"Living Above the Store" - How a Business Became More Sustainable!

No doubt another great read available from our literary stalwarts of sustainability at Chelsea Green Publishing  is now available! It was to be released on April 12th, so look for it at your local bookstore(s) or, put an order in! It looks like an important read for those thinking of, or even attempting to, put a little more effort into becoming more sustainable and green.

The full title is: Living Above the Store Building a Business That Creates Value, Inspires Change, and Restores Land and Community and it is authored by Martin Melaver.

The Chelsea Green website offers the following about the book:

Living Above the Store demonstrates how to:

• Adopt a business model that provides for economic success while contributing to society and the environment
• Shape a business culture that is restorative to a workforce by helping employees realize their highest potential
• Leverage an ethos within a business that “ripples outward” to foster restoration of both land and community
• Embrace a notion of limits to growth
• Reframe ideas about competition, proprietary knowledge, and business success

Living Above the Store is for readers who care about issues of community and sustainability as well as for those who want to learn more about how a socially responsible business can first redefine, and then find, success.

Here are some quotes about the book:

Living Above the Store breaks the mold on business writing. This is a tale of three generations of the Melaver family, the purported end of the world, and the true nature of enterprise. It is a book about the greening of business to be sure, but it is literature first, brilliant disquisitions and narratives that place commerce within the broader context of history, culture, and the cherished human values that bind us together. Martin Melaver has enlarged the vocabulary of commerce and restored it to a place of honor, a timely gift in an era of disillusionment. You may put it down to absorb what has been written, but you will not forget the stories of courage, the humility of reflection or the import of what has been said, and you will want to read it straight through to the end.--Paul Hawken, author of The Ecology of Commerce

The most sustainably growing family business leaders, I find, are philosophers of management. Living Above the Store is a compelling example. Further, it is a wonderful story built on wonderful stories. All business leaders will be inspired by the power of connecting driving values with convincing stories.--John L. Ward, Clinical Professor, Kellogg School of Management and Principal, The Family Business Consulting Group