The publisher describes Dr. Herriott's new book as “the first book to give students a comprehensive understanding of sustainability in organizations from an accounting perspective."

New book on metrics for sustainability by MUM professor
by Jim Karpen at Maharishi University of Management, Fairfield, Iowa, USA, The Review
31 March 2016

A new book by Scott Herriott, the dean of the Maharishi University of Management (MUM) College of Business, will be published on March 11th. The book is titled Metrics for Sustainable Business: Measures and Standards for the Assessment of Organizations and is a part of Routledge’s series on Environment and Sustainability.

Sustainability is a hot topic in business, Dr. Herriott said. Over half of the Fortune 500 companies issue an annual report on their sustainability in addition to a financial report. His book describes the methods companies use to document their sustainability, and it analyzes the certification and rating systems that are now used to evaluate the sustainability of firms.

Since 2011, Dr. Herriott has been teaching an MBA course on this topic. That year, he met an acquisitions editor for Routledge at an academic conference and pitched several ideas for books. She liked the “metrics” idea most. Year by year, Dr. Herriott developed his class lecture notes into the chapters for the book.

The publisher describes Metrics for Sustainability as “the first book to give students a comprehensive understanding of sustainability in organizations from an accounting perspective. The book walks students through the steps for doing a sustainability assessment, and aims to develop them into financial analysts who understand sustainability reports and are able to create or audit them.”

Chapters include accounting for greenhouse gas emissions, water use, and waste. A chapter on the philosophies of sustainability offers an answer to the question, “Why are they asking us to report that?”

“Herriott’s writing style makes the material accessible and interesting for readers with varying levels of knowledge about sustainability reporting and related
metrics,” wrote reviewer Kenton D. Swift. “The book is well-written, well-organized, and thorough.”

This is Dr. Herriott’s third book. His first, published in 2005 by Cengage, was a textbook on college algebra. His second was Feasibility Analysis for Sustainable Technologies, published by Business Experts Press in 2015.

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About the author:
Dr. Jim Karpen is a writer by trade, with a special focus on technology. He has a Ph.D. in English and studied the impact of the computerization of language. In addition to writing for iPhone Life magazine, he has also been writing a column about the Internet for the Iowa Source since 1994. He also edits and publishes the MUM Review.

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