Creating a Lean and Green Business System ─ Techniques for Improving Profits and Sustainability

Things that are good for the planet are also good for business. Numerous studies from the likes of the Economist Intelligence Unit, Harvard, MIT Sloan, and others indicate that organizations that commit to goals of zero waste, zero harmful emissions, and zero use of nonrenewable resources clearly outperform their competition.

Like lean thinking, greening your business is not just a ‘nice to have’; at least not anymore. It is now a key economic driver for many forward looking firms. This book is packed with case studies and examples that illustrate how leading firms use lean and green as simultaneous sources of inspiration in various sectors of industry - from automotive and retail to textile and brewing. Take Toyota as an example, the holy grail of economic efficiency for decades. This book, shows that Toyota tops the green chart too, describing Toyota’s notion of Monozukuri: sustainable manufacturing.

Creating a Lean and Green Business System: Techniques for Improving Profits and Sustainability offers opportunities for innovation that can simultaneously reduce dependence on natural resources and enhance global prosperity. It explores less understood aspects of lean and green – discussing their evolution independently as well as the opportunities that exist in their integration, highlighting the importance of a cultural shift across the whole company.

Outlining a systematic way to eliminate harmful waste while generating green value, the book explains how to:

• Become economically successful and environmentally sustainable by adopting the lean and green business system model
• Adopt a systematic approach to become lean and green, and develop your own roadmap to success
• Use the cutting edge tools, techniques, and methodologies developed by the authors
• Translate the techniques and culture that underpin lean into environmental improvements

Creating a Lean and Green Business System: Techniques for Improving Profits and Sustainability supplies a new way of thinking that will allow you to boost improvement efforts and create a positively charged work environment – while contributing to the long-term well-being of the environment.

Keivan Zokaei has been with the Lean Enterprise Research Centre (LERC), Cardiff University Business School since April 2004. He holds a PhD from Cardiff University and an MSc degree from Warwick University. Before that he has been a Business Development Manager in the Oil and Gas industry. At LERC he managed and delivered various projects in operations and supply chain management. He has also been consulting to both public and private sector. He has lectured on executive and postgraduate degrees at Cardiff, Cambridge and Warwick Universities. He regularly delivers short courses to executives from different sectors and has developed bespoke training for companies such as Volvo. He is a regular contributor to international conferences and a visiting lecturer at Warwick University.

Keivan has been an advisor to the General Auditor for Wales on the adoption of lean thinking in the public sector and is currently working with both Welsh Assembly Government and the Wales Audit Office to deliver more efficient public services. He has authored various reports for government departments, industry bodies and the private sector on lean production and also appeared on BBC Radio Wales.

L. Hunter Lovins is president and founder of the Natural Capitalism Solutions (NCS) (www.natcapsolutions.org). NCS educates senior decision-makers in business, government and civil society to restore and enhance the natural and human capital while increasing prosperity and quality of life. In partnership with leading thinkers and Implementers, NCS creates innovative, practical tools and strategies to enable companies, communities, and countries to become more sustainable.

Trained as a sociologist and lawyer (JD), Hunter is also currently faculty at Bainbridge Graduate Institute and the chief insurgent of the madrone project.

Lovins has consulted for scores of industries and governments worldwide. She has consulted with large and small companies including the International Finance Corporation, Royal Dutch Shell, Interface, Clif Bar, and Wal-Mart. Governmental clients include the Pentagon, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, Department of Energy and other agencies, numerous cities, and the governments of Jamaica, Australia, and the U.S. She has also served an advisor to the Energy Minister of the Government of Afghanistan.

Recipient of such honors as the Right Livelihood Award, Lindbergh Award and Leadership in Business, she was named Time Magazine 2000 Hero of the Planet and in 2009 Newsweek dubbed her a "Green Business Icon." She has co-authored nine books and hundreds of papers, including the 1999 book, Natural Capitalism, 2006 e-book Climate Protection Manual for Cities, and the 2009 Transforming Industry in Asia. She has served on the boards of governments, non- and for profit companies.

Hunter’s areas of expertise include Natural Capitalism, sustainable development, globalization, energy and resource policy, economic development, climate change, land management, and fire rescue and emergency medicine. She developed the Economic Renewal Project and helped write many of its manuals on sustainable community economic development. She was a founding Professor of Business at Presidio Graduate School, one of the first accredited programs offering an MBA in Sustainable Management and is currently Chief Insurgent of the madrone project.

Peter Hines is Chairman of the Lean Enterprise Research Centre at Cardiff Business School. He holds a BA (MA) in geography from Cambridge University and an MBA and PhD from the University of Cardiff. Peter followed a successful career in distribution and manufacturing industry before joining Cardiff Business School in 1992. Since that time he initially led the Materials Management Unit and now chairs the Lean Enterprise Research Centre within Cardiff Business School. The Lean Enterprise Research Centre is the largest dedicated research centre