Book review: The future of value

The future of value

Eric Lowitt / Jossey-Bass / Hardback: £21.99 /
ISBN: 978–1–1180–7452–7

What is the right model for a sustainable company that continues to create value? Here, strategy and sustainability consultant Eric Lowitt attempts to provide the answer. Lowitt’s central premise is that competing on sustainability is the best way in which organisations can create value.

He looks at the role that sustainability can play in creating successful companies by examining the strategies of more than 25 global Fortune 500 companies – including Aviva, Marks & Spencer and Unilever.

Lowitt uses these real-world examples to describe how to develop a sustainability strategy and embed it into the entire value chain, which is, essentially, a systematic approach to examining the development of competitive advantage.

He shows, for example, how Hitachi’s corporate social responsibility materiality assessment helps to inform the design of the firm’s sustainability strategy, and how companies such as Centrica find that integrating sustainability into corporate strategy can itself lead to powerful value-creation opportunities.

As Lowitt says, if corporations focus on sustainability, it will not only ensure the long-term future of the business, but benefit the environment too. This book is a valuable resource.