Listen free for 30 days

Listen with offer

Offer ends May 1st, 2024 11:59PM GMT. Terms and conditions apply.
£7.99/month after 3 months. Renews automatically.
Pick 1 audiobook a month from our unmatched collection - including bestsellers and new releases.
Listen all you want to thousands of included audiobooks, Originals, celeb exclusives, and podcasts.
Access exclusive sales and deals.
£7.99/month after 30 days. Renews automatically. See here for eligibility.
Pick 1 audiobook a month from our unmatched collection - including bestsellers and new releases.
Listen all you want to thousands of included audiobooks, Originals, celeb exclusives, and podcasts.
Access exclusive sales and deals.
Net Positive cover art

Net Positive

By: Paul Polman, Andrew Winston
Narrated by: Tom Parks, Paul Polman, Andrew Winston
Get this deal Try for £0.00

Pay £99p/month. After 3 months pay £7.99/month. Renews automatically. See terms for eligibility.

£7.99/month after 30 days. Renews automatically. See here for eligibility.

Buy Now for £16.00

Buy Now for £16.00

Pay using card ending in
By completing your purchase, you agree to Audible's Conditions of Use and authorise Audible to charge your designated card or any other card on file. Please see our Privacy Notice, Cookies Notice and Interest-based Ads Notice.

Listeners also enjoyed...

Grow the Pie cover art
Less Is More cover art
Green Swans cover art
The Activist Leader cover art
The Big Pivot cover art
Net Zero cover art
Citizens cover art
Tomorrow's Capitalist cover art
The New Climate War cover art
There Is No Planet B cover art
Saving Us cover art
The Waste-Free World cover art
The Power of And cover art
Cybersecurity cover art
The Responsibility Revolution cover art
Thinking in Systems cover art

Summary

Runaway climate change and gross inequality are ravaging the world. Who can help lead us to a better future? Business.

These and other massive challenges threaten our very existence on the planet. Yet division and discord risk undermining our response, just when we need to come together. 

At this critical time in history, the imperative to reimagine our economies and companies could not be more urgent. Fortunately, many in the business community are helping to solve our most profound challenges, deploying long-term, purpose-led business models that put people and planet first. The key question has flipped from "Why would you do sustainability?" to "Why wouldn't you?"

In this paradigm-shifting book, former Unilever CEO Paul Polman and sustainable business guru Andrew Winston provide a model to help leaders build companies that contribute more to the world than they use or take - that is, net positive companies.

Net Positive outlines the principles and practices for surviving and thriving based on the experience of one world-leading company, Unilever, and other groundbreaking global organizations. This essential book is for leaders, executives, managers, and professionals who want to succeed, but know that winning requires caring deeply about serving the world.

PLEASE NOTE: When you purchase this title, the accompanying PDF will be available in your Audible Library along with the audio.

©2021 Paul Polman and Andrew S. Winston (P)2021 Ascent Audio

What listeners say about Net Positive

Average customer ratings
Overall
  • 4.5 out of 5 stars
  • 5 Stars
    43
  • 4 Stars
    9
  • 3 Stars
    4
  • 2 Stars
    0
  • 1 Stars
    0
Performance
  • 4.5 out of 5 stars
  • 5 Stars
    21
  • 4 Stars
    17
  • 3 Stars
    3
  • 2 Stars
    3
  • 1 Stars
    0
Story
  • 4.5 out of 5 stars
  • 5 Stars
    30
  • 4 Stars
    13
  • 3 Stars
    1
  • 2 Stars
    0
  • 1 Stars
    0

Reviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.

Sort by:
Filter by:
  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    4 out of 5 stars

Putting stakeholders not shareholders first

Interesting deep dive into Unilever and it’s Sustainable Living Program . Learnt a great deal. Will probably buy the paperback now.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

Eye and mind opening heartfelt way for doing business

Imposible to be inmune to this way of doing business. Will look to the way companies make money very differently going forward

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

A timely well-written book for our times

Well researched and well written - this book makes a compelling case for net positive business models that create more value than they take from the world, covering all the necessary parts of the puzzle. The audible version is easy to listen to too.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

An inspiring and hopeful vision of the future

I loved this book! The authors convincingly and unreservedly share their model for net positive companies — businesses that by virtue of existing and thriving do more good than harm — continuously citing examples from their own work at Unilever and the work of other, hugely successful companies throughout the world. It's a timely and urgently needed book that all current and future business and government leaders should read.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    3 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    4 out of 5 stars

An enthusiastic but bumpy ride.

i found the narrator good and energizing, but found the rhythm of his speech bizarre, with accents on small words like "and". This made the whole book a really bumpy ride.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

Brave, real and credible path to our net positive future

A great real world story of how Unilever lead by Paul Polman became a corporate force of nature to bend the business rulebook and make the company a net positive influence on the world. Doubled revenues and halved environmental impact for starters is an impressive feat. I am a net positive leader and these stories and insights are the beginning of what we can make possible in the future. Let’s do this.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

Required reading for business leaders

Could only have been better if the authors had read the whole book, rather than having a third narrator do most of it. Outstanding stuff though.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

Insightful, inspiring and practical

A really intelligent, thought provoking and practical view of how businesses can thrive while protecting our future, really enjoyed it.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

  • Overall
    3 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    3 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    3 out of 5 stars

Too polarised & cliche-ridden

Some interesting examples, especially about Unilever, but then goes too far beyond reasonable business, economic & behavioural practice.

Lots of tired clichés such as the “finite planet” trope, which overlooks energy (& therefore GDP or any other economic measure) courtesy of the Sun & gravitation, not to mention almost endless potential from nuclear power & other sources.

Yes, mathematically growth cannot be “infinite” but if it’s sustainable for a billion years until the Sun goes nova, we have other things to worry about.

The section on externalities also seems to consider it a unique issue for capitalism, when it obviously applies to *all* economic systems and even personal actions. There are externalities *everywhere* (some of them positive) and unless you try to calculate them ubiquitously, the argument seems to sound uniquely anti-capitalist rather than pro-environmental.

There is also insufficient attention to technology as a way to fix or solve problems - whether that’s with carbon capture or AI for energy efficiency.

Lastly, it seems to bundle too much together. E, S and G (& additional concerns) should be considered individually and separately, as attitudes & opinions vary over time and place, as does appetite for risk.

Worth listening to, but sadly this made me want to push back against the rhetoric far more than it made we want to push forward the ideas into businesses I advise.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!