The book takes a close look on how the financial services sector is responding to the challenge of expectations of stakeholders and shareholders regarding environmental and social performance. Because of the intermediary role of banks they have an enormous potential to contribute toward sustainable development. For banks it is becoming more and more difficult to deny that corporate sustainability increases long-term shareholder value.

The book is divided into five parts: (1) environmental policies of banks, (2) transparency and communication, (3) environmental investment funds, (4) environmental risks and banks' products and (5) the role of governments, NGOs and multilateral banks. This structure was chosen to present altogether 32 contributions of different authors or author groups in a way, that comprehensively explains the changes the financial sector is undergoing.

The authors are from four continents thus providing a global overview. Contributors include The World Bank, The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development, The United Nations Environment Programme, The World Business Council for Sustainable Development, The World Resources Institute, Rabobank, UBS, Henderson Investors, Deloitte & Touche, KPMG and SAM Sustainability.

The contributions show that "sustainable banking" is, at the moment, a dynamic term with no clear borders changing its definition over time. Certainly this book will contribute to a clarification regarding definition and borders of the term "sustainable banking".

The contributions partly consider all three dimensions of sustainable development, partly they deal only with environment and economy and eco-efficiency respectively. Some of the contributions provide excellent introductions into the notion of sustainable development. Others show only a view restricted to environmental aspects.

In most contributions it becomes clear that the concept is automatically relevant to the relationships of the banks with their stakeholders and not only within the banks themselves. Transparency and communication play a crucial role.

The contributions present global perspectives, case studies and detailed analysis. A lot of ideas and suggestions for differing approaches, models and policies offer a tool for developing new strategies. For strategists and policy-makers this tool can be particularly useful.

An outlook given in one of the forewords explains the view of future development in sustainable banking: "... sustainable banking is about both these approaches: supporting the inno-vative and proactive companies; and stimulating the lagging and reactive ones. Alliances and co-operation between NGOs, governments, companies, consumers and the financial sector are natural outcomes of this 'double strategy'... this joining of forces is the best strategy to-wards sustainable development."

"Sustainable Banking - The Greening of Finance" represents a valuable source of information, ideas and concepts for people in the financial services sector, corporate managers and the growing community of people from different sectors looking for ways to realize genuine sustainable development.

This three volume set is the premier publication on this archeological find. The authors systematically describe the process of the dig, the recovery and reconstruction of almost all of the material from the burial, plus a significant amount of cultural analysis. Highly recommended

A brave soldier and a callous, sheltered rich boy become friends on the battlefield -- they exchange identities, so the rich boy's wonderful loving fiancee ends up marrying the soldier and the rich boy goes to war as he dreamed to. But the consequences of this tradeoff are so much richer, sadder and more beautiful than either man imagined possible. The story is seen through many eyes, not least through the eyes of the granddaughter of the Swedish cavalier.

This novel is one of the sparest, most honest, adventurous and passionate works of art I have ever encountered. It is a crime that this work is out of print!

No literary novel is more moving and beautiful; no mystery novel is more exciting. Is there any way to petition the publishing powers that be to put out a new edition of this wonderful writer?

Oh, never mind --

A delightful journey with a young, lonely boy who lives only in the light because of his fear of the dark. He meets a young girl that shows him the beauty and magic of the dark, along with all the creatures that live in the dark. He learns that he has a choice to 'turn on' the light or the dark.

My granddaughter (11) and I have enjoyed this book emmensely and are re-reading it often. She loves tales of Japan and the beautiful illustrations. My husband and I lived in Japan for 2 years. This book's story has good moral principles and is an easy way to teach kind thoughtful behavior and the benefits of love and responsibility.

An extremely well written, wonderful treatment of its subject. I highly recommend this book to all persons interested in excellent, powerful writing on the subject of Religion. A truly amazing, creative work. A masterpiece.

an excelent book that summarizes perfectly the uruguayan way of life. i strongly recommend to read this book if you want to reach an orgasm while laughing.

Exhaustive footnotes correlating all those speculative notions of Velikovski, magnetic shifts, plate tectonics, mutant moons and renagade planets; collaborated by historic descriptions of astro events. Do you still believe the dinosaurs died to form oil? Do you have a reason for finding flash frozen hairy mammoths with undigested food still in the mouth? Questions about the biblical "Nepherim"? Do yourself a favor and grab one of these.

This labor of love by Dr.Leo Deuel was published by Knopf 1965. If you care about books, the thrill implicit in palaeography or archaeology, and about what the ancients kept written records of, this book is for you.
It is long out of print, so if you chance upon a copy, hug it, buy it, devour it, relish it.

The author's undertaking is daring. His scope may be judged from the following BOOKS within a book:
BOOK ONE: A RENAISSANCE PRELUDE
BOOK TWO: THE PERMANANCE OF PAPYRUS AND CLAY a) CLASSICS b) THE ANCIENT NEAR EAST
BOOK THREE: THE PREVALENCE OF PARHCMENT a) THE NEW TESTAMENT b) HEBREW WRITS
BOOK FOUR: A PROFUSION OF SILK, BARK, AND PAPER a) INNER ASIA b) THE NEW WORLD.

With so wide a scope, the author has created a book that beckons (I found it by accident at The Strand, NY. I am a non-specialist in thsi subject). 590 pages, BW Plates 16 in number, five maps, and figures, woodcuts and facsimiles of scripts and symbols far too numerous to tally. (Examples include Aramaic, Syriac to Brahmi to the Dresden Codex pictograms of Mexico).

Even in the instance where decoding might have progressed since the author laid pen to paper, the humor, the flow and the narrative keep the reader in thrall.

I will give only one example to whet the appetite. A certain Sir Aurel Stein(1862-1943) after Oxford, the British Musuem, was stationed as Registrar of the Punjab University in British India(1888). He persuaded, says the author, the bureaucratic red tape to let him undertake in the reverse direction Marco Polo's travel. He then routinely traversed high mountain passes several times, exploring, surveying, seeking the Silk Route, written records of any kind from peoples past. He once lost his toes (amputation after the Kunlun mountains took their toll), several times cracked his collarbone. But he was outclimbing assigned helpers at the age of 60.

The retold story of his archeological exploits in the arid desert of Taklamakan, his two digs there (in winter perforce where temperatures at night reached 0 degrees F), his challenging in some outlands a forger whose products had found a place in European Museums as genuine records, and the adventure story of arriving at Tun Huang (some one thousand miles across desert) and of his dealing with the "keeper of the scroll library" in the "Thousand Buddha Caves (grottoes)" are greatly amusing.

Tantalizing little drawings of character sets and pictograms abound. Not photographs but illustrations or facsimiles.
Enjoy scripts uncial, scripts miniscule, and letters ligatured!

Having recently read Nicholas Basbanes' "A Gentle Madness" and "Patience and Fortitude",(both excellent reading for post-papyrus, book-form bibliomania as you will ever see,) the book under review compares very favorably for including writing materials of every sort known to mankind over centuries and all civilizations.
It also compares favorably for the thrill and pull of the narrative.

Lest I should have mischaracterized the quintessence of the book, here is the author in his own words in foreword piece:
"....The books and documents not only of remote and forgotten peoples but of all ages and cultures even beyond the invention of printing have vanished. THe ancient Hebrews registered the loss of the Book of Jasher; most of the literature of the Anglo-Saxons has disappeared; there are gaps in the Elizabethan drama; today we possess but a fraction of the works of Hellenic and Latin authors.//....This is, in short, a book about books and about the scholars who searched for and discovered lost manuscripts and who interpreted and deciphered them."

This is a fantastic book. It is very well written and gives an excellent picture of the history of the US supreme court.