Download or read book Building a Sustainable Business written by and published by Minnesota Institute for Sustainable Agriculture. This book was released on 2003 with total page 284 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "Brings the business planning process alive to help today's agriculture entrepreneurs transform farm-grown inspiration into profitable enterprises. Sample worksheets illustrate how real farm families set goals, research processing alternatives, determine potential markets, and evaluate financing options. Blank worksheets offer readers the opportunity to develop their own detailed, lender-ready business plan and map out strategies" --back cover.
Download or read book Sustainable Business and Industry written by Joseph Jacobsen and published by Quality Press. This book was released on 2011-01-01 with total page 217 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book is an introduction to developing and implementing a successful program in the domain of sustainability and social responsibility. The reader is exposed to financially, environmentally, and socially responsible objectives that are supported by strategies and achieved by clear tactics that have measurable outcomes. The reader is introduced to methods of implementing technologies and practices and will also learn how to measure the consequent social and environmental performance for written reports and persuasive presentations. This book also reveals why we should be sustainable by explaining seemingly complex topics in science in a way that requires very little math or science background. The overview also captures how sustainability and social responsibility can be the source of process and product innovation. This book's approach is practical yet scientific. The nine chapters are dedicated to the practice of environmental and social responsibility in ways that achieve financial stability over the long run. As a result, these chapters help us understand not just why businesses need to be more responsible but how businesses can be more successful over the long run. International standards are given full treatment. ISO 26000 is given detailed attention, slightly more than ISO 9000 or ISO 14000, because it melds guidance on both environmental and social responsibility into one general concept of social responsibility. This book also specifies how to use traditional methods such as Six Sigma, lean, and operations research to improve processes, reduce resource use and waste, and make better social and environmental decisions that are based upon data from key financial, social, and environmental performance indicators. Internal and external data sourcing are given full treatment along with basic statistical data management. A recurring theme throughout the book is the integration of traditional methods of continuous improvemen
Download or read book Foundations of Sustainable Business written by Nada R. Sanders and published by John Wiley & Sons. This book was released on 2019-12-12 with total page 352 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The second edition of Sustainable Business prepares future business leaders to tackle the most crucial social and environmental issues of our time. This engaging textbook provides students with a comprehensive, balanced introduction to integrating sustainable business policies into all core business functions and processes. The text employs a qualitative-based learning process to help students understand how leadership, finance, accounting, risk management, marketing, supply chain management, and operations can be adapted to meet the sustainability goals of the 21st century. Looking at sustainable business from the managerial viewpoint, the fully-updated new edition explains how and why business is evolving due to increased consumer and regulatory pressure for sustainable performance. Business topics are first introduced in the same manner as traditional MBA programs, and then examined through the lens of sustainably. The text incorporates real-life examples of social and environmental leadership to demonstrate the efficacy of good sustainable business decisions, and illustrates the negative ramifications of outdated, purely economic-driven managerial decision-making. Influential concepts based on interdisciplinary research in sustainability are discussed in detail, and practical insights address how to turn policy into practice in the workplace.
Download or read book Sustainable Business written by Helen Kopnina and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2014-09-15 with total page 295 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Sustainable Business: Key Issues is the first comprehensive introductory-level textbook to address the interface between environmental challenges and business solutions to provide an overview of the basic concepts of sustainability, sustainable business, and business ethics. The book introduces students to the background and key issues of sustainability and suggests ways in which these concepts can be applied in business practice. Though the book takes a business perspective, it is interdisciplinary in its nature and draws on knowledge from socio-economic, political, and environmental studies, thereby providing a practical and critical understanding of sustainability in the changing paradigm of global business. It goes beyond the conventional theories of sustainability and addresses critical issues concerned with population, consumption and economic growth. It discusses realistic ways forward, in particular the Circular Economy and Cradle to Cradle frameworks. The book is both a theoretical and practical study guide for undergraduate and postgraduate international students of broad areas of sustainability, teaching ways to recognize opportunities for innovation and entrepreneurship at the intersection of environmental, economic, ethical, and social systems. It takes a strategic approach in applying the power of business methods and policy to address issues of global importance such as climate change, poverty, ecosystem degradation and human rights. This textbook is essential reading for students of business, management and sustainability courses. It is written in an engaging and accessible style, with each chapter including case studies, discussion questions, end of chapter summaries and suggestions for further reading.
Download or read book Managing Sustainable Business written by Gilbert G. Lenssen and published by Springer. This book was released on 2018-03-07 with total page 705 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book offers 32 texts and case studies from across a wide range of business sectors around a managerial framework for Sustainable Business. The case studies are developed for and tested in executive education programmes at leading business schools. The book is based on the premise that the key for managing the sustainable business is finding the right balance over time between managing competitiveness and profitability AND managing the context of the business with its political, social and ecological risks and opportunities. In that way, a sustainable business is highly responsive to the demands and challenges from both markets and societies and managers embrace the complexity, ambivalence and uncertainty that goes along with this approach. The book presents a framework that facilitates the adoption of best business practice. This framework leads executives through a systematic approach of strategic analysis and business planning in risk management, issues management, stakeholder management, sustainable business development and strategic differentiation, business model innovation and developing dynamic capabilities. The approach helps broaden the understanding of what sustainable performance means, by protecting business value against sustainability risks and creating business value from sustainability opportunities.
Download or read book Sustainable Businesses in Developing Economies written by Rajagopal and published by Springer Nature. This book was released on 2020-10-26 with total page 269 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Trends in cleaner business decisions have resulted in sustainable business models involving society, stakeholders, and consumers. Sustainable choices of companies create competitive differentiations that enable consumers to weigh social values and shift loyalties in the competitive marketplace. This book focuses on sustainability as the pivot of marketing and argues that commitment to sustainability in business not only equips companies to have greater social impact but also inspires an emotional response in consumers that aids companies in growing their image, brands, and socio-political reputations. Exploring topics such as the circular economy, sustainable logistics, eco-innovation, conscious consumption, and social entrepreneurship, the chapters discuss sustainable practices in emerging markets and co-creation between corporations and consumers. This book offers researchers innovative concepts on sustainable business modelling.
Download or read book Sustainable Business Models written by Annabeth Aagaard and published by Springer. This book was released on 2018-09-06 with total page 396 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book provides a comprehensive exploration into the identification and development of sustainable business models as well as their implementation, management and evaluation. With ever-increasing pressure on organisations to respond to societal change and improve competition through sustainable business model innovation (SBMI), this book aims to contribute to the knowledge of their design and management. The chapters explore the role of partnerships, the Internet of Things and the circular economy, among other factors, in developing SBM and how SBMI is facilitated through ideation and in entrepreneurial settings. Providing new typologies, patterns and a framework to evaluate the level of sustainability of business models, this book critically reviews existing literature on the topic to examine the potential of SBMI in research and in practice. The contributing authors employ a number of case studies and case examples to illustrate the integration of sustainable business models throughout the value chain, and their influence on wider social, environmental and business activities.
Download or read book Corporate Social Responsibility Sustainable Business written by Rae Lindsay and published by Kluwer Law International B.V.. This book was released on 2020-06-17 with total page 630 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In a dramatic departure from its voluntary origins, corporate social responsibility (CSR) is rapidly shifting to hold multinational companies accountable for more than traditional shareholder performance. This CSR movement is embracing new environmental, social and governance (ESG) frameworks that both promote global sustainability goals and enhance accountability for negative impacts businesses can have on ‘planet and people’. This collection of essays by leading businesspeople, international civil servants, legal practitioners, academics, and other experts offers a forward-looking and pragmatic perspective that illuminates the major themes in this movement towards increasingly sustainable, transparent and accountable business practices. The collection shows how CSR has evolved to account for societal pressures, environmental, climate change and human rights impacts, international policy imperatives and the practical challenges of regulating commercial activity that transcends borders. The chapters offer an in-depth examination of current issues including: international frameworks and multistakeholder initiatives catalysing foundational change; the shifting emphasis on corporate imperatives to avoid harm to third parties; trends in CSR, focused on assuring the planet's future sustainability and social stability; regulatory initiatives around the globe, including Europe, North America, Asia and Africa; and extended accountability for activities of corporate group members and supply chains. The pressure and business case for companies to incorporate CSR into corporate governance is intensifying with each quarter, shareholder meeting, and regulatory agenda. The integration of CSR and new ESG frameworks into multinational corporate strategy and operations is key to sustainable business models that can generate long-term value for the organization and all stakeholders. Their acceptance as cornerstones of 21st century business practice appears inevitable. Taking full account of the imperative for companies and their lawyers to grapple with the practical and legal challenges in this area, this volume is an invaluable and pragmatic addition to the practitioners’ toolbox at this important juncture in an ever-more dynamic field.
Download or read book Metrics for Sustainable Business written by Scott R. Herriott and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2016-02-19 with total page 256 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Metrics for Sustainable Business is the first book to give students a comprehensive understanding of sustainability in organizations from an accounting perspective. The book walks student through the steps for doing a sustainability assessment, and aims to develop them into financial analysts who understand sustainability reports, and are able to create or audit them. While most books focus on environmental issues, Herriott trains his gaze on the corporate and institutional perspective, covering measurement systems, how to evaluate and improve a standard, and conducting a life cycle assessment. Walking students through the programs of disclosure, the varying standards for corporate ratings, and organizational certification, allows them to grasp the tools for conducting a sustainability assessment and auditing reports. Chapters on accounting for greenhouse gas emissions, water use, and waste introduce students to the technical details in sustainability accounting, while a chapter on the philosophies of sustainability offers an answer to the question, "Why are they asking us to report that?" Richly demonstrated with practical examples and informative visuals, this book will serve students of sustainability, accounting, and integrated reporting.
Download or read book Walking the Talk written by Charles O. Holliday and published by Berrett-Koehler Publishers. This book was released on 2002-08-16 with total page 300 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Report by the World Business Council for Sustainable Development.
Download or read book Leading Sustainably written by Trista Bridges and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2022-02 with total page 176 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The business world is at an important crossroads. The age of the stakeholder is rapidly superseding that of the shareholder as climate change and political and societal shifts upend years of seeming prosperity. To move past this agitated age, business and society must learn to lead sustainably by putting purpose on equal footing with profit. The first step is understanding what's meant by sustainability and how it offers an opportunity for both business and society. Inspired by the launch of the 2030 United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), the book captures the ideas of more than 100 change makers from around the world about how business is putting sustainability at the core of strategy to survive, thrive, and realign its interests with society's. Leading Sustainably looks at how sustainability has evolved in a business context, offering powerful insights, key facts, and guidance on building sustainability capability within companies, measuring and managing impact, sustainable finance's transformation, and other topics critical to aligning businesses' central activities with sustainable principles. The book introduces five vignettes profiling best-in-class companies that were sustainable from the start and international case studies on business sustainability efforts, spanning industries from hospitality to waste management, fashion, finance, and more. Finally, Bridges and Eubank provide frameworks and in-depth direction firms can leverage when accelerating their transition to more sustainable business models. The book is a perfect guide for mid-level to senior managers seeking to understand this fast-changing business environment, how to factor sustainability into their decision-making, and why the SDGs changed everything.
Download or read book Sustainable Business in Iowa written by Adam Hammes and published by Createspace Independent Publishing Platform. This book was released on 2018-01-21 with total page 386 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Companies around the world are combining environmental and social responsibility to achieve improved financial performance. Yet, with the many elements that go into a strategic sustainability plan, businesses and their employees often get mired in the details. The first part of this book shows step-by-step how to define a sustainability plan that fits your organization. The second part is a choose-your-own-adventure reference guide to environmental and social initiatives that will help improve your bottom line. Adam Hammes weaves together easy-to-understand models, business examples, and personal stories from his years of experience. Drawing from his time as the first manager of sustainability for Kum & Go, an independent sustainability consultant, and the executive director of the Iowa Sustainable Business Forum, the book explains what sustainable business means and documents the well-researched ways in which environmental and social responsibility programs unfold inside companies. Over thirty case studies from responsible Iowa businesses illustrate exactly what you can do to assess your organization and take the next successful step. Some of these examples you will recognize, and hopefully many will be new. Sustainable Business in Iowa provides a simple framework for any professional who is committed to environmental and social performance, but who feels stuck and unsure of where to go next. The 5 Stage Journey - Learn the five stages of corporate sustainability initiatives. Know where you stand, so you can prepare for a successful move to the next stage. Related Issues - Learn how environmental and social issues develop in their later stages. Discover how working on related issues separately can severely limit success. Moving Stages - Learn what moves a company from one stage of an initiative to the next. Grasp how to facilitate that transition, generate momentum fast, and save time. Envision an Iowa where every business professional understands how to lead financially, environmentally, and socially responsible change in the workplace. Envision an Iowa where more and more of our local companies are seen as national and global leaders in sustainable business. Sustainable Business in Iowa shows you how that future is possible. For every paperback sold, $1 is donated to Net Impact and ENACTUS (Entrepreneurship Action Us). Thank you for helping future generations lead environmentally and socially responsible businesses of tomorrow.
Download or read book Sustainable Business written by Annabeth Aagaard and published by CRC Press. This book was released on 2022-09-01 with total page 186 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The developments in our environment and society has made it clear that the way we run our businesses and govern our nations is not sustainable in the long run. This is also why more and more companies and organizations are pursuing sustainable business through various Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) activities. However, many companies experience that although they facilitate a CSR strategy on corporate level, CSR is often not embedded in their business and/or integrated across their functions. If companies are to achieve the full business potential and performance impact of CSR, sustainability has to be operationalized, targeted and measured across the value chain through empowered employees and in alignment with the business strategy of the company. Though state-of-the-art CSR research, theories and models, the theoretical platform for sustainable business and CSR is presented in this book. However, CSR is carried out in practice, and not just in theory. This is why each chapter is supplemented with practical case examples explaining the way in which different companies and their managers have integrated sustainable business in their strategy and across the organizations’ different functions. As is evident both in theory and practice, the success of CSR integration is highly affected by industrial context, as the unique characteristics of the industry have an impact on the key sustainability challenges and business opportunities of the specific company and industry. In support of this evidence, the book also reveals how CSR can be implemented across private and public organizations as well as small & medium sized entities (SMEs).
Download or read book Sustainable Business written by Helen Kopnina and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2018-04-19 with total page 511 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Sustainable Business: Key Issues is the first comprehensive introductory-level textbook to address the interface between environmental challenges and business solutions to provide an overview of the basic concepts of sustainability, sustainable business, and business ethics. The book introduces students to the background and key issues of sustainability and suggests ways in which these concepts can be applied in business practice. Though the book takes a business perspective, it is interdisciplinary in its nature and draws on knowledge from socio-economic, political, and environmental studies, thereby providing a practical and critical understanding of sustainability in the changing paradigm of global business. It goes beyond the conventional theories of sustainability and addresses critical issues concerned with population, consumption, and economic growth. It discusses realistic ways forward, in particular the circular economy and Cradle to Cradle frameworks. The book is both a theoretical and practical study guide for undergraduate and postgraduate international students of broad areas of sustainability, teaching ways to recognize opportunities for innovation and entrepreneurship at the intersection of environmental, economic, ethical, and social systems. It takes a strategic approach in applying the power of business methods and policy to address issues of global importance such as climate change, poverty, ecosystem degradation, and human rights. This textbook is essential reading for students of business, management, and sustainability courses. It is written in an engaging and accessible style, with each chapter including case studies, discussion questions, end of chapter summaries, and suggestions for further reading. This new edition is updated throughout, and contains an additional chapter on the circular economy.
Download or read book Sustainable Business written by CJ Meadows and published by Walter de Gruyter GmbH & Co KG. This book was released on 2023-09-18 with total page 110 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: What would you get if you combined an entrepreneur, a technologist, a financier, and a strategist/ecologist with an international chef, corporate lawyer, architect, and more? One such international leadership team created a new model of eco-development (economic and ecological) and introduced it with an array of on-the-ground programs into a village on the edge of one of India’s original nine Project Tiger nature reserves. This book presents the story of this remarkable center. It argues that to save an endangered species, you have to save its environment, and to save those, you must "save" the people that live with them, by providing eco-sensitive ways to grow economically, without encroaching on the natural environment or helping poachers. This "Golden Triangle" model is put forth in this book that includes eco-development facts and figures, engaging "how-it-happened" vignettes, insights and lessons learned, and results – including a four-times increase in tiger numbers, generation of new base-of-pyramid businesses, fierce eco-protectiveness by local people, eager adoption of eco-technologies, and economic and social betterment. Scalable implications are provided for economic and ecological development worldwide.
Download or read book Principles of Sustainable Business written by Rob van Tulder and published by Taylor & Francis. This book was released on 2022-11-04 with total page 1062 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The basic function of companies is to add value to society. Profits are a means to an end, not an end in itself. The ability of companies to innovate, scale and invest provides them with a powerful base for positive change. But companies are also criticized for not contributing sufficiently to society’s grand challenges. An increasingly VUCA (Volatile, Uncertain, Complex and Ambiguous) world creates serious governance gaps that not only require new ways of regulation, but also new ways of doing business. Can companies effectively contribute to sustainable development and confront society’s systemic challenges? Arguably the most important frame to drive this ambition was introduced and unanimously adopted in 2015: the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). The SDG-agenda not only defines a holistic set of global goals and targets, but also foundational principles to guide meaningful action to their achievement by 2030. Multinational companies have signed up to the SDGs as the world’s long-term business plan. Realizing the SDGs provides a yearly $12 trillion investment and growth opportunity, while creating hundreds of millions of jobs in the process. But progress is too slow – witnessing society’s inability to deal with pressing human, ecological, economic and health crises – whilst the vast potential for societal value creation remains underutilized. This book provides a timely account of the systemic, strategic and operational challenges that need to be addressed to enhance the effectiveness of corporate involvement in society, by using the SDGs as the leading principles-based framework for actionable, powerful and transformative change. Principles of Sustainable Business is written for graduate and postgraduate (executive) students, policymakers and business professionals who want to understand the complex challenges of global sustainability. It shows how companies can design and implement SDG-relevant strategies at three levels: the macro level, to assess whether the SDGs present wicked problems or opportunities; the micro level, to develop and operationalize innovative business models, design new business cases and navigate organizational transition trajectories; and the meso level, to develop fit-for-purpose cross-sector partnering strategies. Principles of Sustainable Business presents innovative tools embedded in a coherent sequence of analytical frameworks that can be applied in courses for students, be put into practice by business professionals and used by action researchers to help companies contribute to the Decade of Action.
Download or read book Sustainable Business and IT written by Subodh Kesharwani and published by Taylor & Francis. This book was released on 2023-06-09 with total page 317 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: As Information Technology continues to evolve as a key strategic enabler, many establishments feel the need to think more holistically about how IT can support corporate sustainability efforts. This book aims to recognize these efforts and best practices in numerous business settings. Sustainability is expensive, and requires collaboration between many different areas of the business. The solution to the growing burden of carbon emission lies within the technology innovation as continued advancements in processes make businesses lean and smart. The multidisciplinary approach the book uses will be appreciated by students, academics and researchers in Information Technology, Management, Corporate, and Sustainability Champions. Print edition not for sale in South Asia (India, Sri Lanka, Nepal, Bangladesh, Pakistan and Bhutan)
