Product Description

A visionary new program that businesses can follow to help restore the planet.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #3439 in Books
• Published on: 1994-08-03
• Released on: 1994-06-03
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 272 pages

Amazon.com
Paul Hawken, the entrepreneur behind the Smith & Hawken gardening supplies empire, is no ordinary capitalist. Drawing as much on Baba Ram Dass and Vaclav Havel as he does on Peter Drucker and WalMart for his case studies, Hawken is on a one-man crusade to reform our economic system by demanding that First World businesses reduce their consumption of energy and resources by 80 percent in the next 50 years. As if that weren't enough, Hawken argues that business goals should be redefined to embrace such fuzzy categories as whether the work is aesthetically pleasing and the employees are having fun; this applies to corporate giants and mom-and-pop operations alike. He proposes a culture of business in which the real world, the natural world, is allowed to flourish as well, and in which the planet's needs are addressed. Wall Street may not be ready for Hawken's provocative brand of environmental awareness, but this fine book is full of captivating ideas.

From Publishers Weekly
Hawken ( Growing a Business ) touches on a raw nerve here. How might millions of people live and work in a complex business environment while causing "as little suffering as possible to all and everything around us?" Hawken, no Luddite, believes that "we need a design for business that will ensure that the industrial world as it is presently constituted ceases and is replaced with human-centered enterprises that are sustainable producers." Avoiding stormy rhetoric, Hawken thoughtfully reviews ecological theories and disasters and insists that "ecology offers a way to examine all present economic and resource activities from a biological rather than a monetary point of view." Calling for a restorative economy, he proposes rational, achievable goals: stop "accelerating the rate that we draw down capacity"; refrain from "buying or degrading other people's environment"; and avoid displacing "other species by taking over their habitats." This noteworthy study should kindle debates within the business community.
Copyright 1993 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Library Journal
This important book envisions how the United States can construct "an economics of common good." Rather than worrying about saving the environment, we must worry about how we can encourage businesses to "re-imagine" and "re-invent" themselves as cyclical operations , "cradle to cradle." Hawken advises three broad approaches: observe the waste-equals-food (raw products) principle of nature; change from a carbon to a hydrogen/sunshine-based economy; and create systems that support restorative behavior. Businesses, nations, transnational corporations--all should recognize that the freedom to operate can only be experienced "within the discipline of social responsibility." Every product or by-product can be imagined in its subsequent forms, even before it is made. Restorative businesss can, in turn, teach consumers who don't truly consume. "Value is what we ascribe," asserts Hawken, and that is "by far the most adventurous path to take." Highly recommended.
- Diane M. Fortner, Univ. of Califor nia, Berkeley
Copyright 1993 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Customer Reviews

Always timely and smart
Paul Hawken's book "The Ecology of Commerce" is one of those books one never forgets because it changes the way you think. I first read this book back when it came out in 1994 and just re-read it.

The author doesn't squawk about how bad humans are, but rather offers a sensible, deliberate perspective on how we can change our economic systems to accommodate our relationship with the rest of Nature.

To avoid being an ignorant, knee-jerk reacting activist ( or at least deciding to go down that route) read this book!

Reshaping industrialism
Looking for a book to explain how capitalism and environmentalism can coincide? This is it.
For years we've been led to believe that if we want progress and technology advances we should learn to accept there's a price---> pollution. Mega-Corporates keep polluting our world, poisoning the water we drink and the air we breathe, destroying habitats so thoroughly that our children will probably only see wild animals at Zoos. And it's all done in the name of progress.
Paul Hawken proves the concept of progress=pollution to be very wrong. He demands that companies cut their energy consumption by 80 percent and then use the money they save for research to help find better clean sources of energy. He demands companies reduce their waste and not simply dump it. He demands companies think of what they're doing to our world and not just the bottom line. He even thinks they can make money this way. He suggests a new, more moral way of doing business.
A very thought provoking book raising many very tough questions about the way companies today run their businesses. A must read for anyone interested in environmental issues and the business world.

Global Required Reading
I don't even know how to begin describing how great this book is. It should be required reading for EVERYBODY on the planet. I learned about this book while watching the documentary, "The Corporation," and I'll have to admit, I wasn't expecting anything revolutionary in this book. I thought I'd be getting some interesting pictures and statistics relating to consumption, recycling, landfills, global warming...pretty much your standard environmental rhetoric (of which I'm a subscriber) to complement what I already know. What I got, however, was so much more. This book is not only about the environment, but about how the environment integrates with global business and economics. For some reason, the 'developed' world has created a disconnect between the environment and business. Hawken shows how the two are inextricably connected, and in order to guarantee a successful future for us, our children and all life on earth, business and the environment must work harmoniously and each stop being the bane of the other.

His metaphor for business IS the environment: everything in nature is cyclical, which brings maximum efficiency. Nothing is more efficient than the natural world: one organism's waste is another organism's life source. If business would approach operations and resources from this perspective, waste would not be 'waste' and the benefits of increased efficiency would permeate throughout all life and systems. His metaphor is very simple but exceedingly beautiful, and only becomes more so as Hawken goes in-depth with concrete examples and further exploration of all issues from both sides. Throughout reading this book, I was continuously floored by his analysis, his insight and his prescription for the future.

And a note about his prose: every sentence reflects structurally the economies and efficiencies it conveys ideologically. This man is concise and his style is powerful - every word packs a punch. He says so much with so little, maximizing the time spent in our reading investment. Clearly, I have nothing but the highest praise for Hawken and this book - it is truly visionary.