E-Book Overview
Can we grow our world economy and create opportunities for the poor while keeping the planet intact? Can we maintain our vibrant, dynamic lifestyles while ensuring the Earth stays productive and viable? Aimed at managers, students, scholars, and policymakers, Sustainability Management answers these questions in the affirmative, arguing it is possible for environmentally sustainable business practices and policies to foster economic and long-term growth. Written by a former analyst and consultant with the EPA, this book originally combines sustainable efforts in water, agriculture, urban, and power management to achieve—in practice, not just in theory—a sustainable planet and economy. Steven Cohen begins with the technical, financial, managerial, and political challenges of such a project, and then honestly assesses sustainable practices in the manufacturing and service industries. He addresses renewable and carbon-free energy production; water sustainability, especially with regard to energy issues involving filtration, distribution, and changing rainfall patterns; food cultivation and distribution; and ways to maintain the interdependent systems on which we depend to live. Taking examples from New York City, one of the most sustainable and sustainability-minded metropolises in the world, Cohen explains how everything from construction to waste management can be designed to facilitate a sustainable environment, not just for New York but also for the world. He concludes with this macroscopic view, outlining the global efforts necessary to preserve biodiversity and ecosystems, and the impact of war, terrorism, and human conflict on sustainability.
E-Book Content
Photo: Eileen Barroso
director of Columbia University’s Earth Institute and professor in the practice of public affairs at the School of International and Public Affairs (SIPA). He is also director of the masters program in sustainability management at Columbia’s
“Steven Cohen’s explication of ‘sustainability management’ advances the discourse on a concept that urgently requires differentiation from environmental policy, discussions of which sometimes reduce the complexities of our multidimensional embeddedness on the planet to a spurious dichotomy between environmental protection and economic development. Cohen makes the case that sustainability has become integral to management. His book is critical reading for policy makers and practitioners in academia, business, industry, and government.”
School of Continuing Education. At SIPA, Cohen
analyst and consultant to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and other government agencies.
William Eimicke, Columbia University
His books include Understanding Environmental Policy and The Effective Public Manager, now in its fourth edition. Cohen is also a regular contributor to the Huffington Post.
“I have not seen a volume that brings together such important information on the topic of environmental sustainability as well as this one. An impressive effort, likely to attract a great deal of attention in the environmental policy field.”
Sheldon Kamieniecki, University of California, Santa Cruz “This is an excellent book that will make a valuable contribution to the literature on environmental policy, management, and sustainability. Chapter topics are relevant to policy and timely.”
Elizabeth A. Corley, Arizona State University
Sustainability Management
environmental policy. He has served as a policy
“Steve Cohen is becoming the Peter Drucker of sustainability management. This book will become the bible for teachers, CEOs, and human resources executives in the public and private sectors seeking to make their organizations work better and waste less.”
Sustainability Management Lessons from and for New York City, Americ