Environmental imperatives are forcing companies - and governments - across the globe to change the way they think about business and investment. The conventional wisdom in the United States is that environmental constraints are bad for business; Green Gold shows how misguided the common view is.

Curtis Moore and Alan Miller go behind the scenes in Germany, Japan and elsewhere to show how nations are staking their economic futures on the proposition that world competitive success will depend on developing technologies aimed at protecting the environment.

Marshaling newly available evidence, Green Gold outlines a radical rethinking of America's industrial future. Environmental technologies - cleaner energy sources, more efficient industrial processes, environmentally superior products of every kind, from light bulbs to automobiles - offer more than remarkable economic opportunities; as these become necessities, not luxuries, the ability to produce cleaner, more competitive technology may determine America's economic viability in a global marketplace.

The foreign success stories are stunning. German and Japanese companies, working closely with governments, now dominate the new huge and growing world markets for environmental technology in everything from solar power to clean steel mills. The United States, often the original source of ideas and innovation, continues to fall behind, held back in part by powerful domestic energy lobbies.

The authors tell previously untold stories in settings from German power plants to Japanese government agencies. They uncover the reasons for American losses and show how California has been the key U.S. exception in challenging the lead of Germany and Japan. They analyze the major industries and profile innovative business leaders.

Highly readable, filled with dramatic evidence, Green Gold is the business book environmentalists have wanted for years and the environmental book businesses have needed - a wake-up call to American business leaders, policymakers. and concerned citizens.