Frugal Value: Designing Business for a Crowded Planet

We live in changing times. Climate change and biomass degradation are altering our world beyond recognition, and a growing global population is exacerbating the pressure on the resources that power our economies. Faced with these new risks and uncertainties, how can business rise to the challenge of the Crowded Planet? What does responsibility look like, and how could it be put into practice?

Frugal Value contests the notion that businesses can respond to our interrelated socio-economic and environmental crises by adopting so-called “sustainable business” practices, or by becoming good “corporate citizens” – which too-often means business-as-usual leavened with token efforts to reduce negative environmental and social impacts.

The unprecedented scale of the global crisis requires an all-round rethink about what business does, and how it does it. This book considers how commercial firms might help address the great challenges of our time, and examines what role business might play in driving the socio-economic changes needed to help build a sustainable and just world.