by Daniel Goleman ‧ RELEASE DATE: April 21, 2009
A convincing case that information alone—provided that it’s easy for shoppers to access—can spur an ecological revolution.
Radical transparency about a product’s origin, manufacture and distribution is the key to green consumerism.
So argues New York Times science reporter Goleman (Social Intelligence: The New Science of Human Relationships, 2007, etc.). Today’s shoppers are bombarded by “greenwashing,” he writes. The decision to buy a certain product—an organic apple, for example—is often based on a single eco-friendly aspect and ignorant of the other factors associated with the apple’s growing, harvesting, packaging and shipping. Because every link in the supply chain affects every other, Goleman notes, only true transparency about a product’s journey to the shelf can lead consumers to change their shopping habits in ways that will have positive effects on the environment, their health and global business practices. Recent polls have shown that people are willing to pay a premium for merchandise they know is free of toxic chemicals or wasn’t manufactured using child labor. Several prototype systems compile the results of comprehensive research into a simple product-rating system. Armed with this information, shoppers will be able to choose the items that are most eco-friendly and thus help dictate how companies run their businesses. As an example of such a consumer-driven change, the author offers the recent nationwide removal of trans fats from foods, prompted by customer demand. Such ongoing shifts in shopping habits could force corporations across the world to re-evaluate the debate that “pits doing good against doing well,” which has historically driven executives to choose their bottom line over ecological responsibility. Over time, Goleman believes, reducing dependence on petroleum and cheap chemical additives will prove to be a profitable practice, which in turn will enable ecologically friendly products to sell at reasonable price points. Dramatic shifts like these reveal the latent “people power” of the free market, avers the author, backing up each argument with well-crafted field support from industrial ecologists, ecologically minded CEOs, toxicologists and other experts.
A convincing case that information alone—provided that it’s easy for shoppers to access—can spur an ecological revolution.Pub Date: April 21, 2009
ISBN: 978-0-385-52782-8
Page Count: 278
Publisher: Doubleday
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 15, 2009
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BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
by Daniel Goleman & Tsoknyi Rinpoche with Adam Kane
BOOK REVIEW
by Abhijit V. Banerjee & Esther Duflo ‧ RELEASE DATE: Nov. 12, 2019
Occasionally wonky but overall a good case for how the dismal science can make the world less—well, dismal.
“Quality of life means more than just consumption”: Two MIT economists urge that a smarter, more politically aware economics be brought to bear on social issues.
It’s no secret, write Banerjee and Duflo (co-authors: Poor Economics: A Radical Rethinking of the Way To Fight Global Poverty, 2011), that “we seem to have fallen on hard times.” Immigration, trade, inequality, and taxation problems present themselves daily, and they seem to be intractable. Economics can be put to use in figuring out these big-issue questions. Data can be adduced, for example, to answer the question of whether immigration tends to suppress wages. The answer: “There is no evidence low-skilled migration to rich countries drives wage and employment down for the natives.” In fact, it opens up opportunities for those natives by freeing them to look for better work. The problem becomes thornier when it comes to the matter of free trade; as the authors observe, “left-behind people live in left-behind places,” which explains why regional poverty descended on Appalachia when so many manufacturing jobs left for China in the age of globalism, leaving behind not just left-behind people but also people ripe for exploitation by nationalist politicians. The authors add, interestingly, that the same thing occurred in parts of Germany, Spain, and Norway that fell victim to the “China shock.” In what they call a “slightly technical aside,” they build a case for addressing trade issues not with trade wars but with consumption taxes: “It makes no sense to ask agricultural workers to lose their jobs just so steelworkers can keep theirs, which is what tariffs accomplish.” Policymakers might want to consider such counsel, especially when it is coupled with the observation that free trade benefits workers in poor countries but punishes workers in rich ones.
Occasionally wonky but overall a good case for how the dismal science can make the world less—well, dismal.Pub Date: Nov. 12, 2019
ISBN: 978-1-61039-950-0
Page Count: 432
Publisher: PublicAffairs
Review Posted Online: Aug. 28, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 15, 2019
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SEEN & HEARD
by Rebecca Henderson ‧ RELEASE DATE: May 1, 2020
A readable, persuasive argument that our ways of doing business will have to change if we are to prosper—or even survive.
A well-constructed critique of an economic system that, by the author’s account, is a driver of the world’s destruction.
Harvard Business School professor Henderson vigorously questions the bromide that “management’s only duty is to maximize shareholder value,” a notion advanced by Milton Friedman and accepted uncritically in business schools ever since. By that logic, writes the author, there is no reason why corporations should not fish out the oceans, raise drug prices, militate against public education (since it costs tax money), and otherwise behave ruinously and anti-socially. Many do, even though an alternative theory of business organization argues that corporations and society should enjoy a symbiotic relationship of mutual benefit, which includes corporate investment in what economists call public goods. Given that the history of humankind is “the story of our increasing ability to cooperate at larger and larger scales,” one would hope that in the face of environmental degradation and other threats, we might adopt the symbiotic model rather than the winner-take-all one. Problems abound, of course, including that of the “free rider,” the corporation that takes the benefits from collaborative agreements but does none of the work. Henderson examines case studies such as a large food company that emphasized environmentally responsible production and in turn built “purpose-led, sustainable living brands” and otherwise led the way in increasing shareholder value by reducing risk while building demand. The author argues that the “short-termism” that dominates corporate thinking needs to be adjusted to a longer view even though the larger problem might be better characterized as “failure of information.” Henderson closes with a set of prescriptions for bringing a more equitable economics to the personal level, one that, among other things, asks us to step outside routine—eat less meat, drive less—and become active in forcing corporations (and politicians) to be better citizens.
A readable, persuasive argument that our ways of doing business will have to change if we are to prosper—or even survive.Pub Date: May 1, 2020
ISBN: 978-1-5417-3015-1
Page Count: 336
Publisher: PublicAffairs
Review Posted Online: Feb. 16, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 15, 2020
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