Book Description

The Precautionary Principle is widely seen as fundamental to successful policies for sustainability. It has been cited in international courts and trade disputes between the US and the EU, and invoked in an growing range of political debates. Understanding what it can and cannot achieve is therefore crucial.

This volume looks back over the last century to examine the role the Principle played or could have played, in a range of major and avoidable public disasters. Among the studies it examines are: asbestos and asbestosis, BSE in cattle, CFCs and the depletion of stratospheric ozone, the pollution of the Great Lakes in America, the collapse of Atlantic fish stocks, PCBs, etc., for all of which there is good information on the science, the health and environmental impacts, and the costs and benefits.

From detailed investigation of how each disaster unfolded, what the impacts were and what measures were adopted, the authors draw lessons and establish criteria that could help to minimize the health and environmental risks of future technological, economic and policy innovations.

The result is an absorbing, informative and valuable book for all those from lawyers and policy-makers, to researchers and students needing to understand or apply the Principle. ... Read more

Reviews (2)

A thorough and useful book
The book takes a matter-of-fact approach to the subject, getting contributors to give detailed answers to four key questions on specific hazards that were subsequently addressed, starting with when was the first credible scientific warning of potential harm. It's not a light read, and an understanding of the scientific method, chemistry, and statistics will prove invaluable.

The book received a warm welcome in the scientific press, and the quality of the writing shows why. Where there is doubt in research, the book discusses it honestly. It also shows why problems frequently aren't addressed until after financial or health damage has been done, for example the compound (government) system failures that caused the BSE crisis in the UK. Of note is what has been omitted: the low-hanging fruit of (say) second-hand smoking, thalidomide, DDT, and lead in petrol would have made a separate book.

Another of the questions asked of the contributors concerns costs versus benefits -- for example, there is a discussion of whether the health (and, ultimately, financial) problems of asbestos were offset by the safety benefits, employment opportunities and so on. Combined with an unbiased and non-accusatory tone throughout the book, it makes an invaluable contribution to a field overrepresented by polemics.

The empowerment of bureaucracy
The precautionary principle (PP in short) has become a scientific and political instrument attracting a host of organisations and individuals giving their viewpoints adding to the international discussion. Indeed, how to deal with environmental and human health risks is not a simple matter. Science and technology carry both real benefits and real risks. And a 'better be safe than sorry' strategy -as a translation what precaution is- seems the wisest thing to do.

The European Environment Agency (EEA) adds to this discussion by looking into the past. Always a good thing to think historically about risks and technology. The presentation of those historical examples of technology gone wrong leaves one wondering, however, whether or not the scientific representation is up to par.

Clearly it is not. However, not to the layman. One needs to be aware of all the scientific ins and outs to spot the possible biases. One example I myself am quite familiar with is the antibiotic case discussed by the EEA (chapter 9 in the downlodable version). Blatant omissions from the scientific discussion (leaving out essential scientific literature) spurs the authors of this chapter to a banal and trivial conclusion (p. 98 of the downloadable version):

'As the risks involved are of uncertain magnitude, the decisions on risk management are particularly difficult. The risk can obviously not be excluded with certainty, nor can it be de-termined as acceptable. In a climate of uncertainty it is preferable to show caution. In this situation decision-making needs to involve precaution, particularly when it is unacceptable, inhuman and unethical to wait for ultimate proof, when human fatalities could be involved.'

Of course this conclusion can be drawn for any case, not just this one. Moreover no amount of scientific research will ever result in certainty. The conclusion presented here in the EEA report is not in need of any scientific deliberation. It could do well without ten pages of scientific reviewing, whether or not biased in nature. Furthermore, the authors revert to the fallacy of an appeal to motives in place of support. They regard not invoking the PP as unacceptable, inhuman and unethical. Of course this is beside the point as it has very little to do with the scientific discourse at hand.

This brings me to the philosophical side of the issue. Any type of human action or inaction is fraught with uncertainty and therefore prone to the PP. So how to chose? The problem is that risks of one kind or another are on all sides of regulatory choices, and it is therefore impossible to avoid running afoul of the principle. The PP promotes irrational behaviour by the assumption that regulating target risks (the historical examples presented in the EEA study) is overall beneficial ánd that the costs of risk avoidance with only the specific target risks in view can be met on any scale -which is clearly not the case. Moreover, this asymmetry is enhanced by the fact that those who invoke the PP -the policymakers- do not need to adhere to it themselves despite the fact that any human intervention holds uncertainties for the future.

The EEA treats the PP as though it were an exogenous panacea for environmental and social ills. In other words: market risks warrants governmental regulation. But government regulation is not an exogenous solution to environmental risks; it is itself an endogenous and fallible human activity, and as such it can create risks. Risks that are as real as the risks of market (economic) activities: care can cure but care can also cripple.

The odd thing is that no discussion what so ever is presented by the EEA on the problems of the PP. Not a single reference to the ever growing scientific literature highly critical of the PP. Whichever side one choses, within the scientific discourse one has to deal with scientific criticism from both sides.

My conclusion therefore must be that the EEA did not so much present a scientific piece of work on this issue but made a political statement on how to deal with risk. It is part of the 'ecological critique' of the Western World which Anna Bramwell described so well in her 'Ecology in the twentieth century'. The PP fits well with a misanthropic view of progress combined with a relativistic perspective on science. Therefore the PP empowers bureaucracy as the scientific check and balances are side-tracked in its implementation. Indeed a recipe for increasing social and political struggles and stagnating economies. ... Read more

Book Description

Growing Greener is an illustrated workbook that presents a new look at designing subdivisions while preserving green space and creating open space networks. Randall Arendt explains how to design residential developments that maximize land conservation without reducing overall building density, thus avoiding the political and legal problems often associated with "down-zoning.

The author offers a three-pronged strategy for shaping growth around a community's special natural and cultural features, demonstrating ways of establishing or modifying the municipal comprehensive plan, zoning ordinance, and subdivision ordinance to include a strong conservation focus. Open space protection becomes the central organizing principle for new residential development, and the open space that is protected is laid out to form an interconnected system of protected lands running across a community.

The book offers:

• detailed information on how to conduct a community resource inventory
• a four-step approach to designing conservation subdivisions
• extensive model language for comprehensive plans, subdivision ordinances, and zoning ordinances
• illustrated design principles for hamlets, villages, and traditional small town neighborhoods

In addition, Growing Greener includes eleven case studies of actual conservation developments in nine states, and two exercises suitable for group participation. Case studies include: Ringfield, Chadds Ford Township, Pennsylvania; The Fields of St. Croix, City of Lake Elmo, Minnesota; Prairie Crossing, Grayslake, Illinois; The Meadows at Dolly Gordon Brook, York, Maine; Farmcolony, Standsville, Virginia; The Ranch at Roaring Fork, Carbondale, Colorado; and others.

Growing Greener builds upon and expands the basic ideas presented in Arendt's earlier work Conservation Design for Subdivisions, broadening the scope to include more detailed sections on the comprehensive planning process and information on how zoning ordinances can be updated to incorporate the concept of conservation design. It is the first practical publication to explain in detail how resource-conserving development techniques can be put into practice by municipal officials, residential developers, and site designers, and it offers a simple and straightforward approach to balancing opportunities for developers and conservationists. ... Read more

Book Description

Little over a decade ago, infrastructure concessions promised to solve Latin America's endemic infrastructure deficit. Awarded in competitive auctions, these concessions were supposed to combine private sector efficiency with rent dissipation brought about by competition. Yet something did not go quite right, as concessions were plagued with opportunistic renegotiations, most of them at the expense of taxpayers.This book is a major contribution toward understanding what went wrong and what should be done differently in the future to reap the potential benefits of infrastructure reform andprivate participation in infrastructure provision. It begins by analyzing a rich data set on more than 1,000 infrastructure concessions, uncovering a series of puzzling stylized facts. It then considers alternative explanations for the patterns it has uncovered, and concludes with a series of insightful policy proposals aimed at avoiding the common mistakes and make concessions to efficiently contribute to economic growth and poverty reduction. ... Read more

Book Description

Globalization, population growth, and resource depletion are drawing increased attention to the importance of common resources such as forests, water resources, and fisheries. It is critical that these resources be governed in an equitable and sustainable way. The Commons in the New Millennium presents cutting-edge research in common property theory and provides an overview and progress report on common property research.

The book analyzes new problems that owners, managers, policy makers, and analysts face in managing natural commons. It examines recent findings about the physical characteristics of the commons, their complexity and interconnectedness, and the role of social capital. It also provides empirical studies and suggestions for sustainable development. The topics discussed include the role of financial, political, and social capital in deforestation, community efforts to gain political influence in Indonesia, the Maine lobster industry, outcomes of the implementation of individual transferable quotas in New Zealand and Iceland fisheries, and design of multilateral emissions trading for regional air pollution and global warming. ... Read more

Book Description

In this detailed economic investigation of sustainable development, a noted professor of economics argues that many of the alarms commonly sounded by environmentalists are, in fact, unfounded, and that current sustainable development policies should be reconsidered in light of their effects on the earth's human population, such as increased poverty and environmental degradation in developing countries. In a rare balanced counterpoint to popular sustainable development rhetoric, Professor Beckerman forces policy makers to consider whether future generations have rights that morally constrain and trump the claims of those alive today, particularly the masses of people living in dire poverty, arguing that the current sustainable development program is a menace to the prosperity and freedom of both current and future generations. ... Read more

Reviews (3)

Misunderstanding Beckerman's Purpose -- Response to Balfour
Though it is unorthodox to do so, I believe I need to respond to Mr. Balfour's review because he appears to misunderstand the purpose of Prof. Beckerman's book as well as the substance of the environmental idea that Beckerman is challenging.

Beckerman is criticizing the notion of "sustainability" -- that the planet's development rate cannot be sustained in the future because resources will not be extractable at a rate that would keep up with future demand. Hence, sustainability isn't an aesthetic argument, but an economic one. Balfour's criticism that Beckerman does not consider the aesthetic arguments for environmentalism is misplaced because that is not Beckerman's project. Balfour's comments thus are akin to criticizing a military history book on Napoleonic tactics for not discussing the romance between Napoleon and Josephine.

For people intrigued with the arguments concerning sustainability, Beckerman's book is a must-read. It offers short but very thoughtful examinations of several apparently problematic assumptions that lie at the heart of the sustainability philosophy. The sustainability notion emerged about two decades ago when environmentalists were forced to retreat from their "finite resources" argument (i.e., the world will run out of resource X) because, as highlighted by the famous Julian Simon-Paul Weyrich bet, the idea that the planet would simply "run out" became too untenable for all but the most radical environmentalists to hold. The more thoughtful environmentalists shifted to the Malthusian/Ricardoian notion that extraction rates will one day be unable to keep pace with consumption -- in part because resource extractors in the future will constrict supply to further drive up prices.

Unlike the finite resources argument, the sustainability has good thought behind it. But does that theory hold up? Beckerman offers some pretty good arguments that it does not, and he also points out some very worrisome side-effects of the sustainability philosophy -- side-effects that could produce serious near-future ecological and human disasters.

Balfour is correct that we must give serious thought to future generations when we set current resource policies. Unfortunately, he does not appear to realize that his philosophy puts those children at risk, nor does he seem to appreciate that the environmental catastrophes that he laments -- overpopulation, subsistence farming -- occur in the Third World whose ecological ethic he cherishes instead of the First World whose ethic he derides. Fortunately, Beckerman -- as well as his future challengers and their respondents -- will promote a better world for the generations to come.

An insightful and short read
The author of this book is beginning the arduous task of reassessing ideas that have pervaded economic and social thought since Malthus. This book attacks the idea of "sustainable growth" as illogically based and harmful to developing and developed countries alike. The anti-"sustainable-growth" movement has been growing in the past ten years (and even longer), sparking a serious if somewhat hidden debate by academics fearful of the indoctrinated masses. The author brings together some of the most compelling arguments against "sustainable growth". He does not present the entire argument for any of his points, but rather presents us with a book that should spark intellectual thought, as opposed to environmental fear mongering. The author's style is not particularly lithe; but, it is functional without being too stodgy.

Some of the authors main arguments include:
1.) From an economic perspective, it may be cheaper to deal with the costs of pollution (such as levies to prevent rising ocean water from swamping cities etc) than to pay the cost of abating pollution.
2.) The environmental benefit of ideas such as the Kyoto treaty may be next to nothing while the financial costs are great.
3.) Future generations will most likely have much higher income than we will; therefore, it is immoral to afflict today's population, especially in developing countries, with costs that could best be borne by future generations.
4.) The precautionary principle is an illogical one. Paranoid scientists will then be able to cost the global economy trillions on a whim.
5.) Once countries reach a certain per capita income threshold they begin to improve their own environments. Therefore, retarding growth is . . . unadvisable.
6.) Future generations have no rights, as they do not exist.
7.) Limiting the pollution of developing countries impedes growth and delays expansion of average lifespans.
8.) Most interestingly, he alludes to the idea that environmentalism may be a new form of imperialism. The rich countries impress their values of clean environments on those who would rather have enough clean food or drinking water (resources are not unlimited).

(reviewer's note): While many people mention that those who write in favor of companies are bought off by capitalists, it is also important to note that many environmental organizations as well as international organizations (such as the UN) depend on the public perception of unacceptable environmental conditions to further their agenda as well.

This book got a 4 and not a 5 because it is a compilation of many existing ideas with the added flair of a few new insights. It is more of a workhorse than a show horse.

There are two types of people....
This book is written by the type who speaks from the head - an intellectual rather than a humanist. The central theme to the book is that restraining industrial and corporate predation in the name of planetary stewardship is causing and/or excaberating social inequalities which the author would like us to see as single issue problems. This is, of course, a naive and dis-ingenuous way to present highly complex issues such as over-population and the decline of subsistence agriculture in marginal lands. I have only two conclusions from reading this book, and they are both founded on the motive of it's author. These conclusions are: either Wilfred Beckerman is a hopelessly indoctrinated special interests lobbyist, or he is too academically rational to see the spiritual side of the arguements against unrestrained capitalist expansion. And I'm a fully paid-up member of the Capitalist Pigs, so I'm not unsympathetic to the stance he tries to promote. I have, however, a firm belief, not shared by Mr Beckerman, that some of the most important aspects of humans and their psycological needs are not dollar-quantifiable so cannot be factored into a system of economics.
By the end of this book, I was impressed only by the selective and incredibly mechanistic supporting arguments. I was sadly unable to either on-lend my copy or recommend anyone else to read this because it says only what we have already heard from pro-development apeasers - the assumption that the spread of Western values and attitudes is 'religiously' correct in all cultures, and that to refute the proposed development potential of third world cultures is a selfish and patronising vision of 'unqualified idealists'. There is much to dislike in the attitude of the author, not least his contention that critics of development are either 'unqualified' or 'uninformed' (how's that for patronising?) but my main review point here is that he has not addressed the crucial pivot-point of the debate - we are knowingly gambling with huge risk to our ecosystems and our diversity of cultures and all for the real benefit of profit-hungry corporations and political power bases. The real losers in the fight to preserve diversity and beauty (two concepts that the author places no dollar value on) should be these mindless and remorseless entities.
The alternative scenario, boosted by the author using selective and disturbingly simple 'facts' will see the powerless of the third world move into a different and more unpleasant bondage, to a system that is even less interested in self-monitoring or spiritual values than the one they are being 'saved' from. Read this book only to see the dry and brittle hand of the older generation, still sure that it's money and military cancers are helping people live a better life. One wonders what the author does when confronted by wilderness, or wet earth after rain, or any one of a huge number of reminders to most of us that we hold a precious and vital responsibility to act at all times as if we were borrowing this planet from our grandchildren, not inheriting it from our parents. ... Read more

Book Description

This book introduces the unique concept of Total SafetyManagement (TSM) for creating and maintaining a safe and healthy workenvironment. This can become a key element in an organization's formula forcompetitiveness.Using a step-by-step approach with examplesand case studies throughout, the book provides a practical, how-to handbookthat can be used as an annotated model for implementing TSM in anyorganization. It shows not only how organizations can create a work environmentthat is both safe and conducive to peak performance, but how a safe workenvironment becomes part of everybody's responsibility for creating andmaintaining a strategy that will give an organization a sustainable competitiveadvantage.For anyone interested in Health & Safety Management,Occupational Safety, and Safety in the Workplace. ... Read more

Reviews (1)

The book provide me how to implement TSM
The book elaborate in step by step in how to implement the total safety management (TSM). Its a very good book, mentions about safety as tools with competitive advantage in global market place. ... Read more

Book Description

Through engaging stories from around the world, the authors introduce readers to a diverse group of people who are pioneering new approaches to conservation.

Daily and Ellison describe the dynamic interplay of science, economics, business, and politics that is involved in establishing these new approaches and examine what will be needed to create successful models and lasting institutions for conservation. ... Read more

Reviews (1)

Both a business and environmental book
The New Economy Of Nature: The Quest To Make Conservation Profitable is both a business and environmental book. Gretchen C. Daily and Katherine Ellison study the ways that human self-interest can be harnessed to protect Mother Earth, as pure philanthropy combined with government regulations simply are not enough by themselves to stand against naked human greed and unchecked commercial exploitation. From crises in biodiversity, to issues of the stratosphere, The New Economy Of Nature cogently draws upon ideas, examples, and situations worldwide to lend hope for the cause of financially motivated conservation. The New Economy Of Nature is an important contribution to Environmental Studies and highly recommended reading for anyone seeking to operating a successful commercial venture through making conservation profitable. ... Read more

Book Description

In recent years, scientists have begun to focus on the idea that healthy, functioning ecosystems provide essential services to human populations, ranging from water purification to food and medicine to climate regulation. Lacking a healthy environment, these services would have to be provided through mechanical means, at a tremendous economic and social cost.

Nature and the Marketplace examines the controversial proposition that markets should be designed to capture the value of those services. Written by an economist with a background in business, it evaluates the real prospects for various of nature's marketable services to "turn profits" at levels that exceed the profits expected from alternative, ecologically destructive, business activities. The author:

• describes the infrastructure that natural systems provide, how we depend on it, and how we are affecting it
• explains the market mechanism and how it can lead to more efficient resource use
• looks at key economic activities-such as ecotourism, bioprospecting, and carbon sequestration-where market forces can provide incentives for conservation
• examines policy options other than the market, such as pollution credits and mitigation banking
• considers the issue of sustainability and equity between generations

Nature and the Marketplace presents an accessible introduction to the concept of ecosystem services and the economics of the environment. It offers a clear assessment of how market approaches can be used to protect the environment, and illustrates that with a number of cases in which the value of ecosystems has actually been captured by markets.

The book offers a straightforward business economic analysis of conservation issues, eschewing romantic notions about ecosystem preservation in favor of real-world economic solutions. It will be an eye-opening work for professionals, students, and scholars in conservation biology, ecology, environmental economics, environmental policy, and related fields. ... Read more

Book Description

Sim Van der Ryn and Stuart Cowan present a vision of how the living world and the human world can be rejoined by taking ecology as the basis for design. Ecological design intelligence-effective adaptation to and integration with nature's processes-can be applied at all levels of scale, creating revolutionary forms of buildings, landscapes, cities, and technologies.

The authors weave together case studies, personal anecdotes, images, and theory to provide a thorough treatment of the concept of ecological design. In the process, they present and explain a series of design principles that can help build a sustainable world with increased efficiency, fewer toxics, less pollution, and healthier natural systems. ... Read more

Reviews (2)

What is sustainable design?
A new benchmark in ecological awareness. Sym van der Ryn has long been practicing ecological design, and draws on his wealth of experience to give readers many valuable insights into this growing practice. Van der Ryn warns readers to separate the wheat from the chaff as there are many persons claiming to be toeing the line when it comes to sustainable design, but few are actually doing it. What is needed is a whole new approach to eco-friendly architecture and planning development, not just more band-aids.

The book takes a fairly general approach but there are numerous references for those really interested in pursuing the subject in more depth. He outlines his principles of ecological design which begins with gaining a better awareness of your locality, by looking into the ecological history of your community. Who knows your street may be where a stream once flowed, and that your storm drain in all likelihood flows into your water source, so be careful what you dump into it!

Van der Ryn avoids the cliches and pieces together a compelling set of anecdotes and observations which will open you up the broad field of possibilities. The book is well researched and written, with the valuable assistance of Stuart Cowan, a former student of van der Ryn. It is imperative that we gain a better appreciation of our natural environment before adding any more to our built environment. Sustainable design is our only future.

Landscape Architect
This book is a good intro to the "why" of ecological design. It gives its informatiion in a non-technical way and explains the reasons we should approch design this way. I recommend it for all those involved with land and building design and development. ... Read more

Book Description

This ground-breaking text looks at the ways of integrating sustainability aspects into science and engineering. In providing an all-round sustainability education, it teaches students within engineering and environmental science the implications of their decisions on the environment.

Taking a life cycle approach to address economic, environmental and social issues, the book presents a series of practical case studies drawn from a range of industrial sectors, including water, energy, waste, chemicals, glass and mining and minerals. The key features of the book include:

• Case studies that provide real-world and practical examples for readers to work through
• Coverage of various sustainability issues in both developed and developing countries
• Exploration of the scientific and technical aspects of each issue together with consideration of the economic, environmental and social ramifications

Sustainable Development in Practice: Case Studies for Engineers and Scientists is essential reading for all engineers and scientists concerned with sustainable development. In particular, it provides key reading and learning materials for undergraduate and postgraduate students reading environmental, chemical, civil or mechanical engineering, manufacturing and design, environmental science, green chemistry and environmental management. This book’s accessible style also makes it of interest to the general reader who is engaged with the sustainability debate.

Visit the NEW Companion Website, offering comprehensive tutor's notes for each case study:

http://www.wileyeurope.com/go/azapagic ... Read more

Book Description

The first book to distill the best of the forward-looking ideas of socially responsible policies emerging from the corporate world. By following the suggestions detailed here, individuals can institute similar programs in their own companies--because it's the right choice to make, and the smart one. ... Read more

Book Description

Richard Norgaard envisions a world made up of a patchwork quilt of cultures in which the possibility for harmony involves embracing both biological and cultural diversity. Development Betrayed provides a unique and valuable synthesis of ideas from the natural sciences with current work in development studies, economics, anthropology and sociology. ... Read more

Book Description

With funding for nonprofits shrinking and global markets shaky, our business and social sectors are both confronting an increasingly uncertain future.Many organizations are searching for innovative strategies that will counter the mounting pressures felt by communities and corporations alike. Common Interest, Common Good argues that forward-looking businesses and social sector organizations (both nonprofit and government) can solve many of their problems by working together-while serving the common good in the process.

According to Shirley Sagawa and Eli Segal, alliances between for-profit and the not-for-profit industries yield enormous benefits for both.Businesses can boost their bottom line by leveraging a nonprofit partnership to enhance their image, reach new markets, increase consumer loyalty, and build a positive reputation with current and prospective employees.The upside is just as powerful for nonprofits, because an alliance with a corporation can provide crucial funds and visibility while helping to attract new volunteers and donors. Common Interest, Common Good showcases many such successful partnerships, from corporate sponsorships and cause-related marketing to employee volunteer programs and school-to-work initiatives.The authors also offer some much-needed guidance for avoiding many of the pitfalls that can undermine even the best alliances.

A convincing, deeply felt book by two authors who have devoted much of their careers to helping public and private sectors find profitable new ways of working together, Common Interest, Common Good is a guided tour of the progressive new strategies that can contribute to the purpose of our businesses and the prosperity of our communities. ... Read more

Reviews (6)

Great book from a business perspective
This is a great book for businesses looking for unique opportunities to both make a difference and raise their community standing. It is comprised of real, powerful examples of how these partnerships can and do work. This book should be read along with Bill Shore's, "The Cathedral Within."

Creating Great Value for Companies and Communities
Every company I know is interested in getting and providing a great deal. Every nonprofit I know is committed to the greater welfare of the society. But almost no companies and nonprofits know how to link together to multiply their effectiveness in achieving their purposes.

This book provides outstanding examples and a superb template for creating partnerships of great value for all involved: companies, their employees, nonprofits, and the communities that everyone serves. Based on the examples in this book, it looks like the benefits can easily be 20 to 1 in the near term from the time and money invested. That kind of return is hard to find in business, philanthropy, or social entrepreneurship. The reason it happens is that the company can add value that the nonprofit cannot, and vice versa. The strategic partnership is not unlike the strategic alliances that companies create all the time with comapnies that offer unique strategic capabilities.

The reason these benefit are so large (and growing) is because customers and employees are ever more responsive to promoting a social cause, companies are getting better at partnering with outside organizations, and the expertise of nonprofits is growing.

Businesses can gain by getting low-cost recognition from customers that will increase sales, obtaining low-cost resources, making work more meaningful to employees (helping to retain them), attracting employees more easily, and learning how cause-based leadership can transform an organization. When you look at it from a dollar and cents point of view, these partnerships would pass any accounting test you want to use. Not to seek out these partnerships is to waste potential for growth and profits in your company. Corporate boards should be asking company CEOs to develop these partnerships!

Nonprofits can gain by learning how to increase outcomes they care about, gaining access to resources that would otherwise be unavailable, getting more exposure, and finding improved ways of meeting their missions.

Communities will gain by getting more resources, expertise, and attention from social entrepreneurs in companies and nonprofits.

So this is a win-win-win world, but somebody has to get it going. Chapter ten is excellent on that subject: It proposes a 5 step model for the nonprofit -- self assess, identify a partner, connect to that partner, test the relationship idea, and grow the relationship.

Although the initiative can come from the company, it usually won't. The executives already have other agendas, are receiving hundreds of requests for assistance, and don't know what many nonprofits can do for them. You can add some corporate executives to your nonprofit board who will understand companies to help you make these connections. The biggest hurdle will be the lack of corporate experience of your nonprofit's staff. Nonprofits are used to looking for a check, not a partnership. But that reliance on gifts alone is stalled thinking that will hold back the development of the public good.

The case histories include Home Depot and KaBOOM! (building playgrounds), Microsoft and the American Library Association (adding computers and Internet services to libraries in low-income areas), Denny's and Save the Children (raising money for poor children), BankBoston and City Year (sponsoring volunteers in community work), Ridgeview, Inc. and Newton-Conover Public Schools (creating better public schools and better parent involvement from employees with children), and Boeing and Pioneer Human Services (creating airplane parts by employing those with disadvantaged backgrounds). I found all of them to be interesting and well analyzed. Each one gave me ideas for how to pursue opportunties like these for the nonprofit on whose board I serve.

I especially recommend this book to company leaders, human resource executives, purchasing managers, and marketing planners. On the nonprofit side, this book will be a revelation to staffs and board members.

After you have read this book, please join the board of a nonprofit (if you are not already on one). Then, please use the processes in this book to create a strategic partnership with your company or another one in your community. You will gain strategic partnering skills and a sense of a job well done. The others will gain the benefits described above. If we each did this, our communities would soon be far more wonderful places to live and work.

Powerful thinking
Common Interest, Common Good represents powerful thinking that has already withstood many challenges and overcome many barriers. Corporate executives will benefit greatly from the book's clear and cogent lessons on the benefits of corporate/social sector partnership. This book is proof that goodness can endure.

Common Interest, Common Good
I'd strongly recommend this book both to corporate executives looking to improve corporate image and morale and to non-profit leaders seeking new funding mechanisms. Although the hokey title evokes past clichés like "doing good by doing well," the book is actually a practical, hard-headed approach to making companies run better by working with non-profits -- either through straight philanthropy, employee volunteer efforts, or joint ventures.

A most useful book
As a former corporate executive and a former member of the boards of directors of several non-profits, I can only wish this book could have been available years ago. Just think what I could have accomplished! I certainly recommend it for people in similar positions now.

In contrast to so many business oriented books, this one is engagingly written and eminently readable ... Read more

Reviews (1)

excellent introduction to how residential streets evolved
This books describes the history and evolution of residential streets in the US and Britain. It remains very objective, until the last chapter when the authors push for the shared streets concept. As a transportation planning professional, I found it very informative and compelling. It did the impossible: it changed my mind on the value of cul-de-sacs. ... Read more

Reviews (7)

Global view on sustainability
Do not expect from this book practical guidelines to become "sustainable" as some reviewers seemed to have expected. This book explains in detail what sustainability involves, three majors fields: economical, social and environmental that the author called the triple bottom line. Each field has been for long separated from each other and the new trend for sustainability is to make them working together. How? There are no answers in this book. This book does not want to offer solutions but just to show us that this so-called revolution has already started, based on existing facts and where these changes are taking places.

Low on content and little practical guidance
This book is bogged down in useless metaphores and imprecise, whooly language - well suited neither for practical decision-makers nor serious academics. Claims are not explained sufficiently well, and we are left guessing how to solve - or even understand - the important problems that this book claims to adress.

a guide to get from here to there
Elkington has created an awesome nuts and bolts description of where we have been, where we are, and where we are going. If The Ecology of Commerce (Paul Hawken) lays the visionary groundwork, this book is the next step. It adds in a lot of detail, bringing to light many cases and ideas about specific problems. It is a slow read but well worth the time.

The bible of sustainability
You can expect a complete perspective from the head of an organisation called SustainAbility on sustainability. That is what you get. John Elkington makes a useful classification of Non Governmental Organisations. The polarisers don't want to have anything to do with business. Business is in principle bad and should be watched and harassed. The integrators try to add two additional dimensions to business, environmental and social responsibility. Discriminators differentiate between good and bad businesses and the non-discriminators do not. This book is for the discriminating integrators. John Elkington believes that it is possible and necessary to get all businesses to act responsibly concerning profit and social and environmental issues- the triple bottom line. The book provides an excellent historical perspective of why businesses are moving on from the Friedman doctrine stating that the only social responsibility of a business is to make a profit. A business that wants to move in the sustainability direction can use the book to find out where it is on the path to full sustainability. The book also makes many practical suggestions on how to move forwards. The book is equally useful for NGOs, and public policy makers.

Count the Silver
Long term sustainability has become a topical issue not just for politicians, but also for executives. For the executive, the key lies in the question: "How do we serve the shareholders in the short term, yet leave behind a long term legacy with which to be remembered?"

While these two aims appear contradictory, they are linked via the organisation's system of shared values.

Values work in the present and the future. They set the framework for consistent decision making, yet remain with an organisation long after its physical assets have depreciated. Values also link the organisation to the society in which it operates and to its social agenda, namely the creation of wealth, the protection of the environment, and the support for social equity.

It is in the context of the social agenda that John Elkington asks us whether capitalism is sustainable, and whether it has made progress over the last hundred years. "Is it progress", he asks, "if a cannibal uses a fork?"

Not that we expect progress to be uniform. Lenin measured progress as two steps forward, and one step back, and even that is steeped in the paradigm of central planning. Free enterprise progresses by many steps in many different directions. Yet the record shows that de-central systems make progress, less systematically, but perhaps more surely than central ones.

However, the random nature of such progress generates many deceptive examples, where the same instance may be used to support contradictory theories. Thus, The Body Shop and Shell become symbols of corporate responsibility, but also corporate duplicity, while Nike and Intel become examples of corporate greed but also corporate responsiveness. Unplanned progress appears as a subtle, difficult to navigate, terrain.

Yet the pitfalls are great. We live in a world, where renewable resources such as trees are "mined rather than harvested". We find children on the one side of the planet working as slaves to produce fashion items for consumers on the other side. Furthermore the public, ever more aware of social and environmental issues, mobilise suddenly and to dramatic effect as ABB, Intel, Monsanto, Shell, Nike, and Texaco and many others testify.

To help us navigate, Elkington introduces his triple bottom line, which comprises of social, economic, and environmental measures. He uses this to expound on 'the seven revolutions affecting sustainability': Markets, Values, Transparency, Life-cycle Technology, Partnerships, Time, and Corporate Governance. He looks at the need for regulation, but also for regulatory frameworks "which operate, as far as possible, through market processes and are intrinsically pro-competition". The triple bottom line becomes his yardstick for corporate values.

When people start talking of values, said Mark Twain once, it is time to count the silver. Since the early sixties environmentalists have told us that "things will go very well and then suddenly collapse". Yet this proved indistinguishable from the prediction that "things will go very well, and then even better". The predictions of our demise have proved to be greatly exaggerated.

Yet, 'Cannibals with forks' raises all the relevant issues. If you are in an industry, which is subject to the whim of public pressure, or if you are trying to solve the riddle of long term sustainability, then 'Cannibals with forks' will make an interesting and profitable read. ... Read more

Book Description

Until recently, the phenomenal economic development of the Asian tigers, Chile, and Malaysia, as well as the sustained economic growth of the United States, painted a very desirable and optimistic picture of free markets, fiscal responsibility, and, more generally, the entire dogma of neoclassical economics. As of the fall of 1998, however, the economies of many tropical countries have contracted severely, and the enthusiasm of the developing tropics for the free market and all of its ancillary policies is decidedly cooler.Have our traditional approaches to economics been failing the developing world?
This interdisciplinary book covers the conditions of the developing tropics, the resistance of some of their problems to earlier attempts at solutions, and the use of new tools to develop a much more comprehensive and empirical framework for analysis and decision making. It also presents the development of cutting edge technology that links GIS and modeling approaches with extensive databases on meteorology, soils, agricultural production, and land use. The book discusses whether development is sustainable through a synthesis of demographic, economic, and resource-specific considerations. Costa Rica is uniquely suited to this study because of its size, stage of development, democratic institutions, and national databases.
A CD-ROM containing all data and programs, color images, animated models, large data tables, and references accompanies the book.

Key Features
* Links economic and biophysical analyses of sustainability
* Presents new tools and approaches for analysis and decision-making
* Includes a CD-ROM containing data and programs, color images, animated models, and references ... Read more

Book Description

Green Imperialism is the first book to document the origins and early history of environmentalism, concentrating especially on its hitherto unexplained colonial and global aspects. It highlights the significance of Utopian, Physiocratic, and medical thinking in the history of environmentalist ideas. The book shows how the new critique of the colonial impact on the environment depended on the emergence of a coterie of professional scientists, and demonstrates both the importance of the oceanic island "Eden" as a vehicle for new conceptions of nature and the significance of colonial island environments in stimulating conservationist notions. ... Read more

Reviews (1)

A VITAL NEW CONTRIBUTION TO ENVIRONMENTAL HISTORY
WITH ITS RE-WRITING OF THE ORIGINS OF ENVIRONMENTALISM, THIS BOOK IS PROBABLY THE MOST SIGNIFICANT BOOK PUBLISHED IN ENVIRONMENTAL HISTORY IN THE LAST 10 YEARS. I FELT IT COMPARED WELL WITH SIMON SCHAMA'S LANDSCAPE AND MEMORY IN HELPING US TO UNDERSTAND THE EVOLUTION OF ENVIRONMENTAL CONCERN. IN PARTICULAR THE NOTION THAT ENVIRONMENTALISM BEGAN ON FRENCH OCEANIC ISLAND COLONIES, ESPECIALLY ON MAURITIUS, IS A REVOLUTIONARY ONE. ... Read more

Book Description

Nearly 90 percent of the earth's land surface is directly affected by human infrastructure and activities, yet less than 5 percent is legally "protected" for biodiversity conservation. Even within that 5 percent, seven out of ten large protected areas have people living inside their boundaries. This means that in 96.5% of the world, conservation includes people. Conservation is a resource for conservation practitioners, students, managers, and policy makers hoping to make conservation work where biodiversity and human livelihoods must be reconciled.

Conservation traces the historical roots of modern conservation thought and practice, and explores current perspectives from evolutionary and community ecology, conservation biology, anthropology, political ecology, economics, and policy. The authors examine a suite of conservation strategies and perspectives from around the world, highlighting the most innovative and promising avenues for future conservation efforts.

Exploring, highlighting, and bridging gaps between the social and natural sciences as applied in the practice of conservation, this book provides a broad, practically oriented view. It is quintessential reading for anyone involved in the conservation process--from academic conservation biology to the management of protected areas, rural livelihood development to poverty alleviation, and from community based natural resource management to national and global policy making.

... Read more

Book Description

The rural west is at a crossroads, and the Sierra Nevada is at the center of this social and economic change. The Sierra Nevada landscape has always been valued for its bounty of natural resource commodities, but new residents and an ever-growing flood of tourists to the area have transformed the relationship between the region's nature and its culture. In an engaging narrative that melds the personal with the professional, Timothy P.Duane--who grew up in the area--documents the impact of rapid population growth on the culture, economy, and ecology of the Sierra Nevada since the late 1960s. He also recommends innovative policies for mitigating the negative effects of future population growth in this spectacular but threatened region, as well as throughout the rural west.

Today, the primary social and economic values of the Sierra Nevada landscape are in the amenities and ecological services provided by its wildlands and functioning ecosystems.Duane shows how further unfettered population growth threatens the very values which have made the Sierra Nevada a desirable place to live and work. A new approach to land use planning, resource management, and local economic development--one that recognizes the emerging values of the landscape--is necessary in order to achieve sustainable development, Duane claims. Weaving personal experience with outstanding scholarship, he shows how such an approach must explicitly recognize the importance of values and the application of an environmental land ethic to future development in the area. ... Read more

Reviews (1)

Scholarly, definitive, and surprisingly engaging
Duane paints an interesting and comprehensive portrait of how the Sierra Nevada area has been transformed by the shift from an emphasis on resource extraction to a lifestyle choice.

His illustrations of the paradox thus created--the region's success as a recreation destination is imperiling the very qualities that are giving it that success--is particularly compelling.

Anyone with an interest in the Sierra Nevada, or mountain/recreational area living in general, will find this a fascinating read. I can't imagine anyone who is making policy for any area trying to grapple with the issues of growth and quality of life not having a copy of this work.

The scholarly component--I did find myself skimming a few areas--makes it a great reference work. It is very well indexed and clearly presented. And each time I started feeling like I was wading, I re-engaged fully at the start of the next section. ... Read more