Name: Waking the Sleeping Giant
Author: Jake Kheel

About the Book

Within every company, there lies a sleeping giant. Companies have long been viewed as either the primary cause of environmental destruction, or as a deep-pocketed funding source for people trying to confront it. But with their access to innovation, new technology, and intellectual firepower, most companies are built to tackle the challenges our planet faces in a way smaller organizations and foundations can’t. What would happen if executives stopped looking at sustainability as a side project for the PR team and saw it instead as a way to benefit the planet and their profits? The giant would be awakened—and the world would never be the same. Jake Kheel wrote Waking the Sleeping Giant to help unlock your company’s hidden power to save the planet. He offers an action-driven, common sense approach to sustainability supported by real-life examples from his work in the Dominican Republic that demonstrate how companies can become a potent force for sustainability. This book offers up tangible ways everyone—from executives to employees—can make a difference and demonstrate the value of sustainability beyond the bottom line.

Praise

“Jake Kheel, in his life and this book, shows how fostering a culture of environmental conservation and community can bolster a business's prospects.”

— Andrew Revkin, longtime New York Times journalist; Founding Director, Earth Institute Initiative on Communication and Sustainability, Columbia University

“Sometimes the world is revealed in a grain of sand--that is the case in this incredibly well-written and thoughtful story of the sustainability trajectory of Punta Cana. This should be on the desk of every corporate leader. An amazing book.”

— Thomas E. Lovejoy, University Professor of Environmental Science and Policy, George Mason University; Blue Planet Prize Laureate 2012; Senior Fellow, United Nations Foundation

“Jake Kheel's book is imbued with the wonder of discovery, accidental environmentalism, and, most importantly, working on problems with a hands-on approach. Waking the Sleeping Giant makes a great story and provides wonderful reasons to stay in one place for a sustained period of time to make a difference, providing a great example of what sustainable tourism is all about.”

— Megan Epler Wood, Managing Director, Sustainable Tourism Asset Management Program (STAMP), Center for Sustainable Global Enterprise, SC Johnson College of Business, Cornell University

About Jake Kheel

Jake Kheel is an environmental innovator whose efforts in the Dominican Republic with the Grupo Puntacana Foundation have won numerous awards and made the country's tourism more competitive and environmentally sustainable. Jake directs the Center for Sustainability, a think tank partnering with renowned universities to conduct environmental research, and helped pioneer one of the Caribbean's largest coral reef restoration projects. Jake frequently speaks at international conferences, including TEDx Santo Domingo. He's been widely published, including the Huffington Post, Luxury Hotels magazine, and Harvard's ReVista. To learn more, visit JakeKheel.com.