Cool Companies: How the Best Businesses Boost Profits and Productivity by Cutting Greenhouse Gas Emissions (Hardcover)

~ (Author) "Imagine a world in which fossil-fuel use has begun a slow, steady decline..." (more)
Key Phrases: nonenergy benefits, test room workers, lighting electricity use, Department of Energy, Energy Star, United States (more...)

Editorial Reviews

Product Description

Despite ongoing negotiations, consensus has not yet been reached on what action will be taken to combat global warming. A number of companies have looked beyond the current stalemate to see the prospect of reducing greenhouse-gas emissions not as a roadblock to growth and innovation but as a unique opportunity to increase profits and productivity. These "cool" companies understand the strategic importance of reducing heat-trapping emissions and have worked to cut their emissions by fifty percent or more. In the process, they have not only reduced their energy bill, but have increased their productivity, sometimes dramatically.

In Cool Companies, energy expert Joseph Romm describes the experiences of these remarkable firms, as he presents more than fifty case studies in which bottom line improvements have been achieved by improving processes, increasing energy efficiency, and adopting new technologies. Romm places efforts to reduce emissions in the context of proven corporate strategies, showing managers how they can build or retrofit their operations with the latest technologies to reduce emissions and achieve quick returns on the investment. Case studies explain:

• the concept of "lean production" and why systematic efforts to reduce emissions so often lead to productivity gains
• how changes in office and building design can significantly increase productivity, greatly compounding gains achieved from increased energy efficiency
• options for "cool" power-from cogeneration to solar, wind, and geothermal energy
• energy efficiency in manufacturing, including motors and motor systems, steam, and process energy

In profiling successful companies such as DuPont, 3M, Compaq, Xerox, Toyota, Verifone, Perkin-Elmer, and Centerplex, among many others, Cool Companies turns on its head the notion that the effort to combat global warming will come with massive costs to the industrial sector. It is a unique and essential business book for anyone concerned with increasing profits and productivity while reducing greenhouse gas emissions.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 287 pages
• Publisher: Island Press; 1 edition (April 1, 1999)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1559637099
• ISBN-13: 978-1559637091
• Product Dimensions: 9.2 x 6.3 x 1.3 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.1 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #1,259,291 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

13 of 14 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Run out and buy this book, before your competitors do, October 15, 1999

By A Customer

Romm has done a great service with this book. There are a lot of people telling us we must act on climate, and a lot of theory on how. Too often, it is abstract and esoteric -- Romm gives practical, easy to follow examples of how the best in class cut costs; cut carbon; and boosted productivity.

If you work anywhere in corporate management -- Whether you are the Chief Operating Officer, The Chief Financial Officer, the Plant Manager, or the Environmental Manager, you need to run out and buy this book, and then read it, before your competitors do.

You'll find case study after case study of how the best companies cut carbon. From building design, to the office environment, to industrial processes on the plant floor, this book tells -- often in the words of the managers themselves -- how they did what they did. Not only the technologies they chose, but how they sold other managers, developed creative financing strategies(often getting projects financed off ledger, out of future savings for example), and obtained credit for cutting other emissions.

If you are an environmentalist or a regulator facing the prospect of a climate treaty, the examples Romm outlines show why the arcane debate about the cost of cutting greenhouse gasses is flat out irrelevant. Cool Companies save money by becoming more efficent.

Bottom line? If you read only one book on cutting greenhouse gasses -- make it this one.

11 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Improving your Bottom Line by Reducing Greenhouse Gases, June 13, 2000

By A Customer

By Stephen Corrick Reprinted with permission...Joseph J. Romm was an Assistant Secretary of theUS Department of Energy. He obviously learned his lessons well. Hisbook, Cool Companies, makes an overwhelming case: Not only willreducing greenhouse gases not hurt companies' ability to compete, the action of reducing greenhouse gases (and industrial energy waste generally) offers the single easiest productivity booster, and among the shortest payback periods of any available to American industry today.

Cool Companies offers insights into the detailed processes by which all company sites-from industrial giants like DuPont and 3M all the way down to individual apartment owners-have used greenhouse gas emission reduction to drive many more dollars to their bottom line.

The only question one is left with after Romm so effectively makes his case is why the coal and oil companies are playing Chicken Little and screaming that reducing greenhouse gases will hurt American business. Obviously, the only American businesses they are referring to must be their own. The Wall Street Journal and the American Chamber of Commerce would be well served to get the true picture and start representing the needs and interests of the majority of their customers-whose interests, at this point, are often diametrically opposed to those of the fossil fuel industry.

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars simple approach and numerous examples, July 23, 2001

By	peter richardson (Simi Valley, CA United States) - See all my reviews

The book should enlighten those equating the green movement with adverse economic impact. It simply doesnt have to be the case. Companies like Shell and Dow are realizing, the early birds will gain serious competitive advantages when adopting "cooler" operating philosophies including: lower operating costs in general, increased productivity, and lower carbon costs when they ultimately get implemented. Numerous verified examples are provided that cement what should be a common sense belief that reduction of waste (all types) lead to leaner more competitive companies.

I approached my own boss with these ideas and received a chuckle in response. Its an uphill fight out there, hopefully the more people become informed, the easier it will be. This book is a great one to hand to a nay sayer. (I plan on sending a copy to both my boss and President Bush for Christmas)