Selling Sustainability Short?

Selling Sustainability Short? PDF Author: Janina Grabs
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
ISBN: 1108890393
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 313

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Book Description
Can private standards bring about more sustainable production practices? This question is of interest to conscientious consumers, academics studying the effectiveness of private regulation, and corporate social responsibility practitioners alike. Grabs provides an answer by combining an impact evaluation of 1,900 farmers with rich qualitative evidence from the coffee sectors of Honduras, Colombia and Costa Rica. Identifying an institutional design dilemma that private sustainability standards encounter as they scale up, this book shows how this dilemma plays out in the coffee industry. It highlights how the erosion of price premiums and the adaptation to buyers' preferences have curtailed standards' effectiveness in promoting sustainable practices that create economic opportunity costs for farmers, such as agroforestry or agroecology. It also provides a voice for coffee producers and value chain members to explain why the current system is failing in its mission to provide environmental, social, and economic co-benefits, and what changes are necessary to do better.

Selling Sustainability Short?

Selling Sustainability Short? PDF Author: Janina Grabs
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
ISBN: 1108890393
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 313

Get Book

Book Description
Can private standards bring about more sustainable production practices? This question is of interest to conscientious consumers, academics studying the effectiveness of private regulation, and corporate social responsibility practitioners alike. Grabs provides an answer by combining an impact evaluation of 1,900 farmers with rich qualitative evidence from the coffee sectors of Honduras, Colombia and Costa Rica. Identifying an institutional design dilemma that private sustainability standards encounter as they scale up, this book shows how this dilemma plays out in the coffee industry. It highlights how the erosion of price premiums and the adaptation to buyers' preferences have curtailed standards' effectiveness in promoting sustainable practices that create economic opportunity costs for farmers, such as agroforestry or agroecology. It also provides a voice for coffee producers and value chain members to explain why the current system is failing in its mission to provide environmental, social, and economic co-benefits, and what changes are necessary to do better.

Sustainability

Sustainability PDF Author: Maurie J. Cohen
Publisher: John Wiley & Sons
ISBN: 1509540334
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 185

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Book Description
Sustainability is one of the buzzwords of our times and a key imperative for economic growth, technological development, social equity, and environmental quality. But what does it really mean and how is it being implemented around the world? In this clear-eyed book, Maurie Cohen introduces students to the concept of sustainability, tracing its history and application from local land-use practices, construction techniques and reorientation of business models to national and global institutions seeking to foster sustainable practices. Examining sustainable development in scientific, technological, social and political terms, he shows that it remains an elusive concept and evidence of its unambiguous achievements can be difficult to ascertain. Moreover, developed and developing countries have formulated divergent agendas to engage the notion of sustainability, further complicating its application and progress across the world. Innovative and readily accessible to students from a range of disciplines, this primer takes us on a journey to show that sustainability is as much about unchartered waters as it is about formulating answers to urgent global issues.

Regulating Transnational Sustainability Regimes

Regulating Transnational Sustainability Regimes PDF Author: Enrico Partiti
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
ISBN: 1108837573
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 377

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Book Description
The first legal study of voluntary sustainability standards under both European Union and World Trade Organization law.

Research Handbook on Global Governance, Business and Human Rights

Research Handbook on Global Governance, Business and Human Rights PDF Author: Marx, Axel
Publisher: Edward Elgar Publishing
ISBN: 1788979834
Category : Law
Languages : en
Pages : 432

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Book Description
This essential Research Handbook provides a comprehensive and critical assessment of the global governance instruments related to business and human rights from an interdisciplinary perspective. Contributions from a diverse range of leading international scholars offer an overview of the existing literature and rapidly-evolving research discipline, as well as identifying key trends and outlining an ambitious future research agenda.

Small Actions, Big Difference

Small Actions, Big Difference PDF Author: CB Bhattacharya
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1000507262
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 171

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Book Description
Despite dire warnings about global warming, carbon emissions by the world’s largest companies are increasing and only a few companies have strategies for managing carbon emissions and water resources. So what separates the best from the rest? In one word, the answer is ownership: companies that are winning at sustainability have created the conditions for their stakeholders to own sustainability and reap the benefits that come with deeper experience with and ownership of social and environmental issues: a happier, more productive workforce, increased customer loyalty, higher stock valuations, and greater long-term profits. Based on interviews with 25 global multinational corporations as well as employees, middle managers, and senior leaders across multiple sectors, this is the first book to connect sustainability to the theory and principles of psychological ownership and to propose a succinct, easy-to-digest model for managerial use. Watch the author talking about the themes in the book at the TedX: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7XpmsD2b76U

Ecolabels, Innovation, and Green Market Transformation

Ecolabels, Innovation, and Green Market Transformation PDF Author: Daniel C. Matisoff
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
ISBN: 1108897657
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 331

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Book Description
This book develops a path to decarbonization through a process of Green Market Transformation. Matisoff and Noonan assess the scope and impact of the green building movement, which is working towards decarbonizing a sector that accounts for more than a third of global carbon emissions. They describe the role of the movement in addressing sustainability challenges within the building and construction sector, and suggest new ways of marshalling markets through the voluntary efforts of industry to shift society towards a better future. Matisoff and Noonan tell the success story of green industry, seen through the lens of green buildings and ecolabels. By combining case studies with recent interdisciplinary scholarship, the authors provide a compelling narrative of the opportunities and limitations of reliance on voluntary approaches to regulation.

Partnerships for Sustainability in Contemporary Global Governance

Partnerships for Sustainability in Contemporary Global Governance PDF Author: Liliana B. Andonova
Publisher: Taylor & Francis
ISBN: 1000601269
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 228

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Book Description
Partnerships for Sustainability in Contemporary Global Governance investigates the goals, ideals, and realities of sustainability partnerships and offers a theoretical framework to help disentangle the multiple and interrelated pathways that shape their effectiveness. Partnerships are ubiquitous in research and policy discussions about sustainability and are important governance instruments for the provision of public goods. While partnerships promise a great deal, there is little clarity as to what they deliver. If partnerships are to break free from this paradox, more nuance and rigor are required for understanding and assessing their actual effects. This volume applies its original framework to diverse empirical cases in a way that could be extended to broader data sets and case studies of partnerships. The dual contribution of this volume, theoretical and empirical, holds promise for a more thorough and innovative understanding of the pathways to partnership effectiveness and the conditions that can shape their performance. The broad range of crosscutting analyses suggest important practical implications for the design of new partnerships and the updating of existing initiatives. This interdisciplinary book will be of great interest to researchers, students, and practitioners within international relations, political science, sociology, environmental studies and global studies, as well as the growing number of scholars in public policy, global health and organizational and business studies who are keen to gain a deeper understanding of the pathways and mechanisms that influence the outcomes and effectiveness of cross-sector collaboration and transnational governance more broadly. The Open Access version of this book, available at www .taylorfrancis.com, has been made available under a Creative Commons Attribution-Non Commercial-No Derivatives 4.0 license.

Strategy and Sustainability

Strategy and Sustainability PDF Author: Mike Rosenberg
Publisher: Springer
ISBN: 1137501758
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 228

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Book Description
Business and environmental sustainability are not natural bedfellows. Business is about making money; sustainability is about protecting the planet. Business is measured in months and quarters; sustainability often requires significant short term costs to secure a sometimes uncertain long-term benefit. To some activists, all executives are exploitative, selfish “1 percenters”. To some executives, all activists are irresponsible, unyielding extremists. And yet engaging with the issue isn’t optional – all businesses must have a strategy to deal with sustainability and, like any strategy, this involves making choices. Strategy and Sustainability encourages its readers to filter out the noise and make those choices in a hard-nosed and clear-eyed way. Rosenberg’s nuanced and fact-based point of view recognizes the complexity of the issues at hand and the strategic choices businesses must make. He blends the work of some of the leading academic thinkers in the field with practical examples from a variety of business sectors and geographies and offers a framework with which Senior Management might engage with the topic, not (just) to save the planet but to fulfil their short, medium, and long-term responsibilities to shareholders and other stakeholders.“/p>

Balancing Green

Balancing Green PDF Author: Yossi Sheffi
Publisher: MIT Press
ISBN: 0262345765
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 568

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Book Description
An expert on business strategy offers a pragmatic take on how businesses of all sizes balance the competing demands of profitability and employment with sustainability. The demands and stresses on companies only grow as executives face a multitude of competing business goals. Their stakeholders are interested in corporate profits, jobs, business growth, and environmental sustainability. In this book, business strategy expert Yossi Sheffi offers a pragmatic take on how businesses of all sizes—from Coca Cola and Siemens to Dr. Bronner's Magical Soaps and Patagonia—navigate these competing goals. Drawing on extensive interviews with more than 250 executives, Sheffi examines the challenges, solutions, and implications of balancing traditional business goals with sustainability. Sheffi, author of the widely read The Resilient Enterprise, argues that business executives' personal opinions on environmental sustainability are irrelevant. The business merits of environmental sustainability are based on the fact that even the most ardent climate change skeptics in the C-suite face natural resource costs, public relations problems, regulatory burdens, and a green consumer segment. Sheffi presents three basic business rationales for corporate sustainability efforts: cutting costs, reducing risk, and achieving growth. For companies, sustainability is not a simple case of “profits versus planet” but is instead a more subtle issue of (some) people versus (other) people—those looking for jobs and inexpensive goods versus others who seek a pristine environment. This book aims to help companies satisfy these conflicting motivations for both economic growth and environmental sustainability.

The Oxford Handbook of Comparative Environmental Politics

The Oxford Handbook of Comparative Environmental Politics PDF Author: Jeannie Sowers
Publisher: Oxford University Press
ISBN: 0197515037
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 873

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Book Description
'The Oxford Handbook of Comparative Environmental Politics' explores some of the most important environmental issues through the lens of comparative politics, including energy, climate change, food, health, urbanization, waste, and sustainability. The chapters delve into more traditional forms of comparative environmental politics (CEP) - the political economy of natural resources and the role of corporations and supply chains - while also showcasing new trends in CEP scholarship, particularly the comparative study of environmental injustice and intersectional inequities.