In Earth's Company: Business, Environment and the Challenge of Sustainability (The Conscientious Commerce Series) [Paperback]

Carl Frankel (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: July 1, 1998 | Series: The Conscientious Commerce Series

In recent years, people have looked more and more to the business world to take their share of responsibility for the fast-deteriorating state of the Earth. But exactly how businesses should go about this task has remained something of a puzzle. Now, with In Earth's Company, well-known business and environment writer Carl Frankel deftly gathers the pieces of the puzzle together into a single, comprehensive volume. Frankel describes the history and meaning of the term 'sustainable development' as the effective balancing of economic growth, environmental protection, and social equity, and outlines key contributors to the concept - such as the Green consumer movement, the Brundtland Report, and the Earth Summit. He goes on to analyse how corporations have attempted to integrate environmental concerns into their operations through public environmental reporting, ISO 14000, and Total Quality Management, as well as current corporate trends such as zero waste, and multi-stakeholder partnerships. Critical of current techniques for measuring environmental performance, Frankel then discusses emerging corporate strategies for improving the business record on the environment, as well as strategies for making the entire industrial system more sustainable, such as 'Factor 10,' industrial ecology, The Natural Step, and environmental accounting. Concluding that the business record to date regarding sustainability is at best uneven, Frankel calls for greater emphasis on collaboration, process and quality in all dimensions of business practice, as well as a 'new humanism' requiring corporations to be more sensitive to the full range of human concerns and to include social equity into the calculation of the 'bottom line.' Lucid and authoritative, In Earth's Company offers provocative guidance and an intriguing glimpse into an area of key importance for the future. It will be of equal interest to business executives, environmentalists, and to ordinary citizens concerned about the state of the Earth.

Editorial Reviews

Review

"Carl Frankel has produced a challenging thought-piece which weaves the many facets of the business/sustainability prism into an integrated system of light appealing to both the head and the heart..." -- Beth Beloff, Director, Institute for Corporate Environmental Management.

About the Author

Carl Frankel is a writer, journalist, and consultant, and one of North America's leading authorities on business and sustainable development. He is currently US editor for Tomorrow Magazine (an environmental-business magazine); a contributing editor to The Green Business Letter (a trade newsletter); and a member of the editorial advisory board of Yes! The Journal of Positive Futures. From 1990 to 1994, he was editor and publisher of Green MarketAlert, which tracked corporate environmentalism, environmental marketing and other green business strategies. Frankel's articles on business and the environment have appeared in a broad array of magazines, and he has contributed to several books on environmental management. A member of the Society of Environmental Journalists, Frankel is a graduate of Princeton University (1970) and the Columbia University School of Law (1974).

Product Details

• Paperback: 240 pages
• Publisher: New Society Publishers (July 1, 1998)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0865713804
• ISBN-13: 978-0865713802
• Product Dimensions: 8.9 x 5.9 x 0.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 12.8 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,292,657 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

33 of 34 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Thoughtful and informative, August 16, 2000

By 

Duncan Noble (Ottawa, ON Canada) - See all my reviews

This review is from: In Earth's Company: Business, Environment and the Challenge of Sustainability (The Conscientious Commerce Series) (Paperback)

Whether you believe the greening of business is hype and greenwash, or that businesses are starting to play an important role in hastening the coming ecological age, In Earth's Company provides a good overview of the successes, failures, and challenges of corporate environmentalism.

Author Carl Frankel is the North American editor for Tomorrow magazine, a slick glossy publication from Sweden that is one of the better periodicals covering developments in business and the environment. Frankel makes good use of his broad knowledge of current events in environmental management and his book is full of stories and examples that go beyond the usual extremes of either finger pointing or hero worship.

Frankel does not attempt to demonstrate the overwhelming decline in global life support systems. He accepts that this has been well documented in many other places and focuses on how businesses have reacted to this overwhelming driving force.

Why are major corporations now starting to consider integrating sustainability into their strategies and operations? To answer this question requires an understanding of the four eras of corporate environmentalism

The first era of corporate environmentalism was the era of barebones regulatory compliance. Simply complying with the growing array of environmental laws developed in the 1960s and 70s kept corporate environmental management fully occupied.

After environmental catastrophes such as the release of 57,000 litres of methyl isocyanate from a Union Carbide plant into the air in Bhopal, India that killed and injured thousands, companies felt extreme pressure to disclose more to their stakeholders. The second era of increased disclosure began.

Out of increased disclosure, public accountability increased and companies began to make voluntary commitments to go "beyond compliance," the defining characteristic of the current third era of corporate environmentalism.

The fourth era of corporate environmentalism is just beginning. To achieve it, bigger, more creative, higher-level thinking - systems-level thinking - is required. Businesses have generally taken a narrow view of the nature and implications of sustainable development. Frankel believes that this needs to change before corporations can develop truly effective sustainability strategies. The key challenge is educational - a matter of changing mental models.

Tracing the evolution of four eras of corporate environmentalism, Frankel concludes that the business community may be on a sustainability trajectory it isn't quite aware of. I hope he is right. According to Frankel, the transition to the fourth era of corporate environmentalism is linked to the death of modernism and the transition to a post-modern, post-industrial culture. Drawing parallels to the dawn of the industrial age, we know something large and significant is happening, we're just not sure what the outcome will be.

Frankel calls for a new humanism - a new appreciation of the qualitative "depth dimension" of experience. The business axiom of "what gets measured gets managed" ignores the converse that what isn't measured (e.g. soulfulness, connectedness, meaning, artistry, etc.) gets discounted and ignored.

Frankel acknowledges the need for radical change. He traces the rise of green consumerism and the challenge of creating a consumer movement that puts sustained pressure on the corporate community to create meaningful change. At the same time, he is disturbed that what were once called "members of the public" or, better yet, "citizens," are now referred to as consumers. This is a symptom of a society whose underlying theme is "I buy, therefore I am." We need to become green citizens, not green consumers. The difference is one of underlying ideology versus passing issue.

Finally, Frankel argues that many of the concepts and technologies for creating a sustainable future have already been developed and are in place. He points to examples like zero waste design concepts that have produced fabric-dyeing factories where the water effluent is cleaner than the water brought in. Some innovative companies are leasing their products so that they sell a service (e.g. "cold beer") rather than a product (the refrigerator). This changes the cost of ownership drastically and more durable products and many other environmental innovations become economic. Micro-credit can help address some of the social justice and equity issues of sustainability. Other useful concepts include The Natural Step, and "Factor Four" that envisions a four-fold increase in material and energy efficiency.

According to Frankel, it is not a question of if we will make the transition to a sustainable society but when? "Will we continue to limp and stagger toward sustainability, with the cultural and political mainstream largely oblivious to the urgency of the challenge? Or will we at some point, ... display the collective wit and will to commit massive resources to accelerating the transition into a more sustainable industrial culture?"

In Earth's Company is a thoughtful and informative piece about the history and current status of environment and sustainability within the business world. It covers a lot of ground and provides an accurate view of some of the key challenges facing those who see a role and opportunity for businesses in creating a more sustainable world.

With a foreword by leading author and environmentalist Paul Hawken as well as endorsements from a broad range of greeneratti including Hazel Henderson, David Korten and architect Bill McDonough, In Earth's Company is sure to win "must read" status within the corporate sustainability niche. It deserves to be read by a much broader audience and could make a solid contribution to a richer and better informed dialogue involving business, governments and citizens.

20 of 22 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Change the way you think about sustainability--PERMANENTLY, March 4, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: In Earth's Company: Business, Environment and the Challenge of Sustainability (The Conscientious Commerce Series) (Paperback)

I am not in the green-business or even the business field, and this book blew my mind. It presents a brilliant, provocative view of sustainability as an idea and a practice in the very real world of business. Mr. Frankel's perspective is illuminating both in its practical implications and its far reaching challenges to the way we live, think and create our future. This book has permanently changed the way I think about sustainability in my life and work.