Force of Nature

The Unlikely Story of Wal-Mart's Green Revolution 

What happens when a renowned river guide teams up with the CEO of one of the largest—and least Earth-friendly—corporations in the world? In the case of former Wal-Mart CEO H. Lee Scott and white water expert-turned Blu Skye Sustainability consultant Jib Ellison, you get nothing less than a green business revolution. 

Force of Nature reveals the inside story of the struggle to redefine what it means to be green in the world of big business. A little-known partnership between a one-man consultancy and the world's biggest retailer has evolved and grown, and has begun transforming whole industries—shrinking packaging, cutting fossil fuel use, ramping up recycling, and reducing landfill waste by 80 percent. Why? Because it serves the bottom line.

Now this unlikely partnership is empowering a second industrial revolution, from the way we make clothes to the future of dairy farms, based on a simple truth: that the clean, green, efficient, less polluting way of doing business can also be the most profitable way of doing business.
 

New York Times: "Mr. Humes does here what the very best business books do. He finds a good story to help illuminate an issue of surpassing importance.... Mr. Humes’s prose is almost flawless, lean and clear, egoless and spare. He doesn’t deify or demonize Wal-Mart or any of the characters; in fact, he says Wal-Mart’s very business model is probably unsustainable. This is first-rate work — both by the author and by Wal-Mart itself."

Los Angeles Times: "A meticulously researched and engrossing narrative... For those interested in the relationship between business and environment -– once wary, now warming -– Humes' book is a compelling case study."

Publishers Weekly: “Pulitzer Prize–winning journalist Humes offers a stirring story of how ecologically responsible practices are increasingly benefiting the bottom line... A fascinating, fair-minded look at the congruence between environmentalism and business, and the behemoth at the intersection.”