In her book, Working To Restore: Harnessing the Power Of Regenerative Business To Heal the World, author Esha Chhabra uses her years of journalism experience to explore businesses that have changed what it means to be sustainable and explain how business has moved into a new era of regeneration and restoration.
Key Details
- Chhabra has been a journalist focusing on sustainability, international development, and the rise of mission-driven brands for decades.
- She has explored many businesses and realized that a number of new startups are rewriting the rules of business: how it’s done, by whom, and what she deems most important—for what purpose.
- In the book, she examines business practices in nine areas:
- Agriculture
- Waste
- Supply chain
- Inclusivity for the collective good
- Women in the workforce
- Travel
- Health
- Energy
- Finance
- The businesses that she explores focus on solving global issues such as creating equitable opportunities for all, encouraging climate action, promoting responsible production and consumption, and more.
Why it’s important
Over the last few years, America has shifted focus to becoming more environmentally friendly and suppressing climate change, leading many to question how sustainable American business practices are.
Environmental journalist Esha Chhabra has spent decades researching sustainability and the rise of mission-driven organizations and has revealed that many U.S. businesses only focus on profit, not sustainability.
Chhabra explains that many businesses focus entirely on profit and not sustainability by shipping materials worldwide on cargo ships, working employees for little pay, and unethically sourcing materials from remote locations.
She then explains that many new startups are rewriting the rules of business and putting sustainability at the forefront of all practices, moving businesses into a new era of regeneration and restoration.
In the book, she talks with many sustainable business owners, including Marius Smit, founder of Plastic Whale, the first company to build boats entirely out of plastic waste removed from oceans and waterways, Konrad Brits at Falcon Coffees, a company leading the way with a “collaborative supply chain” by investing in the local farmers who grow and harvest coffee beans, and many others.
The companies highlighted have moved past traditional business models and have proved that companies can thrive while putting the environment and people first. Chhabra explains that other businesses can use the forward-thinking model of restoration and regeneration to succeed and instill sustainability.