Advance Praise

The following endorsements are included at the front of the book. In addition, several helpful book reviews summarize its content.

Going green is highly profitable. Bob Willard documents this fact in case study after case study: His analysis is spot on. Cutting carbon is really a proxy for cutting energy and electricity – hence cutting cost. With a good green story companies are raising revenue because consumers want to buy from a company that isn’t destroying the future of their children and grandchildren. Going green also mitigates risk against rising energy prices. So sustainability cut cost, raises revenue and mitigates risk. This book is a must read for every executive who is concerned about the bottom line – and their corporate license to operate.

— JIM HARRIS, International bestselling author,
Former Leader, Green Party of Canada

This book is an invaluable read for sustainability insiders as well as first timers. The structure of The New Sustainable Advantage is so well thought through that it allows the reader to get the information they need quickly and efficiently. Beyond the impressive data and logic of the business case for sustainability, the real lessons lie in the humility, creativity, persistence and passion for which Bob has become internationally renowned.

Since 1999 I have learned from Bob, starting when I was the cheeky, protestor kid in the back of a corporate perspectives on the environment class, while Bob was in the front row. Bob has definitively shown the professors that indeed there is a profit motive for companies to be more sustainable. He changed my mind too and with his insights I have helped deliver a 20% carbon reduction at Sears Canada (all with 1-2 year paybacks), and a 30% annual growth in eco-product sales from 2008-2011.

— Dr. JAMES GRAY-DONALD, Associate Vice-President,
Sustainability Leader, Sears Canada Inc.

In his book, The New Sustainable Advantage, Bob Willard articulates the business case for sustainability and the alignment of the for-profit mandate with the pursuit of environmental and social benefits. Using examples, he demonstrates that sustainability is a material source of business value when employed as a strategic framework for innovation, value creation, and organizational enhancement. Milton Friedman’s edict — that the business of business is business, and the creation of shareholder profit is its fundamental mandate — is just as true now as it ever was. Yet — as the reader discovers – what has changed is the context within which business operates, and thus how one bounds this edict in the pursuit of sustainable capitalism. The sources of value available to business and the competitive forces acting upon it are dynamic. We should not be surprised by shifts in business criteria, sources of value, or changes in the business activities required delivering a winning value proposition.

— TYLER J. ELM, Vice President, Business Sustainability,
Canadian Tire Corporation

Through his new book, Bob gives us a more compelling business case for sustainable practices that help the bottom line by capitalizing on employees’ emotional engagement and culture change. His business case for investing in sustainability strategies is realistic, achievable, and profitable.

— CLAUDE OUIMET, Senior V.P. General Manager for
Canada and Latin America at InterfaceFLOR

10 years after publishing his ground-breaking book, Bob Willard continues his thought-leadership with The New Sustainability Advantage, an even more compelling updated case for businesses of all size to reap the benefits of advancing sustainability. His thorough research and impeccable credentials have the power to both convince sceptics and arm champions. Bob’s well laid out balance of risk and opportunity inspires those businesses already addressing sustainability issues to push further and deeper for even greater triple-bottom-line impacts. By providing resources, worksheets and on-line material to empower businesses to do it themselves, Bob is proactively building the sustainable world he wants to live in.

— BARBARA TURLEY McINTYRE, Director Sustainability and
Corporate Citizenship, The Co-Operators Group Limited

Willard’s latest update adds some important ideas to the field of sustainability. He has assembled some of the best data and case studies available on why and how sustainability creates enduring value for companies. Before organizations can really commit and learn to compete on sustainability, they need to really understand all aspects of the business case for driving green deep into strategy. Willard’s book is an indispensable resource and an easy read, which doesn’t go together often.

— ANDREW WINSTON, environmental strategist and
co-author of the international bestseller Green to Gold