Sustainable Business: Insights from the Field of Sustainability Engineering

Engineers have applied science to land people on the moon, design the cars we drive, and cram the power of a 20th-century supercomputer into the phones we carry. But what can happen when engineering’s systemic problem-solving skills are applied to improving the sustainability of business?

This book stands on the shoulders of sustainability engineering insights to supplement business, engineering, and environmental curricula with tools necessary to effectively and efficiently improve the sustainability of organizations. Cutting through the clutter of terminology and approaches, this book uses case studies to outline a proven path to profitably secure ＂net zero＂ for facilities and their supply chains. And rather than stopping at the uninspiring target of ＂doing no harm,＂ it further empowers businesses and other organizations to create additional economic, environmental, and social benefits.

This book:

• Offers numerous case studies from the Space Shuttle through the world’s first carbon neutral major food company to appropriate technology for safe water in developing countries to illustrate how to reduce environmental footprints while increasing profit margin and business value
• Explores redemptive entrepreneurship through the lens of the author’s founding of an award-winning engineering firm
• Presents strategies to strengthen the curricula of engineering, business, accounting, and procurement programs by uncovering significant sources of untapped value in conventional teaching

Bruce Taylor is a Fellow of the Canadian Academy of Engineering and the founder of Enviro-Stewards, which is a Best for the World classified B Corporation, recipient of Global Compact Canada’s SDG Goal award, and the only Canadian company to win a Global SDG award. Enviro-Stewards’ sustainability engineering work for Bimbo Canada, Maple Leaf Foods, Campbell Soup, Southbrook Winery, Andrew Peller, Maple Lodge, Dextran, North York General Hospital, 50 Food Processors, and Tim Hortons have each won national awards. Bruce also founded the safe water social venture project in South Sudan and Uganda that has won an international globe award and was featured in B the change magazine, MEDA magazine, and a TEDx talk (entitled ＂Better than Charity＂).