Green Intentions: Creating a Green Value Stream to Compete and Win

By Brett Wills

Published by Productivity Press in 2009

Developed by a plant manager who experienced first-hand the challenges to going green in a business environment, Green Intentions provides organizations with a simple, straightforward, and practical approach to green—the Green Value Stream (GVS) process—that is as mindful as it is profitable. Based on the highly successful, Lean philosophy, the GVS process shows you how to quickly identify, measure and minimize the seven green wastes to realize immediate cost savings. With the initial savings from harvesting the low-hanging fruit, organizations will have the support and momentum needed to eliminate each of the green wastes, leading to environmental sustainability and the substantial business benefits that follow, including increased revenues, new customers, employee retention, innovation, and increased shareholder value.

Part I, Going Green shows how the green value stream provides a dynamic, proven, and successful approach to going green. It also defines each of the seven green wastes, explains the overall green value stream process, provides guidance on implementing it in your organization, and shows how to map your green value stream.

Part II, The Seven Green Wastes provides a step-by-step process for minimizing and eliminating each of the seven wastes. It includes real-life examples illustrating the environmental and economic benefits associated with moving toward the elimination of each.

The book also includes:

• A Green Dictionary that defines current terms associated with the green movement

• Web links and other resources to help you in your journey toward environmental sustainability

• An environmental primer that clears through the rhetoric to give you a clear picture of what is going on with the environment and what the end goal of environmental and overall sustainability needs to look like