Review: Environmental education has come a long way since its first mainstream steps in the early 1970s. Moving out of schools it sought to involve the general public with a measure of success such that virtually one household in five had some form of environmental involvement. The last group to join this movement is business but it now seems likely that it will overtake other forms to become the dominant force. The focus of much of this work is the notion of sustainability. Far from being a New Age idea, business sees it increasingly as a suitable business model capable of reducing long term costs and impacts whilst at the same time increasing public goodwill. This suggests that conservation (which is where sustainability takes its key ideas from) has had its philosophical roots changed from the idea of public good, morals, science etc. to a more pragmatic economic perspective. Given this upsurge in interest it comes as no surprise to see a rise in the number of texts particularly those aiming to help business people prepare an environmental plan either as a broader ISO 14000-type approach or a simpler small-business plan. Where many books fall down is that they give a broad approach backed my minimal science and reasoning.

The aim of this text is to address some of the "defects" seen commonly in sustainability texts. This is made clear in the brief introduction where the authors argue for a business-oriented structure for the book alongside more environmental/ecological resources to back up arguments. From this point, the book is divided into three. The first chapters look at the reasons behind sustainability, both environmental and business. Chapter one gives a range of ideas that could be used to support sustainability along with some strategies to convince the organisation leaders. This is followed by a chapter outlining how key people can be brought onside to support and promote the sustainability project. The second section of the book examines sustainability issues through the various business sectors. The first sector to be analysed is services and offices. In common with other chapters there's an opening part where key environmental arguments pertinent to that sector can be used to promote the sustainability cause. This is followed by a section outlining a range of strategies that can be used to move the scheme along. The idea here is that there is no such thing as a perfect strategy and that the committed practitioner may need several ways of approaching the same problem. The chapter is completed by a scorecard - a simple system whereby a person can "score" the environmental awareness of the company. This might seem like no more than a checklist but it does provide an avenue for thought and reflection. Alongside these ideas there is a number of text boxes that provide more information. A similar line is taken in subsequent chapters that look at manufacturing and government. Part three turns to look at position within the organisation rather than the sector. It's a useful distinction and recognises that people might well work in the same area in different contexts. The layout that was used in section two is used again but with the questions and strategies aimed at a level of personnel. This means that for most cases, people would need to read two chapters - one from each section (along with the opening work) to appreciate fully what needs to be done. Here, chapters include senior management, human resources, purchasing etc.

There is much to recommend in this text. It is very clearly written and the examples are taken from actual cases and have the refinement one would expect from people having actually implemented the work described. The checklists provide a useful overview and the range of strategies make it easy to find a suitable one whilst simultaneously making it difficult to argue that there is nothing there one could use! Although aimed at the business market this is also an ideal education text. The clear writing makes the points easy to understand and the checklist which helps the company make a policy can also be used as a research tool to "reverse-engineer" so that students can more accurately evaluate policy. This is one of the best practical guides: it deserves wide readership.