The handbook analyses all aspects of integration including methodology, its different stages and its institutions. It also covers all main EU policy fields including, among others, economic and monetary union, regional development, industry, research and environment. Finally, it examines the relations of the Union with its own citizens and with the rest of the world. "To aspire to cover all Community policies in a single book is a challenge that would discourage most authors!" says EU Commissioner Yves-Thibeault de Silguy. "And yet, Nicholas Moussis' work contains, year after year, a compact, clear and precise view of European policies." Working in the European Commission since 1968, Moussis has exercised various functions which have brought him into direct contact with the many facets of European construction, including his current service as advisor in the Directorate General for Enterprise Policy of the EC. "The responsibilities of the author as European official guarantee the reliability and quality of information in this book," adds Yves-Thibeault de Silguy, "which makes a useful contribution to the effort of making Europe better known to its citizens." (To order, contact the European Study Service, Fax: (32-2) 653-0180)
The answer, the authors say, lies in eco-efficiency, a management approach, developed by business for business, which allows companies to do more with less. The book, Eco-efficiency: The Business Link to Sustainable Development, by Livio DeSimone, CEO of 3M, and Frank Popoff, Chairman of Dow Chemical, examines how companies have put eco-efficiency into practice. It also describes the rewards eco-efficiency has yielded, which include reductions in current and future environmental costs and in the cost of capital, improved market opportunities and enhanced corporate image.
The authors say that business is best placed to lead the way toward sustainable development because it: understands customers' basic needs and how they can be met through more eco-efficient services and products; creates core technologies that are critical to sustainable development; and uses its marketing skills to inform customers who may be unaware of the need to achieve sustainable production and consumption patterns.
The authors argue that companies have to become eco-efficient if they want to remain competitive: "We believe that the companies who do not increase their eco-efficiency will be handicapped financially and in other ways and may disappear from the marketplace as a result." But eco-efficiency must be achieved in partnership with government and society. Governments have a key role in establishing adequate framework conditions for business to operate more efficiently. And those who think that eco-efficiency is only for rich corporations in the North are wrong, say DeSimone and Popoff. Action is possible in every kind of company, from multinationals to small enterprises in Africa, Asia and Latin America.
The authors' partner, the WBCSD, is a leading business advocate of sustainable development issues with 130 companies representing more than 20 major industrial sectors in 35 countries. (Price: USD 25). For more info contact: fax: (1-617) 253-1709, elleboode@wbcsd.ch (DOW).
