Blood & Oil - Why the Military Likes Green

The U.S. military is embracing alternative energy -- but not because of climate change. Up to half of the yearly American casualties in Iraq and Afghanistan have been incurred guarding fuel convoys, and the Pentagon will no longer tolerate oil's "burden in blood..."

...Read more of my new article, "Blood and Oil," in the latest Sierra Magazine.

Why You Should Care About Wal-Mart's Greener Biz - LAT OpEd

If you care about green, it's hard not to view these as the worst of times, marked by looming climate, water and energy crises, vanishing fisheries, mile-a-minute deforestation — the list is numbingly endless. In response, we have a largely apathetic public, an environmental lobby rendered toothless by said apathy, a political left and center paralyzed by fear that protecting the planet might hurt the economy, and a political right that's never been more virulently opposed to all things green as job-killing, business-bashing burdens and boondoggles.

But then there's ... Wal-Mart.

Read on at LATimes.com...

Page 99

Ford Madox Ford once asserted: "Open the book to page ninety-nine and read, and the quality of the whole will be revealed to you."

Marshal Zeringue, author, playwright and head honcho at the Campaign for the American Reader, turned Ford's quip into an actual test. So when Marshal asks if you'd like to run your book through the Page 99 test, a mad scramble ensues to see what accident of typography and layout had put on that particular page, before you email back and say, sure!

Here's the Page 99 test for Force of Nature, which, as it happens, concerns a pivotal moment in 2005 when Wal-Mart, Hurricane Katrina, and a fledgling green initiative at the king of the big box stores  all collided --with surprising results.

Top 10 Eco Lessons from Wal-Mart?

Here' a list of top 10 lessons for going green, based on the world's biggest company's surprising efforts to become more sustainable. It's from my new book, Force of Nature, just up at HuffingtonPost:

Forget all that scary stuff you've heard from politicians about how cutting carbon emissions to stem climate change will kill jobs and destroy American business. Wal-Mart says that's crazy talk. Greening your home or business makes your richer. How? Carbon comes from using energy. Energy costs money. Which means cutting carbon saves the planet and saves you money. So do what Wal-Mart does: use energy-efficient lighting. Plant shady trees near your house or business. Insulate your attic and, if you have a flat roof, paint it white. Clean the filters in your refrigerator, heater and AC. Small businesses who follow Wal-Mart's advice have had their energy bills drop 20 to 60 percent by taking just those steps.

Force of Nature Media

Media Update III: Wal-Mart: Force of Nature or Greenwashing? A discussion at the Commonwealth Club's ClimateOne program in San Francisco.

Media Update II: How Wal-Mart won over a Sierra Club President. Fortune Magazine excerpts Force of Nature.

Media Update: Can Going Green Make Wal-Mart Cool? Kerry A. Dolan writes at Forbes that Force of Nature "spins a compelling tale."


I'm just back from the San Francisco leg of the Force of Nature book tour, following this review in the New York Times. Reviewer Bryan Burrough writes:

The idea that “going green” could actually be profitable, a notion put forth by economists as long as 20 years ago, remains a source of skepticism in some quarters. If you still need convincing, pick up Edward Humes’s excellent new book, “Force of Nature” (Harper Business, 265 pages, $27.99), the story of how the world’s largest retailer, Wal-Mart, came to go green. I’ll wager that you won’t look at sustainability issues quite the same way again. It certainly opened my eyes.

...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.

Out today: Force of Nature

It's official: Force of Nature: The Unlikely Story of Wal-Mart's Green Revolution, is out today.

My book tells the story of how a big company can be convinced that there's a strong business case for green -- and why the realization that sustainability is an asset, not a distraction, is spreading to other businesses and industries. Some are calling it a second industrial revolution. At the very least, it's a hopeful development at a time when we desperately need one.

I'll be kicking off Force of Nature's publication in the Northern California this week: at Kepler's Books in Menlo Park on Thursday May 12, Copperfield's Books in Sebastopol on Saturday May 14, and at the Commonwealth Club in San Francisco on Monday May 16.