A review of "Walking the Talk" by by Chad Holliday, Stephan Schmidheiny, Philip Watts

Book Description

Ten years on from the Rio Earth Summit, world leaders will gather again in Johannesburg for the World Summit on Sustainable Development in September. As planetary anxieties about globalization, poverty and climate change grow, where does the international business community stand? Are they a barrier to change or an engine for it?
One outcome of Rio was Changing Course, the hugely influential book by Swiss industrialist Stephan Schmidheiny, which argued that business needed to be part of the solution to global environmental degradation. Now, Schmidheiny has joined with fellow prime movers in the World Business Council for Sustainable Development (WBCSD—the key business organization focusing on policy research and development in this crucial area), Chad Holliday, Chairman and CEO of DuPont; and Philip Watts, Chairman of Shell; to spell out the real business case for addressing sustainable development as a key strategic issue.

The results are ground-breaking. For the first time, leading industrialists are arguing that not only is sustainable development good for business, the solving of environmental and social problems is essential for future growth. Drawing on a wealth of case studies and personal interviews from business leaders operating around the world, Walking the Talk clearly demonstrates that the vanguard who have operationalized leading-edge environmental and social initiatives are benefiting in a myriad of ways that benefit the bottom line—and the planet. The book argues that the time for rhetoric is over. The business of business has changed.

Even more remarkably, the authors insist that a global partnership—between governments, business and civil society—is essential, if accelerating moves towards globalization are to maximize opportunities for all—especially the world’s poor. As Chad Holliday recently stated in an address to the United Nations: ‘Given existing technology and products, for all six billion people on the planet to live like the average American, we would require the equivalent of three planet Earths to provide the material, create the energy and dispose of the waste.’ Such an option is evidently not available and the book argues that far more eco-efficient and socially equitable modes of development must be pursued in order to allow poorer nations to raise their standards of living.

The solution provided by Walking the Talk is to mobilize markets in favour of sustainability, leveraging the power of innovation and global markets for the benefits of everyone—not just the developed world. This means a further liberalization of the market—a move that would be condemned by anti-globalization protestors. Yet, as the authors argue, business cannot succeed in failing societies. When the global market fails poor countries, where most of the world’s people live, it will also eventually fail business. Subsidies for rich countries’ products and tariffs against poor countries’ products do not constitute a ‘free’ market, or one that best serves people or business. Similarly, governments cannot subsidize fossil fuels or water and expect businesses, or ordinary citizens, to use them efficiently. So, a new, fair and equitable market is needed. A market that can work for all. The authors therefore call on protestors against globalization to stop protesting against the market and instead to campaign instead against the perverse policies that impoverish people and their environment.

Walking the Talk explores the opportunities and challenges inherent in eco-efficiency (producing more with less), corporate social responsibility, and a transparent, ‘wired’ world where reputations can be irreversibly damaged—or enhanced—in real time. It also devotes a chapter to ways in which corporations can and must ‘learn to change’. It examines the new partnerships needed among companies, governments, and civil society to produce real change, and the ways in which these alliances can work for all concerned. And it argues that consumer choice and consumer information should be encouraged as a positive force for sustainable development. Only what is valued is carefully used and so creating markets for environmental goods and services may be the best way to protect scarce resources. This is especially true in efforts to mitigate the effects of climate change, where business-like approaches, such as the development of carbon trading, offer workable solutions to policy-makers.

Whether small, medium or large, all businesses must innovate and change to meet the social and environmental challenges of the coming years. Walking the Talk provides a broad set of proven roadmaps to success as well as real-life inspiration for business to embrace the real challenge—to build a global economy that works for all the world’s people.

 A review of "Sharing Natures Interest"  by Nicky Chambers, Craig Simmons, and Mathis Wackernagel

By  Midwest Book Review (Oregon, WI USA) -

In Sharing Nature's Interest: Ecological Footprints As An Indicator Of Sustainability, Nicky Chambers, Craig Simmons, and Mathis Wackernagel deftly collaborate to present the reader with a compendium of information on assessing ecology on a regional and a global basis through a process called 'ecological footprinting'. The informative text is enhanced with figures, tables, summary "boxes", a list of acronyms and abbreviations, a primer on thermodynamics, conversion tables, glossary, and an index. Sharing Nature's Interest is an important and highly recommended addition to personal, academic, and professional environmental studies reference collections and reading lists.

A review of "OUR ECOLOGICAL FOOTPRINT" by Mathis Wackernagel & William Rees  

By  Erika Mitchell (E. Calais, VT USA)

This book is about the environmental costs that humans have on our planet, especially those humans living in developed countries. The authors contend that we are using up the resources of the planet at an astounding rate, such that little will be left for generations of the future. In other words, our present lifestyle is unsustainable. The authors argue that a measure of sustainability can be calculated by adding up the resources used by a group of people, and translating this to area on the earth, which yields roughly the total amount of land needed by the group to live sustainably, or their "ecological footprint". They point out that people in developed countries tend to have much larger ecological footprints than those in developing countries, but even amongst developed countries, there are large differences, and that Americans have huge ecological footprints compared to people from most other countries. In fact, in order for everyone on Earth to live as Americans do, it would require several additional planets to provide the resources and disposal space for waste.

Oct 10, 2007.

Food ingredients First. The collaboration will engage Cadbury Schweppes' supply chain to report carbon footprints and climate change-relevant information, such as greenhouse gas emissions data, emissions reduction targets and climate change strategy.  10/10/07 The Carbon Disclosure Project (CDP), a collaboration of over 315 institutional investors with assets under management of more than $41 trillion, will announce a Supply Chain Leadership Collaboration (SCLC) with Cadbury Schweppes. The collaboration will engage Cadbury Schweppes' supply chain to report carbon footprints and climate change-relevant information, such as greenhouse gas emissions data, emissions reduction targets and climate change strategy.

In a move illustrating that big brands in the UK are eager to please environmentally-conscious consumers, nine companies have signed on to use the draft product carbon footprinting standard, currently being developed by Carbon Trust in partnership with Defra and BSI British Standards, which lets brands sport carbon labels.

A recent study from the UK found that more than half of UK consumers want information about the carbon footprint of the products they purchase and nearly half would switch to brands with smaller carbon footprints.