Acknowledgments

• Author: William R. Blackburn
• Pages: 9-10

Acknowledgments

My three-year effort of researching and writing this book has not been

easy. Like those who climb Mount Everest, I found my progress stalled,

redirected, or reversed from time to time by obstacles that were tough to

predict at the outset. And like such climbers, I relied on a team of skilled

and knowledgeable experts to help me to the end. I thank them all for

their belief in this project, for their generous contributions, and for the

encouragement they provided me along the way.

I owe a special debt of gratitude to Carolyn Fischer, Dick MacLean,

William D’Alessandro, and Donna Schmid who tenaciously read the

drafts from front to back, pointing out the rough spots needing repair.

Carolyn, my superb editor at the Environmental Law Institute (ELI),

gave her all to the project. Dick, along with Frank Friedman and Gib

Hedstrom, all respected, seasoned veterans of the corporate environmen-

tal arena, helped keep the text grounded in the real world. Donna joined

another friend of our family, Andrew Fisher, in offering views from a

quite different perspective—the perspective of two gifted young writers

unfettered by the biases of the past. William, a long-time reporter on en-

vironmental and sustainability issues, served as a good foil for identify-

ing gaps in my information and arguments. Margery Moore, also from

the environmental publishing business, lent her expertise on the selection

and use of information technology.Bob Willard, a well-known author on

sustainability in his own right, also suggested important improvements. I

witnessed first hand the benefits of paying all those expensive tuition

bills for my daughter Laura’s education in business and design when she

produced many of the more difficult graphics for the book, and guided

me by the hand through a few episodes of computer hell. I would also like

to thank Linda Johnson, Bill Straub, and April King at ELI, who were re-

sponsible for making the book visually coherent.

Various teammates from my days at Baxter International Inc. re-

viewed significant portions of the draft, providing the same type of can-

did, useful feedback (based no doubt in their firm belief of my fallibility)

that enabled the company to become so well regarded in the fields of

sustainability and environment, health, and safety. Those teammates in-

cluded Bob Seguy (now of Enviance), Ron Meissen, Peter Etienne, Jenni

Cawein, Mike Cycyota, Lisa Keltner, Sue Miller, Dennis Shoji (now of

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