Selling Sustainability Short?
Selling Sustainability Short?

Author: Janina Grabs

Publisher: Cambridge University Press

Published: 2020-05-14

Total Pages: 327

ISBN-13: 1108890393

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

Can private standards bring about more sustainable production practices? This question is of interest to conscientious consumers, academics studying the effectiveness of private regulation, and corporate social responsibility practitioners alike. Grabs provides an answer by combining an impact evaluation of 1,900 farmers with rich qualitative evidence from the coffee sectors of Honduras, Colombia and Costa Rica. Identifying an institutional design dilemma that private sustainability standards encounter as they scale up, this book shows how this dilemma plays out in the coffee industry. It highlights how the erosion of price premiums and the adaptation to buyers' preferences have curtailed standards' effectiveness in promoting sustainable practices that create economic opportunity costs for farmers, such as agroforestry or agroecology. It also provides a voice for coffee producers and value chain members to explain why the current system is failing in its mission to provide environmental, social, and economic co-benefits, and what changes are necessary to do better.

Selling Sustainability Short?
Selling Sustainability Short?

Author: Janina Grabs

Publisher: Cambridge University Press

Published: 2022-03-24

Total Pages: 0

ISBN-13: 9781108799508

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

Can private standards bring about more sustainable production practices? This question is of interest to conscientious consumers, academics studying the effectiveness of private regulation, and corporate social responsibility practitioners alike. Grabs provides an answer by combining an impact evaluation of 1,900 farmers with rich qualitative evidence from the coffee sectors of Honduras, Colombia and Costa Rica. Identifying an institutional design dilemma that private sustainability standards encounter as they scale up, this book shows how this dilemma plays out in the coffee industry. It highlights how the erosion of price premiums and the adaptation to buyers' preferences have curtailed standards' effectiveness in promoting sustainable practices that create economic opportunity costs for farmers, such as agroforestry or agroecology. It also provides a voice for coffee producers and value chain members to explain why the current system is failing in its mission to provide environmental, social, and economic co-benefits, and what changes are necessary to do better.

Sustainability
Sustainability

Author: Maurie J. Cohen

Publisher: John Wiley & Sons

Published: 2020-10-22

Total Pages: 191

ISBN-13: 1509540334

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

Sustainability is one of the buzzwords of our times and a key imperative for economic growth, technological development, social equity, and environmental quality. But what does it really mean and how is it being implemented around the world? In this clear-eyed book, Maurie Cohen introduces students to the concept of sustainability, tracing its history and application from local land-use practices, construction techniques and reorientation of business models to national and global institutions seeking to foster sustainable practices. Examining sustainable development in scientific, technological, social and political terms, he shows that it remains an elusive concept and evidence of its unambiguous achievements can be difficult to ascertain. Moreover, developed and developing countries have formulated divergent agendas to engage the notion of sustainability, further complicating its application and progress across the world. Innovative and readily accessible to students from a range of disciplines, this primer takes us on a journey to show that sustainability is as much about unchartered waters as it is about formulating answers to urgent global issues.

Walking the Talk
Walking the Talk

Author: Charles O. Holliday

Publisher: Berrett-Koehler Publishers

Published: 2002-08-16

Total Pages: 300

ISBN-13: 9781576752340

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

Report by the World Business Council for Sustainable Development.

Strategy and Sustainability
Strategy and Sustainability

Author: Mike Rosenberg

Publisher: Springer

Published: 2016-04-30

Total Pages: 209

ISBN-13: 1137501758

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

Business and environmental sustainability are not natural bedfellows. Business is about making money; sustainability is about protecting the planet. Business is measured in months and quarters; sustainability often requires significant short term costs to secure a sometimes uncertain long-term benefit. To some activists, all executives are exploitative, selfish “1 percenters”. To some executives, all activists are irresponsible, unyielding extremists. And yet engaging with the issue isn’t optional – all businesses must have a strategy to deal with sustainability and, like any strategy, this involves making choices. Strategy and Sustainability encourages its readers to filter out the noise and make those choices in a hard-nosed and clear-eyed way. Rosenberg’s nuanced and fact-based point of view recognizes the complexity of the issues at hand and the strategic choices businesses must make. He blends the work of some of the leading academic thinkers in the field with practical examples from a variety of business sectors and geographies and offers a framework with which Senior Management might engage with the topic, not (just) to save the planet but to fulfil their short, medium, and long-term responsibilities to shareholders and other stakeholders.“/p>

Beyond the Triple Bottom Line
Beyond the Triple Bottom Line

Author: Francisco Szekely

Publisher: MIT Press

Published: 2024-08-06

Total Pages: 245

ISBN-13: 0262552809

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

A pragmatic new business model for sustainability that outlines eight steps that range from exploring a mission to promoting innovation; with case studies. Many recent books make the case for businesses to become more sustainable, but few explain the specifics. In this book, Francisco Szekely and Zahir Dossa offer a pragmatic new business model for sustainability that extends beyond the traditional framework of the triple bottom line, describing eight steps that range from exploring a vision and establishing a strategy to implementing the strategy and promoting innovation. Szekely and Dossa argue that businesses and organizations need to move away from the business case for sustainability toward a sustainable business model. That is, businesses should go beyond the usual short-term focus on minimizing harm while maximizing profits. Instead, businesses on the path to sustainability should, from the start, focus on addressing a societal need and view profitability not as an end but as a means to support the sustainable organization. Szekely and Dossa explore key problems organizations face when pursuing a sustainability agenda. Each chapter presents one of the eight steps, describes a business dilemma for sustainability, provides a theoretically grounded strategic framework, offers case studies that illustrate the dilemma, and summarizes key findings; the case studies draw on the experiences of such companies as Tesla Motors, Patagonia, TOMs, and Panera. The book emphasizes leadership, arguing that leaders who question the status quo, inspire others, and take risks are essential for achieving sustainable business practices.

Eco-Business
Eco-Business

Author: Peter Dauvergne

Publisher: MIT Press

Published: 2013-03-01

Total Pages: 205

ISBN-13: 0262313073

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

Two experts explain the consequences for the planet when corporations use sustainability as a business tool. McDonald's promises to use only beef, coffee, fish, chicken, and cooking oil obtained from sustainable sources. Coca-Cola promises to achieve water neutrality. Unilever seeks to achieve 100 percent sustainable agricultural sourcing by 2020. Walmart has pledged to become carbon neutral. Big-brand companies seem to be making commitments that go beyond the usual “greenwashing” efforts undertaken largely for public-relations purposes. In Eco-Business, Peter Dauvergne and Jane Lister examine this new corporate embrace of sustainability, its actual accomplishments, and the consequences for the environment. For many leading-brand companies, these corporate sustainability efforts go deep, reorienting central operations and extending through global supply chains. Yet, as Dauvergne and Lister point out, these companies are doing this not for the good of the planet but for their own profits and market share in a volatile, globalized economy. They are using sustainability as a business tool. Dauvergne and Lister show that the eco-efficiencies achieved by big-brand companies limit the potential for finding deeper solutions to pressing environmental problems and reinforce runaway consumption. Eco-business promotes the sustainability of big business, not the sustainability of life on Earth.

Ecolabels, Innovation, and Green Market Transformation
Ecolabels, Innovation, and Green Market Transformation

Author: Daniel C. Matisoff

Publisher: Cambridge University Press

Published: 2022-11-03

Total Pages: 331

ISBN-13: 1108897657

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

This book develops a path to decarbonization through a process of Green Market Transformation. Matisoff and Noonan assess the scope and impact of the green building movement, which is working towards decarbonizing a sector that accounts for more than a third of global carbon emissions. They describe the role of the movement in addressing sustainability challenges within the building and construction sector, and suggest new ways of marshalling markets through the voluntary efforts of industry to shift society towards a better future. Matisoff and Noonan tell the success story of green industry, seen through the lens of green buildings and ecolabels. By combining case studies with recent interdisciplinary scholarship, the authors provide a compelling narrative of the opportunities and limitations of reliance on voluntary approaches to regulation.

Partnerships for Sustainability in Contemporary Global Governance
Partnerships for Sustainability in Contemporary Global Governance

Author: Liliana B. Andonova

Publisher: Taylor & Francis

Published: 2022-05-30

Total Pages: 228

ISBN-13: 1000601269

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

Partnerships for Sustainability in Contemporary Global Governance investigates the goals, ideals, and realities of sustainability partnerships and offers a theoretical framework to help disentangle the multiple and interrelated pathways that shape their effectiveness. Partnerships are ubiquitous in research and policy discussions about sustainability and are important governance instruments for the provision of public goods. While partnerships promise a great deal, there is little clarity as to what they deliver. If partnerships are to break free from this paradox, more nuance and rigor are required for understanding and assessing their actual effects. This volume applies its original framework to diverse empirical cases in a way that could be extended to broader data sets and case studies of partnerships. The dual contribution of this volume, theoretical and empirical, holds promise for a more thorough and innovative understanding of the pathways to partnership effectiveness and the conditions that can shape their performance. The broad range of crosscutting analyses suggest important practical implications for the design of new partnerships and the updating of existing initiatives. This interdisciplinary book will be of great interest to researchers, students, and practitioners within international relations, political science, sociology, environmental studies and global studies, as well as the growing number of scholars in public policy, global health and organizational and business studies who are keen to gain a deeper understanding of the pathways and mechanisms that influence the outcomes and effectiveness of cross-sector collaboration and transnational governance more broadly. The Open Access version of this book, available at www .taylorfrancis.com, has been made available under a Creative Commons Attribution-Non Commercial-No Derivatives 4.0 license.