Lean and Green: Profit for Your Workplace and the Environment (Paperback)

~ (Author) "THIS chapter focuses on the first of the four Lean and Green steps: Question wasteful practices, and design Lean and Green steps to benefit profit..." (more)
Key Phrases: using business language, corporate environmental affairs, environmental steps, Santa Monica, Texas Instruments, Thomson Multimedia (more...)

Editorial Reviews

Product Description

When it comes to believing that business can be profitable and environmentally sensitive, cynics abound on both sides. But in Lean and Green, Pamela Gordon proves that capitalism and environmentalism are not mutually exclusive—quite the contrary. She shows how "green" business practices enable organizations to save millions, even billions of dollars each year. Lean and Green chronicles over one hundred examples of how people in twenty different organizations around the world—from clerks, farmers, and city employees to chemists and executives—have strengthened environmental practices and the balance sheet. She details waste-saving, profit-building acts as basic as Linda Gee at LSI Logic digging out usable pre-worn shoe covers to wear in the clean room, and as broad as the city of Santa Monica paving residential streets with white top to reduce urban heat and increase surface longevity. Drawing on her background as a leading business consultant, Gordon shows readers precisely how to sell their environmental ideas to management. She describes how to make the case in no-nonsense business terms, set concrete goals that the new practices will achieve, measure the economic results of the new practices, and make sure the right people hear about the results so that environmental initiatives continue. Each chapter includes a "Making It Easy" list of action steps for implementing lean and green improvements in the workplace easily and immediately. Lean and Green will inspire employees and employers alike to explore creative ways to simultaneously save the planet and bolster the bottom line.

From the Publisher

"Lean and Green is a profitable guide for any business willing to lay aside the old way of working and adopt solid environmental principles into their management thinking." —Harry W. Reid, Agilent Technologies "Lean and Green clearly dispels the myth that environmental responsibility negatively impacts the bottom line. In fact, it reveals the opposite reality—be green, lean, and a fiscal hero inside your operation!"—Greg Reed, Editorial Director, Electronic Packaging and Production magazine

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Product Details

• Paperback: 250 pages
• Publisher: Berrett-Koehler Publishers (September 9, 2001)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1576751708
• ISBN-13: 978-1576751701
• Product Dimensions: 8.8 x 5.9 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 10.4 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.9 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (11 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #763,734 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Save the environment...and money, December 29, 2001

By	Roger E. Herman (Greensboro, NC USA) - See all my reviews (TOP 1000 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)

From time to time, business leaders have invested time, energy, attention, and financial resources in the respected work of environmental protection. The work from the corporate sector has not been consistent, appreciated, or encouraged. Through this book, the author hopes to stimulate more organizations to be actively supportive of the environment-and good business practices. A Certified Management Consultant with significant personal engagement with corporate environmental issues, Pamela Gordon profiles the work of twenty employers to show what can be done.

Many authors gather profiling information for books like this by researching on the internet, magazine articles, other books, and industry reports. To her credit, Gordon personally visited 16 of the companies cited, with the other four being visited by people from her firm. This direct involvement adds a higher degree of authenticity to her work and this book.

Lean and Green is organized into three sections. Part One presents four steps for creating a lean and green organization: Question Wasteful Practices, Gain Lean and Green Endorsement Using Business Language, Collaborate to Achieve Lean and Green Goals, and Track Progress for Environment and Profit. Interwoven through these introductory chapters are stories about how the 20 profiled employers have applied these approaches. The organizations are mostly large, well-known companies, and a city government, but the principles can be applied in smaller organizations, as well.

The second section of the book presents Real-Life Examples of Putting Lean and Green into Practice. Ten chapters lay out the how-to of building a higher consciousness and effectiveness of environmental practices. Again, Gordon uses examples and experiences of her profiled companies and their people to illustrate and emphasize her points.

The third part of the book, How to Make the Most Difference, is best reported to you by listing the powerful chapter headings: How to Become an Environmental Leader in Your Organization, Work with Your Organizational Culture to Support Change, Be an Environmental Activist Using Tactics That Benefit Business, and The Fastest Route to Lean and Green. Quotes are used to open each chapter, as many authors do. To focus even more strongly on the dedication and focus of her profiled corporate activists, Gordon quotes people from the companies rather than outside sources. Each chapter ends with a valuable summary of the chapter, entitled "Making it Easy."

This book will smooth the way for its intended audiences: employees, managers, top leaders, and observers of organization that have great potential to make a difference. As I read the book, I found myself already becoming more aware of opportunities in my own surroundings to make a difference. If you're interested in protecting the environment and your company's bottom line, this book will open your eyes and give you tools for success.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Useful at the level to which it is pitched, February 24, 2003

By	Bill Godfrey (Mt Stuart, TAS Australia) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

The core theme is that, if you reduce waste and increase recycling, it will be good for the environment and for profits. The theme is supported with a wealth of examples. This is a book for those who are 'putting a toe in the water' rather than for those who wish to move beyond the first steps, but is useful at the level to which it is pitched. It helps to contest the pernicious myth that business profitability and environmental responsibility are at odds with each other.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Should Be Mandatory Reading For All Manufacturing Executives, September 17, 2001

By	Scott Robert (San Francisco, CA USA) - See all my reviews

This well-researched and thoughtful work is a very readable and practical guide proving that integrating environmentally-friendly processes and procedures in manufacturing operations is not only necessary for code compliance and corporate public relations, but can also improve companies' financial performance. Ms. Gordon provides real world examples showing how some of the world's largest and best-known companies have taken profitable steps toward improving our environment while at the same time improving their bottom line.