Bob Willard, the consumate business sustainability researcher, consultant, and advocate estimated the business advantage in his 2002 book, The Sustainability Advantage. Now, its updated cousin, The New Sustainability Advantage summarizes the advantage as follows:
The New Sustainability Advantage has a recalibrated, and more compelling business case for sustainability strategies than described in its 2002 version. Based on recent case studies, it shows that if a typical company were to use best-practice sustainability approaches already being used by real companies, it could improve its profit by at least 51% to 81% within three to five years, while avoiding a potential 16% to 36% erosion of profits if it does nothing.