Green Wave Sweeping Business World
Leading companies are discovering that thinking “green” can generate great value for their brands and do wonders for the bottom line, asserts a new Yale book, Green to Gold: How Smart Companies Use Environmental Strategy to Innovate, Create Value and Build Competitive Advantage.
“A Green Wave is sweeping the business world,” write the authors Daniel Esty [profile], director of the Yale Center for Environmental Law and Policy, and Andrew Winston, director of the Corporate Environmental Strategy Project at Yale. “And it is propelled by two fundamental forces: environmental stresses, and a world of people who are insisting that the business community take action in response.”
Green to Gold uses examples of companies that have employed environmentally friendly strategies to their advantage, including BP, IKEA, Toyota, Ford, McDonald’s and GE.
In the case of Toyota, the authors lay out in detail that company’s meticulous development of the hybrid Prius automobile and how that has positively affected the brand. They explain how 3M made a pact to cut pollution, a decision that sometimes resulted in short-run costs, but has generated hundreds of millions in profit. And they recount how McDonald’s successfully changed its packaging to limit environmental impact.
“Companies using an environmental lens find ways to be more innovative and entrepreneurial than their competitors,” the authors write. “These ‘WaveRiders’ see emerging issues ahead of the pack. And they are better at finding new opportunities to increase sales and enhance brand value.”
The gold, or profits, that smart companies can realize from having a workable, practical environmental strategy includes innovative, breakthrough products that drive customer loyalty and higher revenues; new-found eco-efficiency that slashes operational costs; anticipation and management of serious business risks; and higher “intangible” value benefits from a more innovative culture to increased brand credibility and trust.
Green to Gold is published by Yale University Press. To purchase a copy, visit http://yalepress.yale.edu/yupbooks/book.asp?isbn=0300119976.
“A Green Wave is sweeping the business world,” write the authors Daniel Esty [profile], director of the Yale Center for Environmental Law and Policy, and Andrew Winston, director of the Corporate Environmental Strategy Project at Yale. “And it is propelled by two fundamental forces: environmental stresses, and a world of people who are insisting that the business community take action in response.”
Green to Gold uses examples of companies that have employed environmentally friendly strategies to their advantage, including BP, IKEA, Toyota, Ford, McDonald’s and GE.
In the case of Toyota, the authors lay out in detail that company’s meticulous development of the hybrid Prius automobile and how that has positively affected the brand. They explain how 3M made a pact to cut pollution, a decision that sometimes resulted in short-run costs, but has generated hundreds of millions in profit. And they recount how McDonald’s successfully changed its packaging to limit environmental impact.
“Companies using an environmental lens find ways to be more innovative and entrepreneurial than their competitors,” the authors write. “These ‘WaveRiders’ see emerging issues ahead of the pack. And they are better at finding new opportunities to increase sales and enhance brand value.”
The gold, or profits, that smart companies can realize from having a workable, practical environmental strategy includes innovative, breakthrough products that drive customer loyalty and higher revenues; new-found eco-efficiency that slashes operational costs; anticipation and management of serious business risks; and higher “intangible” value benefits from a more innovative culture to increased brand credibility and trust.
Green to Gold is published by Yale University Press. To purchase a copy, visit http://yalepress.yale.edu/yupbooks/book.asp?isbn=0300119976.
