Mainstreaming Corporate Sustainability: Using Proven Tools to Promote Business Success, Second Edition

Mainstreaming Corporate Sustainability is a practical guide to the leading tools and resources used to successfully integrate sustainability into a company’s corporate culture. Through the examples of companies from around the world, it provides an overview of the basics of any successful sustainability program, including the various international standards and performance frameworks that can be adapted to companies striving to improve their sustainability performance. These standards are summarized and explained in clear language and a conversational tone, allowing the reader to absorb what can be a complicated maze of resources.

Used as the centerpiece for a popular corporate sustainability class taught on campus and online at Harvard University Extension School, as well as other universities around the U.S., this guide provides students and professionals alike with an overview of the most valuable management tools and resources available today. The second edition has been expanded with updated resources and a greater emphasis on climate change and reducing a firm’s carbon footprint.

Mainstreaming Corporate Sustainability provides an understanding of the pitfalls and challenges of this ever-changing field. It helps the reader become adept at asking the right questions and speaking the language of sustainability professionals, providing guidance to become a leader in this important business arena. Recommendations for additional reading are provided throughout, allowing the reader to delve more deeply into the subject at any stage.

About the Author

Suzanne Farver, ALM, JD, has spent her career leading organizations toward more responsible management and has a strong track record of building consensus and emulating vision. She holds a BA in economics from Grinnell College (Phi Beta Kappa), a JD from University of Denver, and an ALM in environmental management from Harvard University Extension School (class marshal). Her educational work includes teaching Corporate Sustainability Strategy at Harvard University Ex-tension School, a course she helped develop in the fall of 2010. Suzanne’s nonprofit management includes serving as finance chair for the Rocky Mountain Institute (RMI) board during its merger with the Carbon War Room. During that time, RMI tripled in size and impact and continues now as a leading organization helping the business community drive energy savings and reduce carbon emissions worldwide. Since 2006 Suzanne has served on the board of Presidio Graduate School (PGS), including board chair from 2015 to 2018, during a time of enormous transition for the school. Under Suzanne’s leadership, the school entered a new partnership with Amity University, a leading nonprofit interna-tional university with campuses worldwide. This new venture greatly increases the impact of the PGS mission, which includes promoting business practices that recognize the importance of social justice. PGS awards MBAs and MPAs who are focused on sustainable management principles and was mentioned in The New York Times as the best MBA program to attend if you want to change the world. Suzanne is also the author of a companion book to this text, Pathways to Success: Case Studies for Mainstreaming Corporate Sustainability.