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The Triple Bottom Line
Book

The Triple Bottom Line

How Today's Best-Run Companies Are Achieving Economic, Social, and Environmental Success — and How You Can Too

Andrew W. Savitz and Karl Weber
Jossey-Bass, 2006

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Editorial Rating

9

Qualities

  • Innovative
  • Applicable

Recommendation

Sustainability is "the art of doing business in an interdependent world" according to consultant Andrew W. Savitz, who urges companies to focus on the "triple bottom line": solid profit, environmental quality and improved human welfare. Drawing on his experience as head of PricewaterhouseCoopers’ sustainability practice, Savitz (writing with Karl Weber) makes a compelling case for moving your business toward "a sustainability sweet spot" where shareholders, environmental interests and other stakeholders can all feel satisfied. Sound like reheated corporate responsibility leftovers? Don’t worry. This book offers much more than soft-headed "birdies and butterflies" rhetoric or a few threadbare anecdotes. Savitz marshals truly compelling arguments based on widely accepted demographic, regulatory and cultural trends. Even robber barons will feel the pull of his message, partly because the book is so engaging and well-paced that it reads like a novel, and partly because his prescriptions are so clear, coherent and actionable that they seem like common sense. getAbstract highly recommends this sustainability guidebook to those who want to begin the journey on which such companies as Toyota, GE, PepsiCo, Nike and Unilever have already embarked. Bottom line: you can’t afford to ignore sustainability.

Take-Aways

  • "Sustainability" is a transformative idea that requires focusing beyond profit.
  • Sustainability uses a "triple bottom line" to measure financial, environmental and social performance.
  • Some of the world’s most successful companies already embrace sustainability.

About the Authors

Andrew W. Savitz runs a sustainability advisory firm in Boston. Previously, he was a lead partner in the Sustainability Business Services Practice at PricewaterhouseCoopers and a senior environmental enforcement official for the state of Massachusetts. Karl Weber is a best-selling nonfiction writer specializing in business, social and political topics.

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