Overview

Business ecology is a new field that synthesizes centuries of cultural wisdom, a close observation of natural systems, and proven business success strategies, such as strategic planning and total quality management. It emulates nature's systems design to provide a harmonious, relationship-oriented approach that reveals how your organization really works. This book applies these principles to help you integrate profitability, stakeholder relations, and environmental performance � giving your organization the natural edge in emerging ecological economy. Business ecology measures not just financial but overall viability by revealing vital flows and relationships that sustain your business. It is a lens for seeing those intangible elements of your organization's design -- such as core values, value-creation cycles, and innovative thinking � that are essential factors shaping its success.The Business Ecology Network (BEN), founded in 1995, is a catalyst for life-sustaining enterprise. BEN is a learning community for leaders and managers who want to apply a new way of thinking � business ecology � to create new, sustainable opportunities for their businesses and non profit organizations. Visit the BEN web page at http://naturaledge.org.

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9781138433267

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Joseph M. Abe is co-founder and president of the Business Ecology Network (BEN), a nonprofit learning community for leaders and managers who want to apply a new way of thinking—business ecology—to create new, sustainable opportunities for their business, government, and nonprofit organizations. BEN’s mission is to be a catalyst for life-sustaining enterprise. He is also principal of Business Ecology Associates, a for-profit consulting group that helps businesses and other organizations apply business ecology to develop business-based solutions that integrate profitability, values-based management, stakeholder relations, life-cycle thinking, and environmental performance. Mr. Abe formerly cofounded the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Futures Program, which the Carnegie Commission on Science, Technology, and Government recognized as a model for long-range planning. He has diverse experience and education related to strategic planning, environmental policy, industrial ecology, sustainable development, organizational learning, and pollution prevention. His professional interactions have included the President’s Council on Sustainable Development, the Global Business Network, the EPA’s Science Advisory Board, and the White House Office of Science and Technology. Patricia E. Dempsey, co-founder and communications director of the Business Ecology Network, is a poet, essayist, and editor with a special interest in enhancing community and economic development by profiling local culture, business, food, and the arts for such publications as the Washington Post. Recent projects include documenting the renaissance of local beach towns and oral histories from traditional waterman communities around the Chesapeake Bay. A former co-founder of The Idea Consortium, an educational nonprofit, she has expertise in creating stakeholder information programs for small businesses and nonprofit organizations as well as a background in visual design and social history/anthropology. She is raising her two sons, Alex and James Kriz, and pursuing an M.A. in writing at Johns Hopkins University. David A. Bassett is a founding director of the Business Ecology Network. He helped make the phrase “Pollution Prevention” a buzzword of the 1990s, as a former member of the Office of Pollution Prevention at the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. In this position, he developed a Pollution Prevention Strategy for Energy and Transportation as a road map for integrating environmental and energy-efficiency goals. He also cofounded the National Industrial Competitiveness through Energy, Environment, and Economics (NICE3) Program. As a member of a National Performance Review Team, he was a voice for comprehensively rethinking the nation’s approach to environmental protection. He was the first director of energy programs for Erie County, New York, and helped define the Interstate Air Quality Control Regions for the Commonwealth of Kentucky. He has written a number of technical papers and currently supports several working groups of the President’s Council on Sustainable Development. He is an advocate for innovation, cleaner technologies, and native peoples.

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