In recent years, people have
looked more and more to the business world to take its share of responsibility
for the fast-deteriorating state of the Earth. But exactly how businesses
should go about this task has remained something of a puzzle. Now, with
In Earth's Company: Business, Environment, and the Challenge of Sustainability,
well-known business and environment writer Carl
Frankel deftly gathers the pieces of the puzzle together into a
single, comprehensive volume.
Frankel
describes the history and meaning of the term 'sustainable development'
as the effective balancing of economic growth, environmental protection,
and social equity, and outlines key contributors to the concept - such
as the Green consumer movement, the Brundtland Report, and the Earth
Summit. He analyzes how corporations have attempted to integrate environmental
concerns into their operations through public environmental reporting,
ISO 14000, and Total Quality Management. He also evaluates current corporate
trends such as zero waste and multi-stakeholder partnerships. Critical
of current techniques for measuring environmental performance, Frankel
discusses emerging corporate strategies for improving the business record
on the environment and for making the entire industrial system more
sustainable. These strategies include 'Factor 10,' industrial ecology,
The Natural Step, and environmental accounting. Concluding that the
business record to date regarding sustainability is at best uneven,
Frankel
calls for greater emphasis on collaboration, process and quality in
all dimensions of business practice.
Lucid and authoritative, In Earth's Company offers provocative
guidance and an intriguing glimpse into an area of key importance for
the future. It will be of equal interest to business executives, environmentalists,
and ordinary citizens concerned about the state of the Earth.
Reviews
"Carl
Frankel has produced a challenging thought-piece which weaves the
many facets of the business/sustainability prism into an integrated
system of light appealing to both the head and the heart." - Beth
Beloff, Director, Institute for Corporate Environmental Management
About the Author
Carl Frankel
is a writer, journalist, consultant, and one of North America's leading
authorities on business and sustainable development. He is currently
US editor for Tomorrow Magazine, an environmental-business magazine;
a contributing editor to The Green Business Letter, a trade newsletter;
and a member of the editorial advisory board of Yes! The Journal
of Positive Futures. From 1990 to 1994, he was editor and publisher
of Green MarketAlert, which tracked corporate environmentalism,
environmental marketing and other green business strategies. Frankel's
articles on business and the environment have appeared in a broad array
of magazines, and he has contributed to several books on environmental
management. A member of the Society of Environmental Journalists, Frankel
is a graduate of Princeton University (1970) and the Columbia University
School of Law (1974).
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