The Business Guide to Sustainability is a basic text*, which offers a systemic, systematic, and rational argument for adopting sustainable practices in business.
The authors proceed systemically and systematically, covering one by one all areas for the application of sustainability. The book is organized into three parts:
- basic concepts
- sustainability by industry – manufacturing, services, government, with agriculture and extraction industries not included
- sustainability by business function (50% of the book) – management, facilities, HR, purchasing, environmental affairs, marketing/PR, and accounting/finance
Each chapter also contains three parts:
- introduction to sustainability;
- strategies you can use; and
- SCORE (Sustainability Competency & Opportunity Rating & Evaluation), a self-assessment tool, for which the book is a massive and brilliant marketing tool.
Naturally, the chapter on marketing and PR held most interest for me, as I believe that sustainable marketing – all marketing – should support the triple bottom line (goal: sustainable organizations) in a triple bottom line way (process: sustainably). What a contrast, then, to read the chapter’s subtitle, “Whether and how to promote your sustainability efforts”, and the statement that “you are better off thinking about sustainability as just being part of your marketing and public relations messages, not a different way of approaching the world.” According to the Guide, marketing only needs to promote sustainability, rather than integrate and implement it.
The authors frame the sustainability argument around opportunities and threats. While the threat sticks position sustainability as a set of risk management practices, the opportunity carrots focus squarely on sustainability’s financial and environmental benefits, be it direct results or multiple positive externalities. Social sustainability gets much less attention, with the notable exception of the chapter on government, a decidedly non-business entity; the authors seem to imply government has the greatest opportunity and should assume leadership in the social realm. The People bottom line of business is the least developed element in the Guide.
The Guide presents sustainability as a set of practices to be adopted from outside in. An entire chapter is devoted to internal sustainability champions and how they can bring about the change within organizations. The assumption is that the cultural change that sustainability requires in order to fulfill its full potential will follow suit as companies experience the positive results of action. The contrast with sustainability as a values-based, inside-out path is stark. Though this isn’t necessarily bad, as the book targets organizations that do not yet practice sustainability, it underlines a limit of such adoption: the application of the triple bottom line in single bottom line companies.
True to its title, the Guide is full of practical advice and tips on why and how to apply sustainable practices in any organization. A head-spinning number of real-life examples supports the book’s points, illustrating the many ways organizations can adopt sustainable practices and underlining the complexity of the task. Disproportionately represented are cases from Portland, Oregon, where the authors are based. Chapter to chapter, some examples get repeated (reused?), which is a slight nuisance only if you read the book front to back as an overview rather than specifically by industry or business function.
The main limitation of any primer, including this one, is the emphasis on breadth rather than depth, which can pose usefulness challenges, particularly with a complex issue like sustainability. The authors compensate well by listing, right in the main text, further resources – articles, books, websites – for every major point they make. The Guide thus serves truly as an introductory text, as well as an inspiration.
If there’s one overarching takeaway from the book it’s this: Many paths lead to making your business more sustainable. You just have to have a plan, start somewhere, and go step by step, in the very sustainable spirit of continuous improvement.
***
Darcy Hitchcock and Marsha Willard, The Business Guide to Sustainability: Practical Strategies and Tools for Organizations, London: Earthscan, 2006.
* The book received 3 mentions in my informal survey among sustainability professionals about essential books on sustainability in business, ranking among the top 7 out of 39 volumes.
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Peter,
Thank you for this excellent book review. I found it very useful since I haven’t yet seen this book. Coincidentally, I know Darcy and Marsha, both of whom teach at Bainbridge Graduate Institute (www.bgiedu.org) and have been long time leaders in the organizational sustainability field.