What do you think?
Rate this book
Earth, Inc.: Using Nature's Rules to Build Sustainable Profits
Having trouble reconciling your desire to do good by the environment while also moving your company forward? In Earth, Inc., Gregory Unruh shows you how to embed sustainability into everything your company does - profitably. Providing prescriptive steps that will inform your business decisions, Unruh will help you launch your company into eco-minded practices. His five Biosphere Rules apply the laws of nature as a guide for efficient and innovative business operations. Instead of a linear value chain, Unruh offers a cyclical value chain - a chain that offers both sustainability and profitability, for now and for the future.
- GenresBusiness
189 pages, Hardcover
First published April 7, 2010
2 people are currently reading
18 people want to read
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews
July 29, 2016
The amount of books on sustainability is just overwhelming. Infact if we restrict the amount of books published that itself would be a great energy and sustainable service.
I have the following questions and think you may too.
How do we know which books are good? which need to be avoided? How can i keep myself updated on the latest?
Well not an easy Question to answer, but ultimately any book on the following will generally have a common theme running through it.
A. Sustainability of Business part of it.(how to implement part of it)
B. Profits & benefits from greening your company.
C. Case studies/data of companies that have done it, did it, trying to do it and not been able to do it.
D. A structure to put in place in your company and some tool to help us.
E. A lengthy jargon list of the same thing told in different forms.
So let us go to the book "Earth Inc" which is a HBR press book. So obviously its gonna cost a lot. The crux of the book is the following principles which are to be inbuilt in the DNA of the company. These 5 principles can be called as biosphere rules, natures method or biomimicry, which ever you want it to be.
A. Materials parsimony: The No of materials used in a product to be reduced as much as possible. e.g. Nature uses CHON (carbon, hydrogen, nitrogen and oxygen) to produce most of its creation. The products used also to be biodegradable. This results in enormous benefits. An advanced concept whose time will come but not just yet.
B. Power autonomy: This principle was a bit over the top and a bit vague for me. Basically it says use renewable energy in the process, production and by the products themselves. It also talks about increasing the energy efficiency. Basic funda.
C. Value cycles: This was quite an interesting concept which is about materials, their usage, recovery, refurbishment and cost of recycling. Basically it talks about a closed loop cycle where the products sold are ultimately taken back by the company for reuse, which results in lesser resources being spent to make new products. Best examples would be printer cartridges being refilled. There are shallow loop and deep loop recycling.
D. Sustainable product platforms: The best example would be the following
The automobile industry, which used same components for different cars. e.g. Nissan and Renault in India.
The chargers of phone's: USB chargers being universal.
INSAS rifle too.
This results in a lot of savings and ease of supply chains.
E. Function over Form: It talks about function and not products. This is a new area of thought which talks about servicization. I know another jargon but the concept is interesting. The best example would be railways, the function is to move from point A to point B the how is taken care by the company.
What i liked about the book
A. It had a refreshing look to the old problem which is written in a simple language.
B. As usual interesting case studies abound in the book, though 3M is predominant in most of them.
Overall the book is a decent read for all which gives a decent overview.
I have the following questions and think you may too.
How do we know which books are good? which need to be avoided? How can i keep myself updated on the latest?
Well not an easy Question to answer, but ultimately any book on the following will generally have a common theme running through it.
A. Sustainability of Business part of it.(how to implement part of it)
B. Profits & benefits from greening your company.
C. Case studies/data of companies that have done it, did it, trying to do it and not been able to do it.
D. A structure to put in place in your company and some tool to help us.
E. A lengthy jargon list of the same thing told in different forms.
So let us go to the book "Earth Inc" which is a HBR press book. So obviously its gonna cost a lot. The crux of the book is the following principles which are to be inbuilt in the DNA of the company. These 5 principles can be called as biosphere rules, natures method or biomimicry, which ever you want it to be.
A. Materials parsimony: The No of materials used in a product to be reduced as much as possible. e.g. Nature uses CHON (carbon, hydrogen, nitrogen and oxygen) to produce most of its creation. The products used also to be biodegradable. This results in enormous benefits. An advanced concept whose time will come but not just yet.
B. Power autonomy: This principle was a bit over the top and a bit vague for me. Basically it says use renewable energy in the process, production and by the products themselves. It also talks about increasing the energy efficiency. Basic funda.
C. Value cycles: This was quite an interesting concept which is about materials, their usage, recovery, refurbishment and cost of recycling. Basically it talks about a closed loop cycle where the products sold are ultimately taken back by the company for reuse, which results in lesser resources being spent to make new products. Best examples would be printer cartridges being refilled. There are shallow loop and deep loop recycling.
D. Sustainable product platforms: The best example would be the following
The automobile industry, which used same components for different cars. e.g. Nissan and Renault in India.
The chargers of phone's: USB chargers being universal.
INSAS rifle too.
This results in a lot of savings and ease of supply chains.
E. Function over Form: It talks about function and not products. This is a new area of thought which talks about servicization. I know another jargon but the concept is interesting. The best example would be railways, the function is to move from point A to point B the how is taken care by the company.
What i liked about the book
A. It had a refreshing look to the old problem which is written in a simple language.
B. As usual interesting case studies abound in the book, though 3M is predominant in most of them.
Overall the book is a decent read for all which gives a decent overview.
May 22, 2021
Good ideas for doing things differently with no waste or the ability to repurpose the waste into another product.
February 21, 2013
A better title for this book would have been, "How to Greenwash Your Enterprise-Level Business." There is some good theory here about using and mimicking nature's economic rules, but the explanation and examples fall far short of describing a truly sustainable business, which would entail working with and within nature's rules. After all, a business exists within the human-made economy, which itself is a subset of the natural ecosystem on Earth.
There are many interesting anecdotes about large multinational corporations greening their operations here. But I disagree with the author's thesis (put forth in the very first paragraph of the introduction) that sustainability is about "embed it and forget it." What if any of the conditions that make your business look "sustainable" or "eco-friendly" in the short-term (e.g. the current global economics and the huge amounts of energy in fossil fuels that make large-scale international shipping possible, as in the Patagonia materials recycling example in this book) change or disappear in the future? True sustainability (as in the ability to persist indefinitely) is about adaptability, and any business that "sets it and forgets it" is going to be left in the dust, because as conditions in the natural and human economies change, said business will end up working against and/or undermining the mechanisms that support it instead of with them.
There are many interesting anecdotes about large multinational corporations greening their operations here. But I disagree with the author's thesis (put forth in the very first paragraph of the introduction) that sustainability is about "embed it and forget it." What if any of the conditions that make your business look "sustainable" or "eco-friendly" in the short-term (e.g. the current global economics and the huge amounts of energy in fossil fuels that make large-scale international shipping possible, as in the Patagonia materials recycling example in this book) change or disappear in the future? True sustainability (as in the ability to persist indefinitely) is about adaptability, and any business that "sets it and forgets it" is going to be left in the dust, because as conditions in the natural and human economies change, said business will end up working against and/or undermining the mechanisms that support it instead of with them.
July 23, 2010
A useful look at why less material and less energy use mean more profit
Sustainability? Gregory Unruh says plan for it, “embed it and forget it!” Unruh codifies five rules that nature follows for efficient productivity in the biosphere and illustrates how these rules can work for business. He explains how to rethink “product platforms” and how to maximize the benefits of waste streams. getAbstract recommends this quick read for inspiration on finding your company’s next surge in profits: earnings based on ecologically sustainable practices. As a bonus, these rules also boost your triple bottom line.
Sustainability? Gregory Unruh says plan for it, “embed it and forget it!” Unruh codifies five rules that nature follows for efficient productivity in the biosphere and illustrates how these rules can work for business. He explains how to rethink “product platforms” and how to maximize the benefits of waste streams. getAbstract recommends this quick read for inspiration on finding your company’s next surge in profits: earnings based on ecologically sustainable practices. As a bonus, these rules also boost your triple bottom line.
May 14, 2014
Excelente postura respecto a creacion de productos ecologicamente sustentables. Un libro 100% recomendable
June 28, 2015
seemingly effective and layman-friendly advice on how to green your business while also increasing profits
Read
February 3, 2016This may be a good read for someone first beginning to think about how to "greenify" a business.
Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews