Review
“A very user-friendly and practical book on sustainability. It is well written and comprehensive, very clear, and concise in its explanations and applicable examples.” People & Strategy “this book offers a compilation of excellent, practical resources for developing a sustainable enterprise.” –Choice
Book Description
Building an organization’s commitment to sustainability is not just a means to enhancing the health, diversity, and st…
Buy The Sustainable Enterprise Fieldbook: When it All Comes Together at Amazon
Theres a lot of books on sustainability out there now – which is great – but most of them stay on the surface. They simply tell interesting stories and review green business theories. This book digs deeper, going into the nuts and bolts and tells you how to develop and implement green business best practices. Its not for beginners! The level of detail is intense. But for you professionals who’ve tasted the gold in green business and are ready to develop a comprehensive program, this book is a great resource.
“The boss came back from a seminar and said we need to be sustainable”, “our green team needs to make the next step”, “I need to provide better documentation to justify our sustainability efforts”, are all statements that I hear routinely in presentations or as a part of general calls that come into the agency. This book provides a valuable resource as it serves admirably as a primer for the unintiated, a problem solver for the overwhelmed and a tool chest for the seasoned practitioner.
There are very few books that I will recommend when asked where to start, simply because organizations moving to the sustainability path are starting from such different places. This book provides a range of information to satisfy those diverse needs. It has all of the earmarks for being one of the books on your shelf with folded corners, highlights and tabs for the “go to” locations helping your organization explore, implement and share sustainable practices.
As a leadership development consultant and executive coach, I’m constantly on the lookout for good resources to help deepen my knowledge base around sustainability. A Sustainable Enterprise Fieldbook is a welcome addition to more than a score of books on my growing sustainability shelf. Written by a collection of 29 authors, “The Enterprise Sustainability Action Team,” with the shaping hand of editor Jeana Wirtenberg (with William Russell and David Lipsky), this learning community created a five part approach: 1) an introductory context setting overview, 2) the foundations of sustainable enterprises, 3) embracing and managing change sustainably, 4) connecting, integrating and aligning toward the future, and 5) when it all comes together – a concluding synthesis chapter. Within these five parts I found rich, pragmatic strategies that helped sharpen my own approaches for integrating sustainability into my professional work.
I also appreciated the visual denotations found throughout the collection of writings, indicating an Activity, Case example, or Tool. A glossary of terms in the appendix along with a healthy bio on each contributor rounded out a deeply accessible, user-friendly resource.
Each chapter within those five parts offered grounded strategies, intellectual provocations, social learning ideas, and an invitation to play – in order to address the historical global challenge of sustainability. What draws me to and keeps me engaged with a book on sustainability is an on-going experience of something new popping up and feeling immediately usable. In the first week after picking up TSEF, it bore the marks of a dog-eared reference book – with much underlining, margin notes, sticky tags, and newly sparked idea notations on the white pages at the end of the book. If my creativity is set in motion by models, case studies, and other concepts and information, then the book has been worth the investment – a threshold that was hit early on.
A macro conceptual underpinning of TSEF is the paradigm shift that the sustainability effort straddles. Going from global corporate capitalism’s unsustainable way of producing and living to one that is more locally and democratically based, and putting nature in the center as a primary partner, locates this book as a timely bridge in a high stakes transition period of history. In this period of great challenge, there is also great anxiety. We have the choice of turning towards the challenges and transforming them into what is needed, or turning away and burying our heads. This book gives us the tools and concepts for turning towards and finding our whole selves and world in the process. As professionals and citizens, we need all the ideas we can muster, models, and case studies we can share to help us intelligibly navigate from a mindset built around scarcity and fear to one built around sufficiency and sustainability. It is in that sweet spot of possibility and concrete action that The Sustainable Enterprise Fieldbook generously contributes its value, page after page.