The Sustainability Edge: How to Drive Top-Line Growth with Triple-Bottom-Line Thinking

by Suhas Apte, Jagdish Sheth

Overview

Business leaders need to embrace sustainability in order to ensure the lasting success of their organizations. Co-authors Suhas Apte and Jagdish Sheth bring their expertise from practice and from academia to illustrate how business leaders can embed sustainability in a truly holistic and transformative way.

Through an examination of such companies as Walmart, AT&T, IKEA and the Tata Group, Apte and Sheth have developed a proven and actionable framework rooted in the real world success of these companies. The case studies reveal how business leaders proactively engage, energize and promote market sustainability to all of their stakeholders including customers, employees, suppliers, investors and the government. The Sustainability Edge enables companies to critically engage their stakeholders and influence them to accept sustainability as part of their core mission.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781442650688
Publisher:	University of Toronto Press
Publication date:	12/05/2016
Series:	Rotman-UTP Publishing - Business and Sustainability
Pages:	264
Product dimensions:	5.90(w) x 9.10(h) x 0.90(d)

About the Author

Suhas Apte is a former Sustainability Officer and senior executive for the Kimberly-Clark Corporation. He is President of Apte Consultants, LLC and a partner in the Blue Earth Network.
Jagdish N. Sheth is Charles H. Kellstadt Professor of Marketing in the Gozuieta School of Business at Emory University. He is the Founder and Chairman of Sheth Leadership Academy.

Table of Contents

Dedications
Foreword
Preface
Acknowledgements
Chapter 1: Introduction
Chapter 2: Motivating Consumers
Chapter 3: Collaborating with Customers
Chapter 4: Inspiring Employees
Chapter 5: Nurturing Suppliers
Chapter 6: Investing In Communities
Chapter 7: Attracting Investors
Chapter 8: Leveraging Media
Chapter 9: Engaging Government
Chapter 10: Partnering with NGOs
Chapter 11: Stakeholder Sustainability Audit (SSA) Tool
Notations

What People are Saying About This

Paul Polman

"Suhas Apte and Jag Sheth detail the powerful opportunities to grow your business by putting purpose at the core of your strategy and activating it through deep collaboration across your value chain.　A must-read for today's business leaders."

Ratan Tata

"Sustainability is not just a nice thing to have. It is a necessary goal for all institutions, including corporations. I am very pleased that Apte and Sheth have documented how embracing and advocating sustainability is emerging as the next competitive advantage."

Jonathon Porritt

"The whole idea of addressing 'stakeholder engagement' strategically, as a source of competitive advantage, is cogently laid out in The Sustainability Edge with some excellent case studies and compelling insights into the role of consumers, NGOs, and suppliers."

Ram Charan

"The Sustainability Edge　provides a unique perspective. It documents how a company that embraces sustainability initiatives and advocates them to its customers, suppliers, employees, and investors generates both top-line growth and bottom-line results."

Editorial Reviews

07/31/2017
Apte, a former sustainability officer for Kimberly-Clark who now runs his own consultancy firm, and Sheth, a marketing professor at Emory University, propose a practical road map for businesses seeking both growth and sustainability built around responsible products and services. The book outlines the authors’ sustainability framework, in which seven stakeholder groups—consumers, customers, employees, suppliers, communities, investors, media, government, and NGOs—contribute to “practices that put a business in harmony with its whole ecosystem and environment.” Each element of the framework increases revenues through attention to the “triple bottom line” of financial, social, and environmental concerns. Best practices and case studies of companies such as Walmart, Ikea, and AT&T reinforce the authors’ argument. A stakeholder sustainability audit tool provides a series of questions for various stakeholder communities about their perceptions of where their company stands in its sustainability journey. The audit tool features a web-based survey, but readers need clearer instructions about where and how to access it. The book also helps explain the global reporting initiative used by many companies to report on sustainability. The book’s textbook-like style and narrow focus on the authors’ framework will likely limit its readership to business, government and advocacy groups. (Jan.)

Publishers Weekly

"Suhas Apte and Jag Sheth detail the powerful opportunities to grow your business by putting purpose at the core of your strategy and activating it through deep collaboration across your value chain.A must-read for today's business leaders."—Paul Polman, CEO, Unilever
"Sustainability is not just a nice thing to have. It is a necessary goal for all institutions, including corporations. I am very pleased that Apte and Sheth have documented how embracing and advocating sustainability is emerging as the next competitive advantage."—Ratan Tata, Former Chairman, Tata Sons
"The whole idea of addressing 'stakeholder engagement' strategically, as a source of competitive advantage, is cogently laid out in The Sustainability Edge with some excellent case studies and compelling insights into the role of consumers, NGOs, and suppliers."—Jonathon Porritt, Founder Director, Forum for the Future
"The Sustainability Edgeprovides a unique perspective. It documents how a company that embraces sustainability initiatives and advocates them to its customers, suppliers, employees, and investors generates both top-line growth and bottom-line results."—Ram Charan, bestselling author and advisor to CEOs and boards

From the Publisher