It is becoming increasingly clear that today's business landscape is changing in fundamental ways: Natural resources are growing ever more scarce and expensive, technology has created unprecedented transparency, and emerging markets are rising in importance. In Sustainable Excellence, Aron Cramer and Zachary Karabell tell the stories of the companies who are remaking themselves to respond to – and shape – these paradigm shifts.
From their work with these Global 1000 companies, Karabell and Cramer know first hand how big-picture issues like global warming, new international regimes, and reducing one's carbon footprint actually play out in the world of big business. Companies like Ikea and Novo Nordisk focus on long-term growth rather than quarterly earnings. Nike now publishes information on all of its subcontractor factories – information they fought to keep private only a decade ago. GE and Google have partnered to develop renewable energy technologies.
Through these and other fascinating case studies of major companies partnering with environmental advocacy groups, Sustainable Excellence tells the history of the uneasy relationship between business and environmental concerns, laying the groundwork for how business will need to be conducted in the 21st century.
