Customer Reviews

The Truth About Green Business

5 star:		(16)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

The truth about this book is that it's written for everyone interested in a sustainable future. What I appreciate most is that it provides me with a quick overview of so many topics. While intended as a field guide for business leaders and their employees, it should work equally well as a career and educational guide for students.

Mr. Friend provides a very compelling compendium of sustainability insights, any one of which is interesting and something to learn more about, and any sequence of which can become a blueprint for a company sustainability strategy and path to triple bottom line success. Collectively, he provides a road map that will help one begin to look at their business in new ways. He's obviously been doing this for awhile, putting a lot of thought and experience into it. So, it's much easier for us to get a lot of value back. Should be on the reading short list for any business manager or executive. Nicely done!

"The Truth About Green Business" is my favorite underdog when it comes to helpful advices on how to green your business! Although this book does not get the same attention in the media as e.g. Green to Gold by Esty and Winston, it should!

Almost every page is packed with advices from Friend's personal experiences which can be put into practice instantly. I found myself nodding a lot while reading the book. Covering most of the cornerstones of every business, Gil Friend gives plausible ideas about how to make businesses greener.

Unlike other books, this one is concerned about greening businesses not only from the outside but living up to it from the inside as well. Realizing that sustainable green businesses are only possible if the foundation within the organization is solid green as well, Gil Friend provides tips how to create such a foundation. One can literally read Gil Friend's personal interest in environmentalism between the lines, which made it a nice read. This book should be on everyone's shelf who is interested in greening businesses. 5 stars for this gold nugget.

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

Fence-sitting is over. This book clearly identifies the business case, strategies, and opportunities for those ready to move forward.

Long-awaited, and very welcome volume.

Profound thanks to Gil Friend, for this eloquent confirmation.

Paul Sheldon

Senior Consultant

Natural Capitalism Solutions

The book is an excellent starting point for a sustainability project, it gets a little repetitive after a while and leaves some things in too general terms... You'd be probably inclined to hire their consulting services... Hmmm

I've been trying to keep up with every book about sustainable business that's been coming out (and there are a lot!). This book is the most succinct, easy to read primer on the subject I've seen yet. It covers every major topic that people are talking about, and is written in a very accessible style. If you want to read one book that covers all the bases, this is it.

Economic prosperity and environmental prosperity are not mutually exclusive things. "The Truth About Green Business" is a guide for business leaders about keeping their business green while staying out of the red. Stating simple, straight to the point facts for readers about environmentalism's clashes with capitalism, author Gil Friend puts together a solid manual that is fairly comprehensive. "The Truth About Green Business" as such deserves a place in public library as well as private business collections.

Digestible, honest and compelling, I have given away many copies of Gil's indispensible little guide. He doesn't hector, nor get on a soap-box, rather he uses facts to support logical, sometimes non-obvious, conclusions. Got kids thinking about B-School? Give them a copy now! Can you tell I like this book A LOT? Gil is a Friend to all of us, and deserves great credit for his vision and commitment to getting the right message out there. Highly Recommended.

This book has profoundly influenced the way I think about business objectives. It is easy to say that shareholder and stakeholder/community value do not have to be at odds, but this book critically and concisely explains how this is achieved. This book motivated me into action, and I now work at AngelPoints, marketing B2B software to manage employee volunteer, sustainability, and workplace giving programs. Any student or professional will find unique, valuable insights in this book; I highly recommend it.

A relevant, revelatory, and practical guide to launching and sustaining an environmentally and socially responsible business. Friend, who has been living and breathing these concepts long before the Brundtland Commission defined "sustainability" in 1983, has finally found the time to share, in concise fashion, the essential mental models, strategies, and business tools for leading the way. The Truth About Green Business is just that; it's honest, visionary, and eminently useful. One chapter in, and you'll be grappling with existential choices - and by Chapter 11 (page 43), you'll have begun putting the nuts and bolts into place. With Friend as your guide, you tackle both the transformative and the transitory - and in the end, you'll be better prepared to lead your team on the sustainability journey - a journey without end.