Martin Melaver, author of the new book, Living Above the Store, is something of a rarity for an author of a sustainable business text: someone who actually has decades of experience doing the work to create a socially-responsible business. Which is very lucky for us, because while many books claim to be able to teach us how to do it, very few can do so with the wisdom of experience on their side.
The result is an honest and forthright look at what it really takes for shape and maintain values-based business in a very traditional industry.
Melaver is CEO of Melaver, Inc.-a third-generation, family-owned company based in Savannah, Georgia. Through a series of personal anecdotes, Melaver explains, in detail, how a small corner grocery store evolved into a major regional chain, eventually transforming itself into a real estate company focused on sustainable development and management. The fact that this happened was not by accident: all along its seventy-year history, the company chose to pursue a values-based path, even when it meant making difficult choice.
Despite its limitations, Living Above the Store has some really great information. Among my favorites are:
Continuing a line of previous posts on terrific eco-stats coming from David Suzuki's Green Guide (on energy, food, ecopsychology, and...[read more]
Continuing a line of previous posts on terrific eco-stats coming from David Suzuki's Green Guide (on energy, food, and travel),...[read more]
Continuing a line of previous posts on terrific eco-stats coming from David Suzuki's Green Guide (on energy, food, and travel),...[read more]
Continuing a line of previous posts about terrific eco-stats coming from David Suzuki's Green Guide (on energy and food), here...[read more]
The start of Sustainability 2.0 picks up where Al Gore's An Inconvenient Truth leaves off: Climate change and sustainability...[read more]
As a writer, I am constantly on the lookout for the best eco-stats. Say, for example, I'm looking to write...[read more]
I am extremely interested in socially responsible investing (SRI), however knew very little about what that actually means. Which is...[read more]
Though I did do an April Fool's story about Terracycle's merging with Scotts Miracle Gro that got several alarmed phone...[read more]
Tom Watson's new book, CauseWired examines how social networking sites are changing philanthropy. Watson's book does not present a...[read more]
Business books on the Triple Bottom Line abound. Trust me. I speak from experience. I am an MBA student in...[read more]
In “Inquiries into the Nature of Slow Money: Investing as if Food, Farms, and Fertility Mattered” Woody Tasch, former Chairman...[read more]
Paul Polak, founder of International Development Enterprises (IDE), has released an enriching addition to the poverty debate. 'Out of Poverty'...[read more]
The greening of the transportation sector is rife with conflict. Frequent debates occur over the benefits and disadvantages of...[read more]
Every year the Worldwatch Institute publishes their annual State of the World Report. Each report outlines major factors effecting the sustainability...[read more]
Being acquainted only indirectly and mostly through media snippets with James Lovelock and colleagues' work developing the Gaia Hypothesis, now Theory, I expected to learn a lot and be intrigued enough to dig deeper into the literature dealing with climate change, systems science and energy. I haven't been disappointed...but I unexpectedly have found a source of seemingly dispassionate insight into the issue of nuclear power...[read more]
It seem as if all of us Triple P bloggers have carbon on the brain this week. This is no...[read more]
Over the past couple of weeks, I have read a number of reviews of the new book, The Trap:...[read more]
(Review by George Wuerthner) I just read an excellent book--Cities in the Wilderness by former Sec. of Interior Bruce Babbitt....[read more]
It's always nice to see a lot of hard work come to bear fruit. Josh Dorfman is a friend of...[read more]
In The Sustainability Revolution, Edwards has given us a neat presentation of both the evolution and main principles of the...[read more]
Natural Capitalism was published at a poignant moment in human history. As we edged toward the new millennium, it appeared...[read more]
In The Next Sustainability Wave, Bob Willard gives us an overview of the drivers for sustainability in the corporate...[read more]
