Google, Apple, Amazon, Uber: companies like these have come to embody innovation, efficiency, and success. How often is the environmental movement characterized in the same terms? Sadly, conservation is frequently seen as a losing battle, waged by well-meaning, but ultimately ineffective idealists. Joe Whitworth argues it doesn't have to be this way. In fact, it can't be this way if we are to maintain our economy, let alone our health or the planet's.
In Quantified, Whitworth draws lessons from the world's most tech-savvy, high-impact organizations to show how we can make real gains for the environment. The principles of his approach, dubbed quantified conservation, will be familiar to any thriving entrepreneur: situational awareness, bold outcomes, innovation and technology, data and analytics, and gain-focused investment. This no-nonsense strategy builds on the inspirational environmental work begun in the 1970s, while recognizing that the next economy will demand new solutions.
As President of The Freshwater Trust, Whitworth has put quantified conservation into practice, pioneering the model of a "do-tank" that is dramatically changing how rivers can get restored across the United States. The stories in Quantified highlight the most precious of resources-water-but they apply to any environmental effort. Whether in the realm of policy, agriculture, business, or philanthropy, Whitworth is charting a new course for conservation.
"Quantified is a blueprint for fundamentally changing the nation's approach to conservation." "If you believe in audacious, courageous and leapfrog solutions to save the planet, this book is for you. It's not just for environmentalists but for philanthropists and anyone brave enough to stand up and be accountable for real impact."---Kriss Deiglmeier, CEO, Tides.org and Founding Executive Director, the Center for Social Innovation at Stanford "Quantified provides an analysis of why old models aren't working and how we can each play a role in optimizing for a shared and durable prosperity by rigorously quantifying benefits for all stakeholders."---Andrew Kassoy, cofounder of B Lab "A clear-eyed view for how business should think about the critical resource of water in the coming century."---Andy Bryant, Chairman of the Board of Directors, Intel "Quantified reveals our mounting water issues as dire, important, and solvable."---Alexandra Cousteau, filmmaker, founder of Blue Legacy, National Geographic Emerging Explorer "From investment to governance to conservation, this book lays out a path that very few knew existed."---David Chen, Principal and CEO, Equilibrium Capital "Cogent, compelling, and provocative."---Peter Gleick, President and Cofounder, the Pacific Institute and MacArthur Foundation Fellow "By shifting away from procedure-based conflicts to outcome-based solutions, Quantified describes a paradigm that can work for production agriculture and the environment."---Dan Keppen, Executive Director, the Family Farm Alliance
