by many career-minded individuals. Further compounding the problem is the mindless tampering that always seems to backfire, resulting in increased costs and waste. In this very readable book, Brian Joiner provides solid explanations for these phenomena and offers insight into how to address these issues. As a management consultant, I often recommend this book to my clients. If you have any questions, please feel free to email me - adamleft@webspan.net.

Moving from management by objective to the next generation.
A paragraph from the last chapter is an excellent statement of what's covered.
"No executive wants to increase inefficiency and waste, cost and bureaucracy. Yet without a dedication to customers, without an understanding of systems thinking and variation, without an appreciation for cooperation and the use of data, that is unfortunately what we end up doing." (page 255)
You will likely see your company in one of the many examples given by Mr. Joiner. Chapter 9 gives just the right amount of detail in understanding variation and the use of control charts. The remainder of the book helps you understand how "common" and "specific" causes affect a system and how to manage them.

A wealth of knowledge
Dr. Joiner has made a significant contribution to the advancement of Deming theory with Fourth Generation Management. Elegant theory is shown in practice, providing examples that will stay on your mind as points of reference for years to come ... Read more

Book Description

Book Description

In this remarkable collection of essays, David James Duncan, award-winning author of The River Why, braids his contemplative, activist, and rhapsodic voices together into a potently distinctive whole, speaking with power and urgency about the vital connections between our water-filled bodies and this water-covered planet. The twenty-two essays in this collection swirl and eddy around the author's early-forged bond with the rivers of the Pacific Northwest and their endangered native salmon. With a bracing blend of story, logic, science, and humor, Duncan relates mystical, life-changing fishing adventures; draws incisive portraits of the humans and wild creatures who shaped his destiny; attacks the corporate greed and political folly that have brought whole ecosystems to ruin; and meditates on the spiritual and practical necessity of acknowledging our dependence on water in its primal state. 4 b/w photographs ... Read more

Reviews (20)

Duncan writes with heart.
My Story as Told by Water covers a varied terrain ranging from environmental activism to the virtues of fly-fishing without a hired guide. The book is really a collection of essays (many published in other books and periodicals) about rivers in the Northwestern United States. Duncan shares much of his early life growing up in neighborhoods just beyond the growing tentacles of Portland, Oregon. He writes openly about this family, including his bitter confrontation over the war in Vietnam with his dad, and the loss of his brother. Given such a backdrop, it's easy to understand how Duncan turned to the solitude of fishing local streams to deal with the pain of his youth.

Later in the book, Duncan finds his stride writing about the not-so-bright outlook facing wild salmon along the Columbia and Snake Rivers. You can almost feel the tears welling up in his eyes as he describes their near exit from his world. He sums up the disaster of the salmon run on the Snake River this way: "The babble of 'salmon management' rhetoric has taken a river of prayful human yearning, diverted it into a thousand word-filled ditches, and run it over alkali. When migratory creatures are prevented from migrating, they are no longer migratory creatures: they're kidnap victims. The name of the living vessel in which wild salmon evolved and still thrive is not 'fish bypass system,' 'smolt-deflecting diversionary strobe light,' or 'barge.' It is River."

Duncan opens his heart to the connections he has to rivers and wild fish. But more importantly, he gives us inspiration for making our own connections to those wild places.

Stereotypical, obvious, pompus
Duncan's textbook rants are so predictable I found myself mouthing the next sentence before I read it. As someone who's work and life is submerged in environmental, water use, and preservation issues I find this type of stereotypical ranting more detrimental to the issues that concern me than most G.W. policies. Duncan preaches to the choir, but his preaching is so over the top it is a turn-off. While I agree with virtually every theme and policy he promotes, his pompus diatribes push me in the other direction. If this book were written 40 years ago it might strike a radical tone and inspire action. In these times it is merely a rehash of the new-age mumbo-jumbo that is so easy for the opposition to tear down.

This book will apeal to two audiences: new-age sheep, and right-wingers looking to bash environmentalists. The rest will find it harder to wade through than Columbia.

Henry Bugbee
For those who are interested in the life and teaching of Henry Bugbee, Duncan's account of Henry's last days makes this book worth reading.

My Story As Told By Water
My Story As Told By Water by David James Duncan was a confusing and overly political way to express the author's love for water. HIs diliverey is good, but he should keep in mind that his readers are reading for entertainment, not to hear about our government's poor decisions.

GRATE BOIK
I LIKE DAVID'S USE OF FICTION BETTER TO PROMOTE HIS ENVIRONMENTALIST IDEAS AND ALTHOUGH THIS IS AN EXCELLENT BOOK I MUST SAY I PREFER HIS FICTION....THANKS DAVID FOR A GREAT BOOK AND ENLIGHTENING ME ON THE TROUBLES OF SALMON....ONCE AGAIN I LOVE YOUR WRITING STYLE...

ROD FOSTER ... Read more

Book Description

The two most critical issues for business today, according to CEO's Barrett has worked with, are: "How to tap the deepest levels of creativity and the highest levels of productivity of our employees."In a world where competition has become global, successful companies are learning to build competitive advantage through their human capital.In the 21st Century, even that will not be enough.Success will also hinge on whether, in the eyes of the employees and society-at-large, the organization is a trusted member of the community and a good global citizen.Developing a values-driven approach to business is quickly becoming essential for financial success.Who you are and what you stand for are becoming just as important as what you sell.



"More than simply a majestic vision, Richard Barrett's book brilliantly describes the ways and means for business leaders to create the compassionate and viable future we urgently need on our beautiful planet."
-Godric E.S. Bader, F.R.S.A., Life President, Scott Bader Commonwealth Ltd.

"If every corporate executive bought this book and assigned it for in-house management development courses, the world would become a better place."
-Hazel Henderson, author, Building a Win-Win World and Creating Alternative Futures

"As we approach the new Millennium the world seeks clear thinkers with visionary concepts to help unravel the challenges before us. Richard Barrett's inspiring new book Liberating the Corporate Soul weaves a rich tapestry balancing heart and soul with a practical down-to-earth corporate vision for the future."
-Craig and Patricia Neal, Co-Founders, Heartland Institute

"Liberating the Corporate Soul presents a convincing rationale for making ethical and socially responsible behavior the best foundation for building and maintaining a high performance, globally successful business."
-Robert W. MacGregor, President, Minnesota Center for Corporate Responsibility

"Liberating the Corporate Soul gives a powerful set of tools for organizational transformation. I highly recommend it."
-Ann Svendsen, Consultant and author of The Stakeholder Strategy: Profiting from Collaborative Business Relationships

"Practical advice to tap the source of creativity and innovation which every business seeks."
-Ron Nahser, President and CEO of The Nahser Agency/Advertising, Chicago

"The bold, practical blueprint we need for moving business to the next evolutionary level. Sweeping, brilliant a sense of the grandeur of the new paradigm of business."
-Martin Rutte, President Livelihood, co-author Chicken Soup for the Soul at Work

"Liberating the Corporate Soul is a must read for leaders who want to shape a government built on values, innovation, and greater efficiency."
-Jody Zall Kusek, Director of Strategic Planning and Performance Management, U.S. Department of the Interior

"Liberating the Corporate Soul achieves the impossible: it integrates the intangibles of ethics, vision, and consciousness into a tangible measurement system."
-Marcello Palazzi, Bsc, Msc, MBA, Co-Founder and Chair, Progressio Foundation, The Netherlands

"Liberating the Corporate Soul provides a paradigm shifting look at how business leaders can harness the creative potential of their staff and their organizations. The author concisely develops and explains several tools that will enable managers to create an organizational foundation that will foster alignment, accountability and strategic focus."
-Tad McKeon, MBA, CPA, CQM, 1997 Senior Examiner, Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award, co-author, Transforming Home Care: Quality, Cost and Data Management

"This book has captured the true challenge of business today: nurturing values-based organizations to which employees and other stakeholders commit. It is also an excellent guide to achieving this goal which is proving to be the most important success factor of our times."
-Margareta Barchan, CEO and President, CELEMI, Sweden

"This book breaks new ground in helping business leaders take responsibility for the whole. It encourages us to build a better world through business."
-George E. McCown, Co-Founder and Managing Partner, McCown, De Leeuw & Co., Chairman, World Business Academy

"If you want to install in your company a climate of trust, harmony, creativity and vision . . . If you accept to be honest about your own values and ethics . . . Jump on this book, it is one of the best I know, linking a new vision with concrete and effective tools helping you to revitalize and reenchant your enterprise."
-Marc Luyckx, Forward Studies Unit European Commission, Brussels

ú This book is a process blueprint for building a visionary organization with a values-driven approach
ú Based on tested models and tools developedinternationally on how work, values and leadership will change in the 21st century
ú Originated from work within the World Bank where the author was Values Coordinator and Founder of the World Bank Spiritual Unfoldment Society and a member of the Institutional Change and strategy Dept. at the World Bank. ... Read more

Reviews (5)

The process of building a visionary organization
"This book has been such a journey. I started out with two ideas. The first idea was that organizational transformation must look and feel a lot like personal transformation. The second idea was that the values held by successful companies must be similar to the values held by successful individuals. These two ideas led me on a journey of discovery that gladdened my heart...This book...provides a road map and tools for those who want to travel the same path" (from the Foreward).

In this context, Richard Barrett, in Chapter 11, shows a comprehensive framework for building a visionary organization. Here, he defines a visionary organization as a long-living, successful organization that cares about its employees, its customers, the local community, the environment, and a society at large. According to him, visionary organizations take social responsibility very seriously, and they display six important characteristics:

1. They have strong, positive, values-driven cultures.

2. They make a lasting commitment to learning and self-renewal.

3. They are continually adapting themselves based on feedback from internal and external environments.

4. They make strategic alliances with internal and external partners, customers, and suppliers.

5. They are willing to take risk and experiment.

6. They have a balanced values-based approach to measuring performance that includes such factors as corporate survival (financial results), corporate fitness (efficiency, productivity, and quality), collaboration with suppliers and customers, continuous learning and self-development (corporate evolution), organizational cohesion and employee fulfillment (corporate culture), and corporate contribution to the local community and society.

Hence, he develops a three-phase process for building a visionary organization: (1) preparation, (2) implementation, and (3) maintaining an evolutionary culture.

Finally, during the process of building a visionary organization, he writes that "the critical factors in successful transformations are (a) the management team's commitment to modeling the new values and behaviors; (b) integrating the new values into the structural incentives of the human resource processes of the organization; (c) building psychological ownership by involving employees in defining the missiom, vision, and values and the Balanced Needs Scorecard objectives and targets; (d) helping employees to think like owners; and (e) assigning responsibilities and developing structural mechanisms to support innovation, learning, and cultural renewal."

Highly recommended.

A Quantum Leap in Compassionate Corporate Transformation
In his visionary and hopeful book, Global Mind Change, The Promise of the 21st Century (1990), futurist Willis Harman observed that we are in the midst of the greatest social shift since the Middle Ages, a change in the actual belief structure of Western society. As the dominant institution in society, Willis felt business had an obligation and the potential to lead this shift. In Creative Work: The Constructive Role of Business in a Transforming Society (1990), he provided some benchmarks of new paradigm business and examples of a handful of leading companies.

Richard Barrett is clearly an inspired central figure in empowering the business world to take its place as an evolutionary and transformational force. Through his consulting practice, speaking engagements and now his powerful new book, Liberating the Corporate Soul, Richard presents the business world a gift of immense proportions providing a clear understanding of how to liberate the untapped creative brilliance, deep compassion and universal love that has been trapped within the prisons of old paradigm business models.

He challenges business leaders to "create strategic goals that call for quantum increases in performance that promote transformational thinking." "These improvements are achieved", he says, "only by taking a systems approach-a shift in basic assumptions that create a new way of being and doing - evolution". "Not doing things differently, but doing different things." Not shifting things around a table but creating a new table. "When individuals are asked to participate in transformational thinking they tap into their intuition and creativity. This type of thinking can only be maintained in corporate cultures that are built around trust, employee involvement and openness."

He cites the research of Collins and Porras whose book, Built to Last, proves that "contrary to business school doctrine, maximizing shareholder wealth and profits are not the dominant driving forces in most long lasting successful companies. Throughout the history of most visionary companies a core ideology existed that transcended purely economic considerations."

Quoting mystic poet Kahil Gibran, who said "work is love made visible", he goes on to say that "the challenge for companies in the twenty-first century is to create a work environment that encourages personal fulfillment-taking care of employees' physical, emotional, mental and spiritual needs....to live out their passions and provide them with opportunities for service". According to a 1995 Newsweek article, 58% of Americans feel the need to experience spiritual growth. "What better place", Richard asks, "than through your work?

Building on the work of humanistic psychologist Abraham Maslow, he finds that "most companies are stuck in the lower levels of consciousness he has identified as survival, relationship or self-esteem consciousness."

Barrett has developed the Balanced Need Scorecard and other powerful laser-like measuring tools to help organizations determine if the values they espouse are being embraced and lived. In the end, he believes "companies either operate from the fears of the ego or the love of the soul". Richard defines evolutionary leaders as "people who hold a vision and courageously pursue that vision in such a way that it resonates with the souls of people".

As the editor of an online publication that explores new paradigms in business and other disciplines, I would not risk entering the 21st century without reading, digesting and implementing the ideas contained in Liberating the Corporate Soul. Those companies that do will have a strategic advantage over those that don't. More importantly, it is unlikely that corporations will survive without creating transformational cultures that nurture and liberate.

A superb approach to blending values with the bottom line
New Book Provides Road Map and Tools For Building Visionary, Values-Based Businesses

(Washington, D.C. - December 1, 1998) You don't have to look far these days to witness the growing trend in business to nurture the corporate "soul." Once muttered in hushed tones of self-conscious reserve, soft-sounding words like "values" and "meaning" and "spirituality" are becoming as bold and common in the corporate lexicon as hard-nosed phrases like "bottom-line" and "return on investment." Until recently, though, the two vocabularies have struggled to come together in any cohesive, systematic process for guiding the strategies and actions of corporate America.

In a new book entitled Liberating the Corporate Soul (Butterworth-Heinemann publishers), author and business consultant, Richard Barrett, bridges that gap with an approach to organizational planning that will warm the hearts of human resources, corporate affairs and financial people alike.

The book begins with a review of Barrett's central thesis that "who you are and what you stand for are becoming just as important as what you sell." Next, Barrett describes his Corporate Transformation ToolsSM which is a set of measurement instruments for "auditing" individual and organizational values. Finally, the book provides a framework for using those tools to build a visionary, values-based organization.

Barrett's model is based partly on the landmark work of Abraham Maslow who defined the human "hierarchy of needs" on four main levels - security, relationship, self-esteem, and self-actualization. "Maslow himself concluded, however, that self-actualized individuals were actually motivated by higher states of consciousness, including spiritual needs," says Barrett. "But he never fully delineated what those states were."

Liberating the Corporate Soul expands on Maslow's work with a detailed explanation of Barrett's Seven Levels of Organizational Consciousness (survival, relationship, self-esteem, transformation, organization, community, and society) and Seven Levels of Leadership Consciousness (authoritarian, paternalist, manager, facilitator, collaborator, partner/servant, wisdom/visionary). According to Barrett, one level isn't necessarily superior to another. "All are relevant. It's really more a question of balance," he says. "However, it is at the higher levels of consciousness that organizations are meeting spiritual needs that focus more on the common good than individual self-interest."

The book's message and methodology are receiving acclaim from noted business leaders and authors throughout the world. Martin Rutte, co-author of the popular Chicken Soup for the Soul at Work calls Barrett's book "the bold, practical blueprint we need for moving business to the next evolutionary level. Sweeping, brilliant, a sense of the grandeur of the new paradigm of business." Marcello Palazzi, Co-Founder and Chair of the Progessio Foundation in The Netherlands says that "Liberating the Corporate Soul achieves the impossible: it integrates the intangibles of ethics, vision, and consciousness into a tangible measurement system."

Barrett began his search for a mechanism that would align an organization's actions and decisions with individual and social values when he was employed at the World Bank. In the early 1990s, he set out on a personal mission to move values to the top of the bank's business agenda. Through a series of determined steps - including the formation of the "Spiritual Unfoldment Society" at the bank - he managed to fulfill his mission and simultaneously formulate his values-based organizational development system.

Today, Barrett is head of his own consulting firm, Richard Barrett and Associates, LLC, and he is using his values-based system in working with organizations throughout the world. He is quick to point out that all of the organizations with which he works have values. The question is whether those values resonate internally with employees searching for deeper meaning in their work lives, as well as externally with a society increasingly favoring businesses that exhibit advanced levels of social consciousness.

The book cites revealing data from several research studies to support Barrett's claim of shifting trends in employee and social attitudes. The Cone/Roper Marketing Trends Report shows that 76% of consumers in 1997 said they would switch to brands associated with a good cause if price and quality were equal. That figure is up from 66% in 1993. On the employee front, a study conducted by Students for Responsible Business with 2,100 students at 50 graduate business programs found that 50% said they would accept a lower salary to work for a "very socially responsible" company. Perhaps more revealing, 43% claimed they would not work for a company that was not socially responsible.

Data like that is not being lost on some of the country's leading business figures. In his book, Barrett quotes Levi Strauss CEO, Robert Haas, as stating "In the next century, a company will stand or fall on its values."

None of the enthusiasm for this growing trend is much of a surprise to Barrett. "People naturally feel better about themselves and their companies when they see a clear sense of values, vision and compassion driving management decisions and actions," he says. And there's good news in that for the people watching the bottom line, because those positive feelings will translate into greater loyalty, stronger performance, and higher profits. It's a win-win outcome all the way around."

Liberating the Corporate Soul is now on sale at major bookstores across the country.

One of the best books on practical spirituality at work
Liberating the Corporate Soul is one of the most practical books to come out on spirituality in the workplace. Barrett builds a strong case for the need to see organizations as living entities and how doing so provides a competitive advantage. His basic premise is that you cannot have organizational transformation without individual transformation.

The heart of this book is Barrett's model of Seven Levels of Organizational Consciousness. Through the process of a Values Audit, this model is used to "support organizations in building cultural capital, strengthening human resource capacity, developing values-based leaderships and promoting socially and environmentally sustainable development." There is a thorough description of the Corporate Tools used to implement the model as well as detailed case studies.

The book provides numerous exercises and practical steps that leaders can take to build their organizations into a more successful and long-lasting company. It is extremely well-researched, drawing on the work of the most progressive organizational thinkers of our time.

I highly recommend this book to those people who see that the world is changing and that a new paradigm of work and of organizations is being called for. This book helps you to understand the trends that are driving this change, provides a vision for what a visionary organization can be like, and then gives you the roadmap on how to get there. Barrett has been successfully consulting with organizations all over the world, and we are fortunate that he is sharing his wisdom, his experience, and his transformational tools and processes with us.

Superb tools for building a Values-Driven Organization.
New Book Provides Road Map and Tools For Building Visionary, Values-Based Businesses

You don't have to look far these days to witness the growing trend in business to nurture the corporate "soul." Once muttered in hushed tones of self-conscious reserve, soft-sounding words like "values" and "meaning" and "spirituality" are becoming as bold and common in the corporate lexicon as hard-nosed phrases like "bottom-line" and "return on investment." Until recently, though, the two vocabularies have not come together in a comprehensive, systematic process for guiding the strategies and actions of corporate America.

In a new book entitled Liberating the Corporate Soul (Butterworth-Heinemann publishers), author and business consultant, Richard Barrett, bridges that gap with an approach to organizational planning that will warm the hearts of human resources, corporate affairs and financial people alike.

The book begins with a review of the rationale and research supporting Barrett's central thesis that "who you are and what you stand for are becoming just as important as what you sell." Next, Barrett describes his Corporate Transformation ToolsSM which is a set of measurement instruments for "auditing" individual and organizational values. Finally, the book provides a framework for using those tools to build a visionary, values-based organization.

Barrett's model is based partly on the landmark work of Abraham Maslow who defined the human "hierarchy of needs" on four main levels - security, relationship, self-esteem, and self-actualization. "Maslow himself concluded, however, that self-actualized individuals were actually motivated by higher states of consciousness, including spiritual needs," says Barrett. "But he never fully delineated what those states were."

Liberating the Corporate Soul expands on Maslow's work with a detailed explanation of Barrett's Seven Levels of Organizational Consciousness (survival, relationship, self-esteem, transformation, organization, community, and society) and Seven Levels of Leadership Consciousness (authoritarian, paternalist, manager, facilitator, collaborator, partner/servant, wisdom/visionary). According to Barrett, individuals and organizations have to strike a balance between the various levels of consciousness. "One level isn't necessarily superior to another. It's really more a question of balance," he says. "However, it is at the higher levels of consciousness that organizations are meeting spiritual needs that focus more on the common good than individual self-interest."

The book's message and methodology are receiving acclaim from noted business leaders and authors throughout the world. Martin Rutte, co-author of the popular Chicken Soup for the Soul at Work calls Barrett's book "the bold, practical blueprint we need for moving business to the next evolutionary level. Sweeping, brilliant, a sense of the grandeur of the new paradigm of business." Marcello Palazzi, Co-Founder and Chair of the Progessio Foundation in The Netherlands says that "Liberating the Corporate Soul achieves the impossible: it integrates the intangibles of ethics, vision, and consciousness into a tangible measurement system."

Barrett began his search for a mechanism that would align an organization's actions and decisions with individual and social values when he was employed at the World Bank. In the early 1990s, he set out on a personal mission to move values to the top of the bank's business agenda. Through a series of determined steps - including the formation of the "Spiritual Unfoldment Society" at the bank - he managed to fulfill his mission and simultaneously formulate his values-based organizational development system.

Today, Barrett is head of his own consulting firm, Richard Barrett and Associates, LLC, and he is using his values-based system in working with organizations throughout the world. He is quick to point out that all of the organizations with which he works have values. The question is whether those values resonate internally with employees searching for deeper meaning in their work lives as well as externally with a society increasingly favoring businesses that exhibit advanced levels of social consciousness.

The book cites revealing data from several research studies to support Barrett's claim of shifting trends in employee and social attitudes. The Cone/Roper Marketing Trends Report shows that 76% of consumers in 1997 said they would switch to brands associated with a good cause if price and quality were equal. That figure is up from 66% in 1993. On the employee front, a study conducted by Students for Responsible Business with 2,100 students at 50 graduate business programs found that 50% said they would accept a lower salary to work for a "very socially responsible" company. Perhaps more revealing, 43% claimed they would not work for a company that was not socially responsible.

Data like that is not being lost on some of the country's leading business figures. In his book, Barrett quotes Levi Strauss CEO, Robert Haas, as stating "In the next century, a company will stand or fall on its values."

None of the enthusiasm for this growing trend is much of a surprise to Barrett. "People naturally feel better about themselves and their companies when they see a clear sense of values, vision and compassion driving management decisions and actions," he says. And there's good news in that for the people watching the bottom line, because those positive feelings will translate into greater loyalty, stronger performance, and higher profits. It's a win-win outcome all the way around.&quot ... Read more

Reviews (8)

Essential reading for understanding "sustainability"
I believe this important book is the first to supply a method for individuals and societies to get a quantitative understanding of what "sustainable" really means. Footprinting allows families, cities, and countries to analyze their "ecological budget", and to learn to live within their fair share of available natural resources. The wonderful cartoons convey key concepts brilliantly, and make a potentially heavy text more fun to read.

Great for the right audience
This is an interesting book. I bought this originally as a gift for my aunt but upon receiving it I decided it was far too technical for her. Its a great book but you need to already have a basic understanding of and interest in sustainability. If you already have this basic understanding then this book is superb - it can help you take that basic understanding to the next level and not just in terms of understanding how local issues fit together but how global issues do. The authgors try in parts of the book to make this whole thing easy and fun but ultimately this is a pretty technical book - getting into things like the environmental impact of a person/community in Norway versus a person/community elsewhere in the world. Really interesting and definitely more complex than the online tools that you can use to measure your individual impact on the world but again, you need to really be interested in the subject of sustainability to enjoy this book. Lots of "meat" in here to chew on, now a quick read by any means.

A book that can change your life.
I have not only read this book but I have had the honour of hearing author William Rees explain the world's current environmental predicament. His analysis -- as stated in the book and by other readers-- is so simple yet profound. I believe the ecological footprint analysis tool offers one of the best ways to explain to people why they must change their lifestyles. I believe so much in the concept, I have started a business to help the corporate sector implement sustainable practices and policies. Our society probably has a better chance of survival if we can change the way influential companies do business, rather than changing one individual at a time. This book provides the basis for understanding why we must change. Then read Natural Capitalism by Hawken and Lovins and you'll understand how much progress has already been made and how much more is achievable.

this guy is a treehugger
I was assigned to read this book for an nature and human values course. And I must say that this book is by far the worst assigned reading, the level of reading is average, but what bothers me the most is how the author talks down to the other side of the spectrum of the arguement. It is also extremely repetive and I found myself dreading the reading of the next chapter, because I didn't want to read the same thing that was stated in the previous chapter.

Excellent! A must for everyone concerned with our future.
Professors Rees and Wackernagel have developed a new concept to assess individuals and countries impact on the environment, a quantitative measure which acts as a common denomintor for all peoples, at all levels of affluence or poverty. This will become the yardstick of our future, like the invention of money by the Babylonians or Assyrians has become the unit of exchange in the trade of goods and services. Clearly written, the book is needed to be understood by all politicians, bankers, voters, leaders and living humans. Knowing ideas such as these is crucial and essential for our survival in the biosphere. ... Read more

Book Description

In this book environmentalist and lawyer William Shutkin describes a new kind of environmental and social activism spreading across the nation, one that joins the pursuit of environmental quality with that of civic health and sustainable local economies. In the face of challenges posed by often corrosive market forces and widespread social disaffection, this civic environmentalism is creating nothing less than a new public discourse and dynamic social vision grounded in environmental action.

Shutkin points the way to vibrant, sustainable communities through four inspiring examples of civic environmentalism in action: the redevelopment of contaminated urban land for agriculture in inner-city Boston, mass-transit-based development and waterfront restoration in Oakland, protection of open space and conservation-based development in rural Colorado, and smart-growth and sustainability strategies in suburban New Jersey. The book's underlying message is that the nation's environmental health is a critical factor in its success as a vital democracy. Social health, democratic community, and environmentalism, Shutkin shows, are one. ... Read more

Reviews (3)

relief from the gloom-and-doom
Not that Shutkin fails to understand how serious our environmental problems are. He knows. This is no Polyanna-style tale a la Greg Easterbrook, telling lies about how trivial environmental degradation is in order to sell books. Shutkin ralizes that our problems are serious, even life-threatening. But he thinks that we can begin to resolve them, if only we can find the will to begin, rather in the style of Diana Muir in her new book Bullough's Pond. Some of his solutions may not be workable, but surely Shutkin is correct to urge us to try.

A lyrical and compelling work -- though somewhat Utopian
Bill Shutkin's sensitivity to the environment and the human dimension of ecological concerns shines through brilliantly in this book. The case studies which are at the core of his narrative and his exposition of environmental problems are well-researched, and well-experienced. As an activist/lawyer/entrepreneur/academic, Shutkin provides an unusual blend of insights which are indeed rare in environmental literature.

Optimism permeates this book which is certainly refreshing to many readers who are probably tired of the gloom and doom that resonates from many green texts. The foreword by David Brower is perhaps a prelude to this optimism and to the change in perception and outlook concerning environmental policy among activists.

Nevertheless, the primacy of this change in contemporary times is perhaps overstated by Shutkin. I was somewhat disappointed with the Amero-centric nature of the text, particularly when it comes to the poetic celebration of so global an issue as environmentalism. By this I do not mean the case selection - which is quite appropriate considering Shutkin's own expertise in working with certain communities. Rather, I am more concerned with the way in which the "reforms" within civic society are heralded as a hallmark of American democracy. Indeed, the work of the Austrian / British economist and thinker E.F. Schumacher (who died in the seventies) are not even mentioned. Much of the community oriented "small is beautiful" approach which is at the core of Shutkin's argument can be found there (and elsewhere), and has been in motion for decades.

I think that the book should have perhaps been less ambitious in its title and argument by focusing on a certain class of environmental concerns where a sense of place and association with the land can be imbibed. It is important for all of us to consider that there are also many environmental concerns, where such associations are impossible to foster - many global environmental issues such as climate change, ozone depletion or other scientifically dependent areas of environmental concerns which do indeed require a certain intellectual "elite" and an elaborate decision-making apparatus. Let us also not forget that even at the community level and the urban planning level, many of the great success stories of environmental reform have worked with strong top-down approaches - Singapore being a living example. Also, what is one to do when civic environmentalism does not emerge even within a democratic process? The book should have perhaps addressed such anomalies to the argument.

Despite these minor shortcomings, this book is a momentous achievement which will undoubtedly spur much reflection and debate.

The Land that Will Be (if we become more civically active)
This is one of the most inspiring books I have read in years. When I choose to read a non-fiction book, which is rather infrequently, this is exactly the kind of book I hope for -- engaging from the first page on, well-researched, analytical, passionate and ultimately deeply meaningful. The environmental movement has had a rather narrow audience historically, but this book -- because of its basic premise that the environment is inextricably linked to all facets of our lives and because of the author's embracing style -- could serve to open up the field a great deal more. As I was reading this book, I felt a deep sense that there really is no other way to approach the significant environmental problems facing us than the way Shutkin promotes (through grass-roots citizen coalitions). I found this realization not to be burdensome but to be profoundly uplifting. Shutkin's case studies of successful civic environmentalism prove that democracy is alive and well in certain communities in our country and that, indeed, the grass will always be greener in America if more of us exercise our personal power to keep it that way. ... Read more

Book Description

This book contains the most recent information about the standard, including all its final modifications. The book outlines the scope and purpose of the standard and makes it accessible to everyone. The book leads the reader through the theory and implementation of an ISO14000-compliant environmental management system, including the consultant's and auditor's perspective, and give case studies from industries that have actually undergone the process.Finally there is input from training organisations and certification and accreditation bodies to help with trouble-shooting and assessment.


The book rounds off with an examination of the likely future, including the potential role of the European `sub-set' of ISO14000 - EMAS - and what chances it has of international adoption.

Author has years of practical experience with a world-renowned organisation
Real-life case-studies provide meat for readers wondering about relevance to their companies ... Read more

Book Description

Environmental activists and academics alike are realizing that a sustainable society must be a just one. Environmental degradation is almost always linked to questions of human equality and quality of life. Throughout the world, those segments of the population that have the least political power and are the most marginalized are selectively victimized by environmental crises.

Just Sustainabilities argues that social and environmental justice within and between nations should be an integral part of the policies and agreements that promote sustainable development. The book addresses many aspects of the links between environmental quality and human equality and between sustainability and environmental justice more generally. The topics discussed include anthropocentrism; biotechnology; bioprospecting; biocultural assimilation; deep and radical ecology; ecological debt; ecological democracy; ecological footprints; ecological modernization; feminism and gender; globalization; participatory research; place, identity, and legal rights; precaution; risk society; selective victimization; and valuation. ... Read more

Reviews (1)

The Comprehensive Look at EJ and Sustainability
This book does a wonderful job of taking different approaches and tools of looking at how sustainability and equity relate to each other. It scans the globe, distinct definitions of environmental justice, and a variety of environmental issues to create a less U.S. centered look at what environmental justice means and its relationship with sustainability around the world. The editors and contributors are well-known and distinguished in the field of environmental justice and sustainable development, making this book a must read for a comprehensive look at how two sometimes disparate and sometimes intertwined concepts interact. It also works well as an introduction to environmental justice and sustainability. I highly recommend this book to anyone interested in equity issues; environmental justice is often one of the last considerations in environmental battles. Works like this will help make equity one of the first considerations. ... Read more

Book Description

The award-winning Worldwatch Institute reveals the often overlooked key trends that define the true health of our planet.

This annual volume distills the "vital signs" of our times, which often escape the attention of the media, world leaders, and economic experts, from thousands of government, industrial, and scientific documents. It tracks the major indicators that show social, economic, and environmental progress, or the lack thereof.

Vital Signs 2005 presents up-to-the-minute information on environmental and sustainable development topics, such as climate change, world population, energy, transgenic crops, HIV/AIDS, trade, and Internet use. Each trend is presented in text and graphics, providing a thorough, well-documented, and accessible overview. Vital Signs is an excellent companion to Worldwatch's acclaimed State of the World series. ... Read more

Book Description

"We reached the old wolf in time to watch a fierce green fire dying in her eyes. I realized then, and have known ever since, that there was something new to me in those eyes-something known only to her and to the mountain. I was young then, and full of trigger-itch; I thought that because fewer wolves meant more deer, that no wolves would mean hunters' paradise. But after seeing the green fire die, I sensed that neither the wolf nor the mountain agreed with such a view."-Aldo Leopold

For the first time, the most important quotations of the great conservationist Aldo Leopold, author of A Sand County Almanac, are gathered in one volume. From conservation education to wildlife ecology, from wilderness protection to soil and water conservation, the writings of Aldo Leopold continue to have profound influence on those seeking to understand the earth and its care. Leopold biographer Curt Meine and noted conservation biologist Richard Knight have assembled this comprehensive collection of quotations from Leopold's extensive and diverse writings, selected and organized to capture the richness and depth of the North American conservation movement.

Prominent biologists, conservationists, historians, and philosophers provide introductory commentaries describing Leopold's contributions in varied fields and reflecting upon the significance of his work today.

Contributors
J. Baird Callicott
David Ehrenfeld
Susan Flader
Eric Freyfogle
Wes Jackson
Paul Johnson
Joni Kinsey
Gary Meffe
Gary Paul Nabhan
Richard Nelson
Bryan Norton
David Orr
Phil Pister
Donald Snow
Stan Temple
Jack Ward Thomas
Charles Wilkinson
Terry Tempest Williams
Donald Worster
Joy Zedler ... Read more

Reviews (2)

unique and clear-headed thinking
In The Conference Board's magazine, "Across the Board," in a Nov/Dec 2000 article on the best business books read over the past year, I wrote:

"Over the past couple of years, I must have read 10 to 20 management books every month. Unfortunately, before long, many of these titles start reading the same, hoping to capitalize on the management trend of the moment. But every once in a while a book comes along that includes unique and clear-headed thinking and writing. When I was working on an article about environmental ethics in business, I came across a new collection of the writings of Aldo Leopold, the legendary conservationist of the 1930s and 1940s perhaps best known for A Sand County Almanac. Edited by Curt Meine and Richard L. Knight, The Essential Aldo Leopold: Quotations and Commentaries is not, strictly speaking, a business book, but contained here in many previously unpublished observations are the thoughts and ideas of a natural (in all senses of the word) manager. Leopold was a rare combination of someone who saw the need for conserving nature, but who also understood and encouraged experiencing the beauty and functionality of the outdoors." --Across the Board, Nov/Dec 2000

One of my favorite quotes of Leopold's from this collection:

"Relegating conservation to government is like relegating virtue to the Sabbath. Turns over to professionals what should be daily work of amateurs."

A "must" read for Aldo Leopold fans and conservationists.
Aldo Leopold was the author of "A Sand County Almanac" and one of the most influential conservationists of his day. In The Essential Aldo Leopold, Curt Meine and Richard Knight have collaborated to assembled a comprehensive collections of quotations from Leopold's extensive and diverse writings. These gems of wisdom, insight, and encouragement are organized in twenty-one chapters under the broad themes of conservation science and practice, conservation policy, conservation and culture. Each chapter begins with an introductory essay by a prominent conservation scholar to provide the reader with perspective on Leopold's numerous and varied contributions. The Essential Aldo Leopold is an essential, core title for any personal, academic, and professional environmental and conservation studies collection, and highly recommended reading for all Aldo Leopold admirers within the modern conservation movement. ... Read more

Book Description

The Russian Far East (RFE) is a vital storehouse of oil and gas, timber, fish, and precious metals that will inevitably be tapped as Pacific Rim economies seek to secure the natural resources necessary for long-term economic growth. Sustainable development of the resources in this vast regionù an area more than two-thirds the size of the United Statesùhasemerged as a major policy priority for the Russian government and the international community.The Russian Far East: A Reference Guide for Conservation and Development is the most comprehensive English-language reference text on the region to be published in the more than ten years. With contributions from an interdisciplinary team of ninety specialists from Russia, the United States, and the United Kingdom, the book overviews and analyzes the region’s geography and ecology, natural resources, major industries, infrastructure, foreign trade, demographics, protected area system, and legal structure. Particular attention is devoted to how to region can develop in an environmentally sustainable way.The book is divided into eleven chapters. The first chapter summarizes the RFE as a whole, while each of the remaining ten chapters deal with an administrative region within the Russian Far East. All of the chapters are divided into identical sections to simplify comparison among the regions. More than fifty maps, a number of which are in color, detail administrative districts and indigenous peoples' lands, protected areas, mineral deposits, timber resources, fisheries, and energy reserves. Tables and figures provide the reader with a wealth of useful, hard-to-find statistics. Color and black and white photographs. ... Read more

Reviews (1)

A complete update of the classic 1996 reference
Now in its second edition, The Russian Far East: A Reference Guide For Conservation And Development is a complete update of the classic 1996 reference, offering region-by-region maps and information concerning geography, climate, flora and fauna, population and resources, as well as contributions from ninety authors giving expert analysis and insights, black and white photographs, and tables and charts to form a comprehensive handbook of the Russian Far East environment. A first-rate referenve for environmental studies shelves, with a great wealth of information and insights arranged in easy-to-look-up format. ... Read more

Book Description

We are fast becoming a global society.Flagging economies and social problems, environmental pollution and ecological destruction are burdens that fall on the shoulders of our international community. As we stand on the threshold of the twenty-first century, we search for cooperative answers to take us through the next millennium, and are confronted with the task of establishing a future that is both environmentally and socially sustainable. Earth at a Crossroads offers an integrated view for the development of human society within the natural environment on which it depends for support. The book stresses the dynamic and interconnected nature of feedback processes, traces possible future paths of societal development and their impacts, determines their sustainability, and points at necessary changes. Two alternative visions of the future are presented: Path A resulting from continuation of current trends, and a contrasting Path B that would result from adhering to principles of sustainability and protection of the natural system in the interests of future generations. This book will become an important reference in the discussion of global society's path into the next millennium. It will be a valuable read for anyone looking forward to a healthier world, and a well-thumbed resource for environmental scientists and policy-makers.Hartmut Bossel received his Ph.D. in mechanical engineering at the University of California at Berkeley.He is the author of ten books and over 300 papers.His research includes studies of agricultural policy for the German Bundestag. ... Read more

Reviews (1)

An Invaluable Book
An invaluable book. Daunting in scope, the research and organization contained in "Earth at a Crossroads" are extremely impressive.

"Earth at a Crossroads" gives readers the choice of two alternative paths to the future - one of unsustainable competitionwhichwe are currently following, or one of global partnership based onequitable and sustainable economic and social development.

Chapter afterchapter, Harmut Bossel provides concrete and attainable plans of action forthose concerned enough to act. Far and away one of the better books onsustainable development available and an invaluable reference for anyoneinterested in acting to bring about a sustainable future. ... Read more

Book Description

Cause-and-Effect Diagrams provides the needed tools for identifying possible causes of a problem and organizing them into a structured format.The information is presented in a straightforward, easy-to-understand manner through a series of exercises and case studies.Users of the series learn how to select the right tool for the task at hand, collect the right data, interpret the data, and take appropriate action based on their findings. ... Read more