Changing Course: A Global Business Perspective on Development and the Environment(The MIT Press)

"Changing Course" is a practical introduction to new and necessary methods of running businesses so that the realities of business and the marketplace support the realities of the environment and the needs of human-development. Gathering the expertise of more than 50 leaders of multinational corporations and backed by an array of case studies showing existing best practices, "Changing Course" provides an extensive analysis of how the business community can adapt and contribute to the crucial goal of sustainable development - which combines the objectives of environmental protection and economic growth. All of its recommendations are linked by the belief that only by allowing market forces to operate freely and integrating the "polluter pays" principle into environmental and economic policy can sustainable development be achieved. "Changing Courses" focuses first on the often adversarial relationship between business and government in chapters that discuss full-cost pricing and market signals, energy, capital markets, trade, and managing change. It shows how environmental costs, which are often invisible, can best be factored into production, investment, and trade. And it calls for a rational long-term energy strategy that balances the energy needs for economic development with a policy shift toward the payment of pollution costs and energy efficiency - changes that demand new thinking and increased flexibility by policy makers in both the public and the private sectors. "Changing Course" then explores business to business relationships, beginning with the sensitive topic of corporate reporting in environmental areas and discussion of how an environmentally conscious firm is managed. Chapters look at optimal products and processes, product stewardship in retail and trading companies, at new practices for such renewable resource industries as forestry and agriculture, and at the need for new long-term partnerships to boost economic development and environmental standards in the developing world. "Changing Course" concludes with a detailed look at the implications of sustainable development for business in the developing world, where, as former Indian Prime Minister Indira Gandhi pointed out, poverty itself is a great polluter.

Table of Contents:
The business of sustainable development; pricing the environment - markets, costs and instruments; energy and the marketplace; capital markets - financing sustainable development; trade and sustainable development; managing corporate change; the innovation process; technology co-operation; sustainable management of renewable resources - agriculture and forestry; leadership for sustainable development in developing countries; case studies - successful steps toward sustainable development; managing change in business - New England Electric - making energy conservation pay, 3M - building on the success of pollution prevention, Du Pont - the CEO as chief environmental officer, Norsk Hydro - environmental auditing, Shell - human resource development; managing business partnerships - Nippon Steel/Usiminas - long-term partnership for sustainable development, ABB Zamech - technology co-operation through joint ventures, Eternil - technology co-operation for a safer working environment, S.C. Johnson - catalyzing improved supplier performance, chemical industry - introducing responsible care, Leather Development centre - promoting best practice; managing stakeholder partnerships - Northern Telecom/Mexico - technology co-operation to halt ozone depletion, The Wildlife Habitat Enhancement Council - industry in harmony with nature, Electrolux - designing energy-efficient products; Mitsubishi - co-operation for reforestation; managing financial partnerships - Nordic Environment Finance Corporation - financing for sustainable development in Eastern Eruope, Fundes - promoting small businesses in Latin America, Fundacion Chile - financing technology co-operation, GE Capital - lending and environmental risk, Jupiter Tyndall - investing in the environment; managing cleaner production - Dow Chemical - making waste reduction pay, Harihar Polyfibers - promoting productivity to prevent pollution, Holderbank - making cement with less energy, Ciba-Geigy - designing a low-pollution dyestuff plant, ConAgra/Du Pont - profiting from recycled waste; managing cleaner products - Smith and Hawken - promoting products of sustainable forestry, Procter and Gamble - using life-cycle analysis to cut solid waste, Migros - using life-cycle analysis in retail operations, HENKEL - developing substitutes for phosphates in detergents, Laing - energy efficient housing, Volkswagen - recycling the car, Pick'n Pay - retailers and sustainable development, ENI - developing a replacement for lead in gasoline; managing sustainable resource use - ABB - introducing clean coal at Vartan, Triangle Limited - energy from biomass, E.I.D. Parry - integrated rural development, Aracruz Celulose - sustainable forestry and pulp production, ALCOA - sustainable mining in the Jarrah Forest. Appendix: priorities for a rational energy strategy.

About the Author :
Stephan Schmidheiny is a Swiss industrialist, Chairman of the Business Council for Sustainable Development, and the Principal Advisor for Business and Industry to the United Nations Conference on Environment and Development (ECO'92).

Review :
"The question is no longer whether business must change to meet the challenges of the global environment, or even when. The issue forward-looking guidelines in print for harnessing the resources of the modern corporation to the task of environmentally sustainable development. This timely book is nothing less than a roadmap to the corporate future." James Gustave Speth, President, World Resources Institute