The green reward.

In their new book Green to Gold: How Smart Companies Use Environmental Strategy to Innovate, Create Value, and Build Competitive Advantage (Yale University Press, $25), Yale eco-wonks Dan Esty and Andrew Winston examine several industries in which companies have grown significant wealth through embracing sustainable practices. Companies today must deal with a complex new world of lagging resources, regulatory restrictions and growing pressure from customers and other stakeholders to go green. The authors show how such challenges, once thought of only as cost centers, can provide opportunities for innovation, product differentiation and success in the marketplace. For instance, BP as part of its "Beyond Petroleum" re branding, committed $20 million to reduce the emission of greenhouse gases across all of its business units. Those efficiencies gained in reducing greenhouse gases led to savings of more than $1.5 billion over just five years. Esty and Winston provide similar examples from Toyota, GE, Ikea and Nike. The authors also assess why other environmental initiatives fail despite the best intentions. While Green to Gold may be squarely aimed at corporate executives looking for a roadmap to deal with environmental issues, its lessons are relevant for anyone looking for innovative and, yes, profitable, ways to green his or her organization.