Green Recovery: Get Lean, Get Smart, and Emerge from the Downturn on Top [Hardcover]

Andrew Winston (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: August 1, 2009 | ISBN-10: 1422166546 | ISBN-13: 978-1422166543

When the economy turns rough, many companies sideline their green business initiatives. That's a big mistake. In Green Recovery, Andrew Winston shows that no company can afford to wait for the downturn to ease before going green.

Green initiatives ratchet up your company's resource efficiency, creativity, and employee motivation. They save energy, waste, and money, preserving precious capital-and give precise focus to your innovation efforts and strategic priorities.

Part manifesto and part how-to guide, this concise and engaging book provides a road map for using green initiatives to deliver short-term gains and position your company for long-term strategic growth. You'll discover how to:

-Get lean: Amp up your energy and resource efficiency to survive tough times

-Get smart: Use environmental data about products and supply chains for competitive advantage

-Get creative: Rejuvenate your innovation efforts by asking heretical questions such as "How might we operate with no fossil fuels?"

-Get going: Engage and excite employees to solve the company's, the customer's, and the world's environmental challenges


Green Recovery is your guide to establishing your competitive positioning in difficult times and emerging even stronger into a vastly changed economy.

Editorial Reviews

Review

“Winston's experience in speaking on green innovations at blue-chip companies shines through in a multitude of anecdotes throughout the 208-page booklet…” - Reuters, August 20, 2009

About the Author

Andrew Winston advises many of the world's largest companies on how to profit from environmental thinking. A globally recognized expert on green business, he is coauthor of the bestseller Green to Gold. Andrew's earlier career included corporate strategy at Boston Consulting Group and management positions at Time Warner and MTV.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 208 pages
• Publisher: Harvard Business Review Press (August 1, 2009)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1422166546
• ISBN-13: 978-1422166543
• Product Dimensions: 5.2 x 0.9 x 7.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 12 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.9 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (9 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #778,726 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

6 of 7 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Read this book. And buy a copy for your CEO July 21, 2009

By Deborah Fleischer

Format:Hardcover

Andrew Winston's new book, Green Recovery, comes in a small, green package, but it packs a big, relevant punch. It is a must read for CEOs who still think going green will cost too much and for mid-level and senior managers responsible for identifying strategic sustainability initiatives to focus on.

Like his public speaking style, Winston's writing voice is personable, authentic and engaging. Building on his previous book Green to Gold and his sustainability consulting experience, he presents a clear, green recovery framework that outlines four key paths to a leaner, greener world:

* Get lean: Invest in energy efficiency, waste reduction and other quick-return strategies, and use the cost savings to fund innovation.

* Get smart: Gather data on your environmental footprint throughout the value chain, and use the data to identify priorities, encourage creativity and support employee engagement.

* Get creative: Encourage staff to ask heretical questions and implement strategies to nurture innovation.

* Get engaged: Galvanize your staff by making a real commitment to sustainability, and encourage alignment with core business goals by linking performance to key metrics.

Winston advises that companies that follow this framework will, "...survive today's travails, thrive as things get better and emerge from the downturn on top."

Top reasons to read Green Recovery

1. Business case for going green: Winston does a great job making the business case for why going green is a vital business strategy, with specific examples that address six business drivers. You might want to get a copy for your CEO, or other senior staff, if they are not fully on board yet.

2. Practical ideas: This small book is chocked full of practical ideas and strategies that can both save money and strengthen your business, with case studies from large corporations, such as DuPont, Procter & Gamble, Toyota, Wal-Mart and Disney. Yet, the framework will apply to smaller companies as well.

3. Holistic approach: If you integrate all four approaches, you will be addressing sustainability from an authentic and holistic perspective. Yes, switching light bulbs will save you money, but if you stop there, you are not maximizing the business value sustainability can offer.

Sometimes a relatively new book feels out of date by the time I read it. With Green Recovery, I had the opposite reaction. It almost seems as if the green wave he describes has grown even stronger since the book was written.

In the conclusion, Winston does a great job of weaving together how the four key components of the framework interact with each other.

So, push the boundaries, ask heretical questions and create a culture of creativity where everyone is fully engaged. "In the process, you'll redefine your business and help build a leaner, greener world," concludes Winston. Let's hope he is right!

And if you read this book and decide you need assistance implementing these concepts, give Green Impact a call![...]

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Going Green = White Knight February 21, 2011

By Frank Roettgers

Format:Hardcover

Andrew S. Winston stands for quality. Not for nothing this book and Green to Gold are bestselling books in the field of environmentalism and green business strategies. In "Green Recovery" he outlines tactics and techniques how to arise from an economical downturn, making use of green and sustainable business strategies. Although, while I was reading the book, I sometimes thought that Winston sees it a bit black and white (regarding becoming green being the only way out of a crisis) I was very impressed by this book.

"Green Recovery" is not only written as a guide on how to go green, stay green, and become the next environmental steward, but also provides the reader with a lot of background information. This mix made the book a nice read apart from being an extremely valuable resource for everyone who tries to restructure an organization. If you want to get a few tips and tricks on how to become greener and more successful at the same time, this book delivers you insights from years of experience.

- Frank Roettgers, author of Going Green Together - How to Align Employees with Green Strategies

2 of 3 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Great Read for TIPs - To Improve Processes August 3, 2009

By Steven Koss

Format:Hardcover

Andrew Winston does a marvelous job at taking a complex topic and making it simple with pithy examples and a systematic flow of material. The work can easily be pegged as a CFO's handbook to chart the whitewaters of an organization's transition from controlling costs to managing costs (not just for sustainability purposes but for all strategic projects and operational tactical processes). Winston advocates the budgeting-to-a-plan method that allows the organization's vision to dictate its strategic approach (versus the all-too-common and failed planning-to-a-budget approach in which allotted budgets dictate organizational strategy). The 10 tips for process improvements (running lean while still growing the business, etc.) will remain priceless, timeless tactics that can be achieved with little-to-no cost. Winston provides extraordinary wisdom in how to transform an organizational culture into one that produces innovative thinkers who produce profound results. The most important lesson contained in the book is how to engage the workforce to make an organization distinct, effective, and influential.