Book Review: “The Truth about Green Business.” By Gil Friend. FT Press, 2009.

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Green in Our Human - Digital - Nature Machine

Book Review: “The Truth about Green Business.” By Gil Friend. FT Press, 2009. http://www.ftpress.com/store/product.aspx?isbn=0789739402

Written by: Willi Paul

“The real power and potential is in real innovation that delivers better performance and value for the price – in greening as in everything else.” P. 84

Is profit running the sustainability machine, Gil?

Green Business does not exist on a channel of its own. The art of re-directing values long myopic and destructive to the global health of our neighborhoods and planet obviously includes the likes of home owners, renters, non-profits and activists. The narrow focus of this excellent “green handbook for business” is thus much needed and forgiven. Gil Friend is a Berkeley-based business consultant after all! At first read, “The truth about Green Business” is a top-down, corporate recipe for sustainability.

I first discovered Mr. Friend and Natural Logic (http://www.natlogic.com/) as a lime green contractor, a Bay Area Green Business Program newbie spinning from an endless sea of bad jobs and smoldering oil caked dreams. Spring 2007? It was a Sustainable Business Alliance (http://www.sustainablebiz.org/ ) luncheon and speaker deal. He was way out of my league. But Gil answered my questions and encouraged me to keep going. Now - his book is very user friendly and a brilliant extension of the man and his wisdom that I met that day.

As much as this tome is a reference text for the initiated, its primary audience is the uninitiated business owner or board member who is now just emerging from the cave of Al Gore’s consciousness.

Dear Reader, Start at the End! Sample wisdom back to front:

Ch 50: Certainty in the Face of Uncertainty – “Diversify your strategies. Just as the diverse populations of plants and animals in natural ecosystems, each in their ecological niche, enable the system to adapt and thrive in the face of inevitable change, diverse strategies are an essential part of leadership in uncertain times.” p. 210

Ch 15: Reducing your Carbon Footprint – “Efficiency is usually your most cost-effective tool to slash emissions. Make sure your facilities are energy efficient, consolidate shipping, and minimize material wastes. Trading and offsetting (carbon credits) should be the last steps, not the first.” p. 65

Ch 9: Secrets Hiding in Plain Site – “You wouldn’t dump you trash on your neighbor’s porch, but your company might be putting its trash in your neighbor’s lungs… our industries continue to erode irreplaceable natural capital to support short-term operating benefits. The laws of nature offer the fundamental truths – secrets hiding in plain site – that business has historically overlooked and now needs to learn. Quickly. p. 36

I can only look to the future for additional books from Mr. Friend and crew that tackle other layers in our decaying human - digital - nature machine:

"The Truth about Green Values and the Global Citizen”
“The Truth about Art, Innovation and Sustainability”
“The Truth about Green Homes”

Mr. Friend, please integrate us!