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Natural Capitalism: Creating the Next Industrial Revolution
All books in the category Green Economics
by: Paul Hawken, Amory Lovins, L. Hunter Lovins
Topics include: radical resource productivity, design mentality, natural capitalism, compounding losses, perverse subsidies, lean thinking, productivity revolution, ecosystem services, manufactured capital, industrial metabolism, sulfur reductions, next industrial revolution, water efficiency
In Natural Capitalism, three top strategists show how leading-edge companies are practicing "a new type of industrialism" that is more efficient and profitable while saving the environment and creating jobs. Paul Hawken and Amory and Hunter Lovins write that in the next century, cars will get 200 miles per gallon without compromising safety and power, manufacturers will relentlessly recycle their products, and the world's standard of living will jump without further damaging natural resources. "Is this the vision of a utopia? In fact, the changes described here could come about in the decades to come as the result of economic and technological trends already in place," the authors write.
They call their approach natural capitalism because it's based on the principle that business can be good for the environment. For instance, Interface of Atlanta doubled revenues and employment and tripled profits by creating an environmentally friendly system of recycling floor coverings for businesses. The authors also describe how the next generation of cars is closer than we might think. Manufacturers are already perfecting vehicles that are ultralight, aerodynamic, and fueled by hybrid gas-electric systems. If natural capitalism continues to blossom, so much money and resources will be saved that societies will be able to focus on issues such as housing, contend Hawken, author of a book and PBS series called Growing a Business, and the Lovinses, who cofounded and directed the Rocky Mountain Institute, an environmental think tank. The book is a fascinating and provocative read for public-policy makers, as well as environmentalists and capitalists alike. --Dan Ring -
From Publishers Weekly
Hawken (The Ecology of Commerce) and Amory and Hunter Lovins of the Rocky Mountain Institute, an environmental think tank, have put together an ambitious, visionary monster of a book advocating "natural capitalism." The short answer to the logical question (What is natural capitalism?) is that it is a way of thinking that seeks to apply market principles to all sources of material value, most importantly natural resources. The authors have two related goals: first, to show the vast array of ecologically smart options available to businesses; second, to argue that it is possible for society and industry to adopt them. Hawken and the Lovinses acknowledge such barriers as the high initial costs of some techniques, lack of knowledge of alternatives, entrenched ways of thinking and other cultural factors. In looking at options for transportation (including the development of ultralight, electricity-powered automobiles), energy use, building design, and waste reduction and disposal, the book's reach is phenomenal. It belongs to the galvanizing tradition of Frances Moore Lapp?'s Diet for a Small Planet and Stewart Brand's The Whole Earth Catalog. Whether all that the authors have organized and presented so earnestly here can be assimilated and acted on by the people who run the world is open to question. But readers with a capacity for judicious browsing and grazing can surely learn enough in these pages to apply well-reasoned pressure. Charts and graphs, with accompanying CD-ROM. (Oct.)
Reviews:
Beyond Darwin
As this new century begins, if there is only one book which everyone on the planet should read, it would be Natural Capitalism. Why is it so important? In my opinion, because it provides the most convincing, the most compelling argument in support of Wendell Berry's assertion that "what is good for the world will be good for us." Darwin's concept of natural selection becomes irrelevant if there is no environment in which such selection can occur. The authors introduce us to "The Next Industrial Revolution" with all oif its emerging possibilities. In subsequent chapters, they continue to examine natural capitalism in terms of "four central strategies": radical resource productivity, biomimicry, service and flow economy, and investment in it. According to the authors, natural capitalism "is about choices we can make that can start to tip economic and social outcomes in positive directions. And it is already occurring -- because it is necessary, possible, and practrical." For me, the information provided in Chapter 3 was almost incomprehensible in terms of the nature and extent of waste. Of the $9 trillion spent every year in the United States, at least $2 trillion is wasted annually. How? For example: Highway accidents ($150 billion), highway congestion ($100 billion in lost productivity), total hidden costs of driving (nearly $1 trillion), nonessential/fraudulent healthcare ($65 billion), inflated and unnecessary medical overhead ($250 billion), and crime ($450 billion). All of this waste can and should be reduced, if not eliminated. What the authors present, in effect, is a blueprint for the survival of the planet. All manner of statistical evidence supports their specific recommendations. Unless "The Next Industrial Revolution" succeeds in implementing those recommendations, natural capitalism will eventually be depleted ...and no one left to regret its loss.
In the summer of 1999, the Harvard Business Review treated the business community to a glimpse of a bold new model for business and industry in the 21st century. The HBR has been filling requests ever since for the article by Amory Lovins, L. Hunter Lovins and Paul Hawken titled "A Road Map for Natural Capitalism." The article described how businesses could profit by employing strategies built around a more productive use of natural resources. The authors explained in a very practical, yet compelling manner how these strategies could go a long way toward solving many current environmental problems.
Business readers and anyone concerned about the changing global economy and its impact on the ecosystem will want more than copies of the HBR article once they realize it was actually a tantalizing synopsis of the authors' new book, "Natural Capitalism: Creating the Next Industrial Revolution" (Little, Brown, 1999). This important book can take its place alongside such touchstone volumes as "Future Shock," "Megatrends " and "The New New." The authors describe in vivid detail how business and industry can gain competitive advantage through a new business model based on doing much more with much less.
The authors set out to prove that changing realities of the information economy and global competitiveness are already transforming industry and commerce in ways unforeseen even a few years ago. The new business model takes into account the values of all forms of "capital" including human, manufactured, financial, and natural. "Natural Capitalism" starts with an elegantly simple premise: economies need no longer be based on the idea that human capital is finite and natural resources are infinitely abundant when the obvious truth of the 21st Century is exactly the opposite.
With mounting confidence, Lovins, Lovins and Hawken predict that the latest industrial revolution will create "a vital economy that uses radically less material and energy." Businesses that recognize the trend toward this new type of industrialism will gain advantage over their less alert competitors. Those that postpone this shift will be left behind and will eventually, make themselves irrelevant in the new economy.
Theirs is not merely a detailed updating of Buckminster Fuller's "small is beautiful" thesis. Rather, the authors describe a step-by-step process of business restructuring that should result in more efficiency at the corporate, national and global level. Such a process, if carried out across several industries simultaneously, would make it much easier for governments to promote social equity and conserve or even restore the natural ecosystems reaching across traditional borders.
This next stage of industrialism, the authors' "natural capitalism," is founded on four core business strategies already being adopted by the most innovative corporations across the globe. The strategies suggest that companies need to:
1) employ technology and design innovations to use resources much more productively. This results, of course, in companies using fewer resources, reducing pollution, and setting the stage to create more jobs;
2) practice "biomimicry" by redesigning industrial systems to be more like biological systems, leading to an elimination of even the concept of waste;
3) shift from an economy based on goods and purchases to an economy based on service and flow. This concept leads to a quantum shift in how manufacturing companies service their clients, especially in terms of inventories, sales strategies, etc; and
4) reinvest in "natural capital" to sustain, restore and expand the resources on which industry, and ultimately all life, and therefore all livelihood, depends.
"Natural Capitalism" is not a "gloom and doom, industry vs. the environment" anti-consumerism rant. Neither do the authors fall into the trap of proposing a Pollyanna hypothesis that begins with "if only we could change our basic cultural values." Lovins, Lovins and Hawken make elegant use of facts and examples from several industrial sectors and actual case histories of large and small companies based in the US and overseas.
Consider the "Hypercar," a synthesis of emerging automobile technologies developed in 1991 by the Rocky Mountain Institute, the think tank founded by Amory and Hunter Lovins. Imagine "a family sedan, sport-utility, or pickup truck that combines Lexus comfort and refinement, Mercedes stiffness, Volvo safety, BMW acceleration, Taurus price, four-to eightfold improved fuel economy (that is, 80 to 200 miles per gallon), a 600 to 800 mile range between refuelings, and ZERO emissions."
If such technological innovations sound like eco-friendly pipe dreams, think again. Today, DaimlerChrysler, Ford, GM, Honda, Toyota, Volkswagen and others are actively competing to bring this revolutionary vehicle to the market within the next few years.
As global a corporate presence as DuPont is already feeling (and no doubt, influencing) a sea change in manufacturing philosophy. The Delaware-based chemical giant is on record in favor of "comprehensive resource productivity". In DuPont's words, "sustainable growth has to be focused on a functionality, not a product. The next major step toward sustainable growth is to improve the value of our products and services per unit of natural resources employed." To that end, DuPont is "down-gauging" its polyester film, making it thinner, stronger and more valuable so that it may sell less material at a higher price.
What the Lovins and Hawken have given us with "Natural Capitalism" is nothing less than an up-to-date business manual for the next century, complete with clear explanations and solid, real world examples. Their thinking finds common ground between business and environmental interests and makes the common sense case for how the two outlooks are merging into a new, practical, eco-friendly approach to making a profit.
Just as business and civic leaders in Atlanta and elsewhere are redefining how sprawling cities should grow, "Natural Capitalism" redefines how businesses and ultimately the entire planet should grow to sustain a prosperous and equitable quality of life for the indefinite future.
A very detailed analysis of sustainability
Just a couple comments and caveats to add not covered in the in-depth Spotlight Reviews. First, this book is absolutely loaded with stats and data and provides a more rigerous, academic treatment of working towards more sustainable way to grow businesses and communities. The fact that the references at the end go on for 55 pages attest to this level of detail!). Given that the authors are from one of the most prominent "think tanks" of eco-capitalism - The Rocky Mountain Institute - explains this level of detail and expertise. But, it really can come across as a "brain dump" where every fact the authors knew of are piled into the chapters (whose origins are earlier position papers). So, if you really need hard data and lots of factoids, this book is a top, well-researched and dependable reference.
Another missed opportunity is its rather ineffective and non-visual layout - just page after page of small text (uhh). So much more could have been done to lay out the chapter divisions in an easier-to-read format. Like mining gold nuggets from tons of ore, extracting the main points from this tapestry of various position papers takes sifting through tons of text - and it is a voluminous text. But, if you are serious about this topic, this is one of the prominent, "must-have" references.
Alternatively, a somewhat less detailed, more headlined overview of "eco-capitalism" (the environmental crisis, renewable energy, hydrogen economy, eco-efficiency, sustainable cities and overall environmental economics) is ECO-ECONOMY by Lester R. Brown. It gives the reader an excellent overview of the problem and potential solutions along with a strong dose of both reality and inspiriation. Not all experts make great writers, but Brown seems to be both.
Full with advanced thinking and practical examples, this book really is a window (rather, a super-window) to the near future. It explains what is wrong with many systems: optimization of a component pessimizes the whole and gives advice for better available solutions. A must for everyone interested in economics and ecology. along with "Cradle to cradle", the best I have read so far.
Natural Capitalism - China's Future | America's ???
