Landmarks for Sustainability

WAYNE VISSER is Founder and CEO of the thinktank CSR International, as well as Senior Associate of the University of Cambridge Programme for Sustainability Leadership.

• Climate change With spotlights on the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change and the Kyoto Protocol  4. Health and safety With spotlights on OHSAS 18001, 'Big Pharma' and access to AIDS drugs  II. Society and economy 5. Globalisation and its critics With spotlights on the protests in Seattle and Genoa, and Live 8 and Make Poverty History  6. Poverty and development With spotlights on the Millennium Development Goals and the Bottom of the Pyramid (BOP) model  7. Human rights With spotlights on Nike and the UN Norms on Business and Human Rights  8. Corruption and transparency With spotlights on Transparency International's indexes and the Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative   B. Global responses  III. Leadership 9. World summits With spotlights on the Rio Earth Summit and the Johannesburg World Summit  10. Business associations With spotlights on the World Business Council for Sustainable Development and the UN Global Compact  11. Leadership initiatives With spotlights on the World Economic Forum and the World Social Forum  12. Social enterprise With spotlights on Grameen Bank and the Schwab and Skoll Foundations  IV. Collaboration 13. Industry initiatives With spotlights on Responsible Care and the Forest Stewardship Council  14. Financial initiatives With spotlights on the UNEP Finance Initiative and the Equator Principles  15. Sustainable investment With spotlights on sustainability indexes and clean-tech investment  16. Sustainable consumerism With spotlights on eco-labelling and fairtrade  V. Management 17. Codes and standards With spotlights on ISO 14001 and SA8000  18. Corporate governance With spotlights on Enron's collapse and the King Report on Corporate Governance  19. Sustainability reporting With spotlights on the Global Reporting Initiative and the Carbon Disclosure Project  20. Stakeholder engagement With spotlights on McDonald's (McLibel and Super Size Me) and AccountAbility (AA1000 and Responsible Competitiveness Index  Conclusion Mike Peirce, Deputy Director, Cambridge Programme for Sustainability Leadership  Landmarks timeline

This book – informative, authoritative, reliable – provides a penetrating glance directly into the central core of one of today's most exciting supernova-like phenomena: the brilliant illuminating flash of Sustainability, following the virtual and continuing collapse of conventional ways of conducting business and caring for the planet Earth ... A brief 8-page chapter neatly summarizes each global indicator, gives prominent examples, quotes authorities, provides graphic photos and statistical displays, and includes authoritative pro-and-con bibliographies and website addresses ... Each of these capsule accounts is a small treasure beautifully packed with solid information and human drama. The publisher – Greenleaf Publishing, Ltd. – deserves a big pat on the back for the book's artistry and compact design. One of the most useful features is a Landmarks Timeline that records the yearly and multiple appearances of the Sustainability Landmarks ... So, who can use this book? A marvelous handbook for executives. It slips compactly into student backpacks. A savior for faculty looking for quick examples to squeeze into a lecture. A delight for website geeks and bloggers international. A jewel for libraries. Read the full review - William C. Frederick || The book offers sustainability facts as an introduction to the subject, as well as being a reference book for practitioners. With an attractive look and feel, equipped with photographs, charts and fact boxes, the book is not a boring "study book", but an inspirational source. Read the full review - Karina Toonekurg, CSR International. || ... it is a broad ranging, easy to read, review of the last twenty years. Everyone who's been involved in any of these areas of activism, innovation and development should have a copy. It's so easy to lose sight of how much has been going on across so many issues, and this book is a refreshing reminder – and a great resource to get a quick insight into developments across the whole field of sustainability. Read the full review - Osbert Lancaster, 15 July 2009. || This is a quick reference guide to all the most significant events and initiatives since 1919 that have influenced sustainability thinking and action. The book is split into to two sections, which have subsections below that. The flow starts with Global Challenges and Global Responses. Global Challenges includes subsections on Environment health and safety which includes State of the planet, Crisis events, Climate change and Health and safety. Global Responses is split into Leadership, Collaboration and Management with subsections covering such diverse topics as World Summits, Business associations, Social enterprise, Industry initiatives, codes and standards, corporate governance, Sustainability reporting, and stakeholder engagement. I went through the book quite carefully and I don't think any significant items have been left out. A really useful tool is the Landmarks Timeline which tracks events and initiatives from 1919 to the present. - Arend Hoogervorst (Editor), Eagle Bulletin, January 2010