Foreword from the First EditionJohn Elkington

On the face of it, few books seem further removed from Making Sustainability Work than Robert Pirsig’s bestseller Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance. But, at least to my mind, there are interesting links. Pirsig’s book, which first appeared in 1974 and sold many millions of copies in 27 languages, turned into a global phenomenon, as has the sustainability agenda which Marc Epstein presents in the following pages. What sticks in my mind over 30 years after reading Zen is the way Pirsig spotlighted two very different personality types. The first type is mostly interested in what the Germans call the Gestalt, focusing on big-picture trends and the configuration of elements, rather than the elements ...

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