LONDON, United Kingdom — Once considered the sole purview of specialists, sustainability is something every business leader needs to understand and a new book from global management consultancy Arthur D. Little seeks to help senior executives and board members grasp the issues that are essential for every company.

"Sustainability has now moved into the heart of the business, and touches on nearly every company function," says the preface of "The Board's Sustainability Handbook." "It's clearly no longer just the domain of the specialist."

The 55-page book focuses on "what's really material to the board, as opposed to what is often shouted about in the media," the preface continues. "We look at what the key issues are, how to establish your current position, what sort of business value you could capture and what you can do to change."

The book poses -- and is intended to help its readers answer -- these questions, which form the titles for four of the publication's five chapters:

• Is there more to sustainable business than we've recognized?
• How sustainable is our business -- really?
• What opportunities are we missing to create value?
• What can we do to change?

The book is peppered with case studies, news headlines and excerpts of articles and quotes, such as Friedrich Engels' "An ounce of action is worth a ton of theory."

More information about the book is available from Arthur D. Little at www.adl.com.

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