Eagle Environmental Reviews

This book both elated me and depressed me when I read it. I was elated because here was a collections of ideas which were so vitally useful and valuable to South Africa yet it depressed me because I realised that it will take another five to ten years before we can use many of them.

This is without question a source book for the researcher, scenario planner, strategist, futures thinker and the pro-active business who believes in environmental decision making which is integrated into business decision-making and therefore believes in the practicalities of sustainable development.

Many of the ideas and strategies have a strong US/developed world base to them and superficially could lead one to thinking that they are out of place. Yet, when I pondered on several of the chapters, I began to realise that the richness of the perspectives were universal to the lateral thinker and the creative mind.

The book is split into four sections - an overview on environmental decision-making, government decision-making, business decision-making and community decision- making. I have too little space to go into detail but I must tantalise you with a few of the chapter titles:- Citizens Jury®process for Environmental Decision-making, Integrating Environmental Concerns into Corporate Decisions, (Business) Cultural Structure and the Challenge of Sustainability, to mention just a few.

Don’t buy this book unless you have time to chew on it like a bone and come back to the ideas and strategies again and again. I must confess that I delayed writing this review because I was enjoying the book too much to step outside of its covers.
A superb, thought-provoking text, but not for everyone.