Lean and Green

Book excerpt: When it comes to believing that business can be profitable and environmentally sensitive, cynics abound on both sides. But in Lean and Green, Pamela Gordon proves that capitalism and environmentalism are not mutually exclusive-quite the contrary. She shows how "green" business practices enable organizations to save millions, even billions of dollars each year. Lean and Gree chronicles over one hundred examples of how people in twenty different organizations around the world-from clerks, farmers, and city employees to chemists and executives-have strengthened environmental practices and the balance sheet. She details waste-saving, profit-building acts as basic as Linda Gee at LSI Logic digging out usable pre-worn shoe covers to wear in the clean room, and as broad as the city of Santa Monica paving residential streets with white top to reduce urban heat and increase surface longevity. Drawing on her background as a leading business consultant, Gordon shows readers precisely how to sell their environmental ideas to management. She describes how to make the case in no-nonsense business terms, set concrete goals that the new practices will achieve, measure the economic results of the new practices, and make sure the right people hear about the results so that environmental initiatives continue. Each chapter includes a "Making It Easy" list of action steps for implementing lean and green improvements in the workplace easily and immediately. Lean and Green will inspire employees and employers alike to explore creative ways to simultaneously save the planet and bolster the bottom line.