Book Review: Green Giants

Although ‘sustainability’ is a constant buzzword in our society and people seem to understand that its somewhat important, I feel that many of us don’t know what it really means to be sustainable. Should we stop using plastic all together? Should we abandon eating all meat and dairy? Should we never purchase fast fashion ever again? How can we, as a society become more environmentally conscious? Making these incremental changes as individuals will undoubtedly add up, but sometimes it can feel like it will take months, years, or even decades until we see noticeable impacts. But in Green Giants, Williams explores the ways in which some of the biggest companies in the world have managed to implement sustainability into their business plan to tackle environmental issues at its core and enable our society to take large strides forward. Natura, Chipotle, Toyota (Prius), Tesla Motors, IKEA, Whole Foods, Unilever, GE (Ecomagination) and Nike (Flyknit) are the 9 ‘Green Giants’ that are mentioned in this book. They are the pioneers of the inexorable green business revolution. What is truly incredible is that the annual revenue of these companies together represents over $100 billion dollars, showing us that with the right strategy and vision, companies have the potential to transform societal needs into business opportunities.

As a reader passionate about sustainability, but not so aware of business management, this book made me realize just how powerful companies can be, in contributing to solve the greatest challenges of our generation. The book starts off with stories about the individual leaders of these companies that started it all and proceeds to go into details about what it takes to lead businesses that can succeed in the long term - not just economically but also environmentally. Although my previous impressions about ‘green businesses’ was that being environmentally sustainable often came at the expense of corporate success, reading about these companies proved to me just how vital and possible it is, for sustainability to become deeply integrated into business, where it has the potential to influence society on a much larger scale than we can imagine. By tackling environmental problems on both a societal and individual level, we can all aspire to build a more sustainable economy. I would highly recommend this to anyone interested in business management or sustainability.