Pathways to Success

• Provides questions for discussion at the end of each chapter to promote dialogue and learning
• Includes additional resources to allow the reader to delve more deeply into the subject
• Offers examples of companies who have profitably integrated environmental and social responsibility into their management systems
• Illustrates from leaders in the sustainable field the successful use of stakeholder engagement and supply chain management to respond to customer demand
• Details strategy and management systems to show how to actually integrate sustainability into a company at any stage of development, and describes various risks and pitfalls to help avoid mistakes

Suzanne Farver, ALM, JD, has spent her career leading organizations toward more responsible management and has a strong track record of building consensus and emulating vision. She holds a BA in economics from Grinnell College (Phi Beta Kappa), a JD from University of Denver, and an ALM in environmental management from Harvard University Extension School (class marshal).

Her educational work includes teaching Corporate Sustainability Strategy at Harvard University Extension School, a course she helped develop in the fall of 2010. Suzanne’s nonprofit management includes serving as finance chair for the Rocky Mountain Institute (RMI) board during its merger with the Carbon War Room. During that time, RMI tripled in size and impact and continues now as a leading organization helping the business community drive energy savings and reduce carbon emissions worldwide.

Since 2006 Suzanne has served on the board of Presidio Graduate School (PGS), including board chair from 2015 to 2018, during a time of enormous transition for the school. Under Suzanne’s leadership, the school entered a new partnership with Amity University, a leading nonprofit international university with campuses worldwide. This new venture greatly increases the impact of the PGS mission, which includes promoting business practices that recognize the importance of social justice. PGS awards MBAs and MPAs who are focused on sustainable management principles and was mentioned in The New York Times as the best MBA program to attend if you want to change the world.

Suzanne is also the author of a companion book to this text, Mainstreaming Corporate Sustainability: Using Proven Tools to Promote Business Success.

Chapter 1: Introduction to Sustainability

Chapter 2: Making the Business Case for Sustainability

Chapter 3: Investigating the Sustainability Footprint of Patagonia

Chapter 4: Cisco Systems: Leader in Governance and Ethics

Chapter 5: Engaging Stakeholders: Levi Strauss & Co.

Chapter 6: Environmental Responsibility: Alcoa Corporation

Chapter 7: Unilever: Leader in Social Responsibility

Chapter 8: Economic Responsibility: ING Groep NV

Chapter 9: Strategy: Nestlé and Shared Value

Chapter 10: Sustainability Management and BMW

Chapter 11: Supply Chain Management and adidas Group

Chapter 12: Sustainability Metrics: Considering Materiality at Marks & Spencer

Chapter 13: Reporting on Sustainability: Novo Nordisk

Chapter 14: Sustainable Design at Jones Lang LaSalle

Chapter 15: Conclusion: Innovation and Sustainability

“If you’re interested in bringing sustainability to life in a company, Farver’s new book is a must read. It delivers real-world examples of sustainability-in-practice among leading companies, garnished with insightful references, useful tools, and thought-provoking questions that foster the understanding needed to plant sustainability deep and wide within your organization.” 

—William R. Blackburn, JD, Author of The Sustainability Handbook

“This case book is an invaluable teaching complement to Suzanne Farver’s excellent textbook, Mainstreaming Corporate Sustainability. She demonstrates with exceptional clarity how to learn from exemplary companies who deploy sustainability principles across their business operations. Farver insightfully articulates the strategies, metrics, and best practices of leading corporations in achieving triple-bottom-line results across the UN SDGs.”

—Dariush Rafinejad, PhD, Provost, Presidio Graduate School, Author of Sustainable Product Innovation