Environmentalism and the New Logic of Business: How Firms Can Be Profitable and Leave Our Children a Living Planet

In a provocative and well-thought-out, albeit short text, the authors, instead of condemning any act of a business to address environmental concerns as too narrow, choose instead to applaud it. The argument is that any move toward environmentalism is a good bet, basing this on the same concept used by 17th century philospher Blaise Pascal who wagered: "If God does not exist, one will lose nothing by believing in him, while if he does exist, one will lose everything by not believing." There's a particularly telling anecdote in the book involving Edgar Woolard, the former chairman of E.I. du Pont de Nemours and Co., after he pronounced the business's commitment to zero pollution. Subsequent to the pronouncement an engineer told Woolard that there wasn't any way one of the plants could meet the new goal. So Woolard tells the engineer that the plant will have to close. Ironically, after the plant's engineers do come up with a solution, it turns out that it will ultimately save du Pont money. This book is a terrific exploration of how some businesses are discovering that environmentalism is not only a must for survival of society, but also for the future of business. Good, well analyzed stories and thinking here.

Should corporations maximize profits OR preserve the environment? Is the cost of an environmentally sensitive business approach an expense OR an investment?In this timely book, the authors build on the philosophical foundation of Pascal's Wager to advance what I will call Freeman's Wager:"assume that it is reasonable to bet that there is in fact an environmental crisis. The consequences of being wrong are too great to bet otherwise."The consequences of this wager for our children and future generations inform and lend urgency to the arguments advanced in this work.Recognizing the ambiguity of "truth" in relation to the health of the environment and the contentious nature of public discourse on this topic, the authors advance four new environmental strategies for businesses: (1) light green, (2) market green, (3) stakeholder green, (4) dark green. Each of these strategies has its own logic and they do not represent a continuum requiring inevitable motion along a predetermined path.Rather, these strategies represent options and the book advances a number of convincing arguments that a corporate value system that incorporates environmental considerations can actually lead to a competitive advantage.This was an enjoyable and thought provoking tome and left me convinced that adopting a shade of green would be a competitive advantage to a company with a clear understanding of "what it stands for" and which embodies "values based capitalism." Such companies can maximize profits AND care for the environment. For these firms, environmentalism is an investment, not an expense.I would ask the authors to further explore the implications of their thesis for average companies. They did not fully explicate the applicability of their argument to such firms.I highly recommend this book to anyone who has ever questioned how to live well today while preserving a good world for our children.