Getting Green Done: Hard Truths from the Front Lines of the Sustainability Revolution
“Going green is easy and profitable.” That’s the common refrain from sustainability gurus. In reality, though, many green-leaning businesses, families, and governments are fiddling with the small stuff while the planet burns. Why? Because implementing sustainability is brutally difficult.\ If we’re going to cut CO2 emissions 80 percent by midcentury, it will take more than a recycling program and some hemp shopping bags. We’ll only solve our problems if we’re realistic about the challenge of...
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A maverick sustainability expert provocatively explores the difference between feel-good gestures and the down-and-dirty work of going green—for businesses, individuals, or government. Publishers Weekly Prius drivers and recyclers take note: according to debut author Schendler, your efforts to be environmentally correct are admirable, but are hardly the kind of urgent, unified action we need to really make an impact on global climate change. In fact, he says, by focusing on small individual actions, you may be actually harming the environmental movement. A pioneer in the sustainability movement, Schendler points out that "there is a hangover from the 1970s that continues to hamper the environmental movement today." Using examples from his own consulting work as the executive director of Community and Environmental Responsibility at Aspen Skiing Company, he asserts that real change can only come from tough decisions by big businesses and through legislation. Rather than sacrificing ROI to integrate green practices, Schendler says that companies must make profit-driven decisions that complement their business models in order to carry out meaningful and lasting environmental change. By challenging status quo thinking about sustainability and taking the point of view of the business executive and the worker in the field, Schendler offers a perspective that is refreshingly realistic and pragmatic. (Mar.)Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
1 Trench Warfare, Not Surgery 12 Climate Change and the Fierce Urgency of Now 253 Sustainability, Fork-Split 474 Aspen: A Canary in the Coal Mine and a Shining City on a Hill 695 Finding Your Biggest Lever 876 Sustainable Sustainability: Creating Lasting Change 1057 Green Energy: The Key to Solving Climate Change (and Sometimes a Scam) 1438 Green Buildings: Simple, Elegant, and Crucial 1739 Shameless Self-Promotion and Why It Matters 221Afterword: The Proximity of a Sustainable World 241Notes 253Bibliography 257Credits 267Acknowledgments 269Index 277
\ Publishers WeeklyPrius drivers and recyclers take note: according to debut author Schendler, your efforts to be environmentally correct are admirable, but are hardly the kind of urgent, unified action we need to really make an impact on global climate change. In fact, he says, by focusing on small individual actions, you may be actually harming the environmental movement. A pioneer in the sustainability movement, Schendler points out that "there is a hangover from the 1970s that continues to hamper the environmental movement today." Using examples from his own consulting work as the executive director of Community and Environmental Responsibility at Aspen Skiing Company, he asserts that real change can only come from tough decisions by big businesses and through legislation. Rather than sacrificing ROI to integrate green practices, Schendler says that companies must make profit-driven decisions that complement their business models in order to carry out meaningful and lasting environmental change. By challenging status quo thinking about sustainability and taking the point of view of the business executive and the worker in the field, Schendler offers a perspective that is refreshingly realistic and pragmatic. (Mar.)\ Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.\ \
