It is my pleasure to publish the following post, prepared by Jonathan T. Scott, Founder/Director of the Center for Industrial Productivity and Sustainability (CIPS), an international, non-profit, education/training-based organization that works in partnership with EFMD (Brussels, Belgium), and the Product-Life Institute (Geneva, Switzerland). I met Jonathan through Linkedln and I appreciated his textbook on Circular Economy, actually I found it a very good intro for the subject. Congratulations for your work Jonathan. Enjoy Jonathan’s post and download his textbook, definitely it’s worthy.
“Rises in human population, affluence and longevity are fueling continuous increases in the consumption of resources and raw materials. Adding to this problem are the increasing amounts of discarded materials and other forms of waste that typically result from rises in resource use. Indeed, up to 90% or more of the resources made available for human consumption are often wasted due to negligent practices and inefficiencies in business operations – all of which leads to further competition for the world’s limited resource-supplies (as well as increases in pollution) and guarantees escalations in future costs. These costs include the expense of disposing physical waste, which has increased more than 400% over a ten year period. 
But there is good news. A new industrial revolution is taking shape in the form of businesses that are learning to eliminate and prevent waste and do more with less in a bid to become more profitable and mitigate damage to the environment and society (i.e.: waste prevention). The word used to describe these activities is sustainability; which is defined as ‘the capacity to continue into the long-term’. Examples include a subsidiary of the DuPont corporation, which achieved a goal of zero-waste to landfill, generated $2.2-billion in new revenue, and reduced production costs by over $400,000. General Electric reduced its annual costs by $100-million, generated an increase of $17-billion in yearly revenues, and eliminated 30% of its greenhouse gas emissions in the process. And during the first five years of its commitment to sustainability, the world’s largest manufacturer of carpet tiles (Interface) pledged to eliminate waste and use its old products to make new products. As a result the company tripled its revenues, doubled its profits, and doubled employment while watching its stock price increase 550%. And this phenomenon is by no means limited to big businesses.
Available in Arabic, English, Mandarin, Polish and Simplified Chinese, The Sustainable Business is an award-winning, easy-to-read book that explains how companies both large and small are learning to increase their chances of survival by eliminating waste and reducing resource consumption while also generating long-term wealth and creating jobs in the process.
The Sustainable Business is highly recommended for managers and employees alike, and is distributed by three education-based, non-profit organizations; one of which is the European quality assurance body that accredits the world’s leading business schools”.
To download your free copy of the book, just click on the following link: https://www.efmd.org/research/the-sustainable-business
