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The following discussion questions and action steps based on the book will help students, employees, executives, and consumers to see how they can create healthier and leaner organizations while at the same time fostering a cleaner environment.

Questions A through D are based on the book's more than 100 examples from organizations you know (including Apple Computer, the city of Santa Monica in California, Sony, and Polaroid):

1. In Table 1 within the book's introduction, see a summary of a Lean and Green story from each of the 20 organizations profiled in the book. Choose the 2 stories that most relate to the organizations you know the best, then draft an Email to the head of the organization suggesting those 2 ideas along with their economic benefits.
2. Put yourself in the role of a product manager at a company who is competing directly with another company's products. Draft a list of environmental and cost-cutting features of your product, perhaps similar to Thomson Multimedia's list of its televisions' features on page 106, that will give you competitive advantage over the other company's products.
3. If the companies from which you buy goods and services had sound environmental practices and through them reduced their costs, both the planet and your budget would benefit. Look on pages 148 and 149 at NEC Corporation's green-product questionnaire for suppliers of parts for personal computers, cellular phones, and other personal-use products. Think of 3 companies from whom you buy goods and services, and you wish would follow these Lean and Green practices.
4. Read on pages 191-193 how the Lean and Green champions at the organizations featured in the book got into their careers. Now, describe in a short paragraph how your experience could qualify you for helping organizations take steps that reduce costs, increase revenues, and prevent pollution.

   Questions E through H relate to different disciplines in a college or university setting:

5. Business school: Consider the return on investment (ROI) achieved from the Lean and Green organizations, summarized on pages 35 and 36. Write an ROI proposal for an environmentally beneficial step applicable to an organization you know: include the action to be taken and cost of that action, compared to the reduction of cost of goods sold or increase of revenue over time.
6. Biology and marine biology: List some steps that a wood-products company could take that would negatively impact a rainforest or barrier reef. For each step you've listed, think of a different action that same wood-products company could take that both would mitigate environmental disturbance AND reduce that company's costs-and possibly even can increase that company's revenues. Lean and Green steps in the book taken by Louisiana-Pacific Corporation will give you some ideas.
7. Environmental studies and ecology: Read in Chapter 18 the sections "Is this Enough for the Planet" and "Achieving Sustainability." Give your opinion about the extent to which bona fide environmental improvements made by organizations-albeit often made mainly with cost reduction in mind¾could lessen global threats including ozone depletion and polluted water.
8. Economics: Supply and demand are essential to any economy. What benefits and harm to that economy would come about if most organizations practiced material reduction, reuse, and recycling-as described in Chapters 10, 11, and 12?

   Action Steps I and J are easy and will kick off any organizations "Lean and Green" success.

9. Page 164 has a "Making it Easy" list of ways organizations' buildings can reduce harmful environmental affects and reduce operating costs. Noting these examples and those in the rest of Chapter 14, make a list of 3 easy changes you can make at your workplace or home and start them today!
10. Cynics about the environment abound in business and other organizations. Read President Theodore Roosevelt's inspiring message on page 171. Now, create an inspiring message of your own in answer to, "Who cares about the environment? We have a business to run." Rehearse it a few times and try it out on your colleagues. Carry your new message with you-in your mind, heart, and budget-because you never know when you'll need it.

See how 20 leading organizations became "Lean and Green," and how by following the Four Steps to Lean and Green, other organizations can too. Pamela J. Gordon, Certified Management Consultant and author of Lean and Green: Profit for Your Workplace and the Environment, invites you to order an examination copy (using the attached fax-back form) and consider the book for your coursework, organization, or reading group.