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Summary: A new lease on life
Review: Paul Hawken and the Lovins have teamed up to provide one of the best overall books on "Natural Capitalism" which offers a whole new approach to the way in which we do business. For too long we have taken natural capital for granted, squandering our natural resources and unleashing an unhealthy array of by-products which have further contaminated our world. It is time to add natural capital to the ledger sheets, properly balancing our record books. But, far from being a screed the book is meticulously researched with extensive notes and references to help guide your own research into the subject.Everything from the Toyota Production System, which offered a leaner, much less wasteful approach to auto manufacturing, to the Hypercar which offers a hybrid-electric propulsion engine which would result in much greater fuel effeciency are illustrated. It is this lean thinking which the authors think will revolutionize the industrial sector, making for the greatest breakthroughs since the microchip revolution. What is most heartening is that major companies such as Ford Motor Company and Carrier Air Conditioning are adopting these practices and making them work. They are doing so because it saves money and provides them with endless growth possibilities. The authors support the lease-use system which puts the onus on the manufacturer to produce better products and maintain them throughout their service to the user, the so called "cradle to cradle" concept. New materials are resulting in much lighter and more efficient components that would reduce our dependency on foreign oil, and in time phase out petroleum products all together. Too good to be true you might say, but this is the shape of things to come once we get past the tired old dogmas that have greatly limited our economic potential. The authors show how regressive tax policies and federal subsidies have greatly handicapped our productivity and they encourage political leaders to rethink the way we hand out incentives for better business practice. This book will give you a whole new lease on life, and encourage you to rethink the way you live.
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Summary: This book is plain common sense...
Review: I have recently read "Cradle to Cradle" which is a book quite similar to the writing of Paul Hawken in "Natural Capitalism" except Hawken's book focuses on the specifics. Everyone agrees living in a clean and safe environment is ideal, however, the economical ramifications for doing so have always been the "crutch" excuse. Investing in new technology and restructering the way we produce and sell goods and services are too difficult and pricey to do and maintain a healthy and robust economy. Paul Hawken dismisses that notion through facts, theories and real numbers.
Business executives speak in one way: money. What will make us more money? What will make us appear better to the consumer to make us more money? What will keep us making money? Hawken's ideas are reassurance to the business executive that if they decide to pursue a sustainable industry, they will actually benefit greater financially than before by simplifying production, reusing "natural capital" and reducing energy costs.
The only negative thing about this book is that its taking too long for it to catch on... however, as more and more jobs are shipped overseas and America is faced with the challenge of reinventing itself as the true global economic leader, natural capitalism should be the obvious answer to create new jobs and new sustainable industries for a well conceived future.
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Summary: A must-read for any gov't or business leader.
Review: Natural Capitalism is truly a mind-boggling read. The picture it paints is that we could totally turn America, or even just your city or company, around in very little time, from being wasteful and inefficient, to being streamlined.
Numerous incredible examples are given throughout the book of companies and cities and countries that have questioned the status quo way of doing things, and by doing so have increased profit, decreased waste, and generally made the quality of living and working so much higher.
Natural Capitalism is a well researched and cited book. It isn't a tree-hugger bible, it's a perfect example of the cliche phrase "you need to think outside the box."
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Summary: Natural Capitalism
Review: I recommend this book very highly to anyone who is dissatisfied with current public policy or prevailing economic theory and practice. Its contents explain some vital steps towards achieving what I call "Integrative Improvement - Economics As If People And Their Environments Mattered", rather than the sort of development attempted since the Industrial Revolution. The ideas and practices put forward in "Natural Capitalism" address pressing challenges in rich and poor countries and are among the most innovative and stimulating of innovation I have encountered in some forty years of dealing with development issues. They are very relevant to public policy making and businesses everywhere and, most importantly, can be implemented now.
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Summary: Refreshing Optimism in a Gloom'n'Doom World
Review: Natural Capitalism is a good, solid read, but it is not a quick read. Each chapter tackles a different aspect of our society that affects the world environment, from air pollution to our water supply to economics to agriculture. The issues are closely examined, and the reader is provided a refreshing update on the great progress we are making, or have the potential to achieve in maximizing efficiency, conserving resources, reducing our waste, and so forth. This book would make a great text for an environmental entrepreneurship class. As the issues are explored, one cannot help but consider all of the opportunity that exists to develop businesses that embrace the concepts of Natural Capitalism, embracing the model that nature has perfected over billions of years. A key point that the book returns to again and again is that our natural environment is a model of efficiency and conservation. There is no waste in the natural world. Also, the book does not suggest abandoning the market-based economy, but rather that we include all factors in our assessment of the true cost of our actions. The current model of economics in the US does not account for natural capital, such as the value of having long term reserves of oil, water, air, trees, etc. Read this book if you are an aspiring eco-entrepreneur, a student of economics, or a businessperson in virtually any field.
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Summary: Green Hope High Students Read Natural Capitalism for APES
Review: Natural Capitalism, by Paul Hawken, Amory Lovins, and L. Hunter Lovins, discusses how the current capitalist system will evolve into a more environmentaly friendly system. In this new system, it will actually be profitable for businesses to consider the environment. This book is highly recommended as a parallel aid and learning tool to Miller's Living in the Environment, the textbook used in A.P. Environmental Science. Natural Capitalsim incorporate elements from the textbook and applies it towards capitalism. This book is very dry, however, and vary factual. It is not recomended for someone that likes books that incorparate facts and information in a story format.
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Summary: An Optimistic View of the Upcoming Industrial Revolution
Review: Paul Hawken's Natural Capitalism is an optimistic blueprint for the upcoming industrial revolution. Emphasizing on increasing efficiency, reducing waste, and restructuring the economy upon service and flow, Hawken demonstrates how 'thinking green' can increase the bottom line as well as gain productivity, profits, and a healthier working environment.
More idealistic than regular economic theory, Hawken is quick to tout the benefits more than demonstrate means of execution for various situations. As Natural Capitalism progresses, Hawken loses focus of the business aspect as gravitates to general environment concerns such as the importance of water and the danger of global warming. There is also so much statistics one can take before they lose their effect. The Curitiba example at the end is the best thing in the later chapters.
Ultimately, Natural Capitalism projects progressive and intriguing ideas that can successfully form a powerful truce between environmental and business concerns.
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Summary: A Must Read for Leaders in Business and Government
Review: Natural Capitalism is an exciting, optimistic, yet realistic portrayal of how humanity can reduce its ecological footprint and yet maintain, if not improve, its overall standard of living. I've been lucky enough to read a number of books that have had a profound impact on the way i view the world, and Natural Capitalism tops that list.
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Summary: Natural capitalism=hippie capitalism=green libertarianism
Review: Most responses to political and social problems fall into two broad categories: libertarian/populist and authoritarian/statist. And too often, "leftist" critiques of capitalism fall into the latter category, crying "market failure" and calling for central control by government regulation. This book is the _other_ sort. And it represents the fulfillment of a long line of "hippie spirituality" that began over thirty years ago, got some airtime in Stephen Gaskin's books and Paul Williams's _Das Energi_, was put into practice at a broad level by the Grateful Dead, was incorporated into Marilyn Ferguson's _Aquarian Conspiracy_, received a consistently libertarian exposition in Mary Ruwart's _Healing our World_, and -- if Paul Hawkens and the Lovinses are right -- looks to be the wave of the future if we're going to have a future at all. (Incidentally, Gaskin recommended this book when he ran for President in 2000.) One tremendous strength of their approach is their avoidance of a very common error. Too many critics of eco-stupidity and corporate irresponsibility take themselves to be critics of the "free market" as such, failing to realize that their proposed solutions are, in an economic sense, just as "capitalistic" as (if not more so than) the problems. What they propose to replace "capitalism" by is, in fact, just capitalism again, but populated by people with better values. Well, these folks know that's exactly what they're doing, and what they propose is in effect the best general response to cries of "market failure". In a strictly economic sense, every "market failure" really represents a place that the "market" hasn't reached yet. Under the Hawken/Lovins proposal, "markets" work just fine if they take account of _all_ relevant costs. Economically, what they're saying is that (e.g.) polluters have to _internalize_ the costs of pollution. Is there a libertarian out there who would disagree in principle? Oh, we could pick nits about the details. The point, though, is that Hawkens and the Lovinses are presenting here a vision of the "free market" as what economists have always said it was: an organic, emergent, genuinely interdependent network of centers of genuinely voluntary activity by fully informed and self-responsible actors. And the resulting society looks like hippies have always said it should: less like the military-industrial complex and more like a Grateful Dead concert ;-). If Aquarian libertarianism is (as Mary Ruwart says) the key to "healing our world", then the sort of green eco-capitalism represented here is a pretty sound prescription for that healing. The Dream isn't dead, and it isn't economically irresponsible either.
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Summary: A new look at an old economic theory
Review: It is not jobs versus the environment. The authors show how in the long term harming the environment costs us money. Who would have known that using the cheapest wires for your house or a factory may be cheap in the short run but they cause us to waste electricity. And wasted electricity means higher costs to the user and to the environment! I wish every environmentalist would read this book. We do not have to use socialist regulations to protect the environment, it can be done through using the free market. All we need is a paradigm shift for the engineers and managers of the world.
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