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Summary: Insightful view of how our economy will work in the future
Review: After reading Daniel Quinn's Ishmael and The Story of B, and now The Ecology Of Commerce, I am forever changed. Paul Hawken's book provides excellent examples of how we can move our current economy towards sustainability. I truly believe that his ideas will come to light in the up-coming years. This is a great book.
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Summary: Optomistic, realistic analysis/guide for business & ecology
Review: An in your face analysis of the current business/environmental landscape coupled with an optimistic blue print for the future. Perhaps the most sobering AND uplifting book I've read regarding either business or the environment. A must read for any influential business person, environmentalist, or concerned citizen.
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Summary: Line your pockets and your clouds
Review: As a portfolio manager, teacher, and economist I canb whole-heartedly say this is a must read.The concept is simple. Everyone has a misconception that profits and capitalism come at the price of environmental destruction. This divides the issue into sides. But it's a myth. We can make money and restore the the biosphere fairly easily. It will create jobs, increase quality in the economy, increase market efficiency, and change our end-of-the-pipe focus on pollution. The criticism that seems to apear on this book most often is that there is a lack of detail on how to execute a cohesive vision. I think this misses the point. The author does suggest a few macro-level actions in adopting Pigovian taxes and rethinking trade agreements. But for the most part, he makes a good case for things we can do as individuals. No one person will change everything overnight... but we can be a part of the solution.
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Summary: The only real hope for sustainability
Review: As we all know, everyone crows on the "failure" of communism, but no one crows about the REAL failure of capitalism. It is a more slow dying weed than the "socialism" of communism, but it is a dying weed as well. When the vast majority of the population is dying a slow death from failing lungs in the form of asthma, chronic bronchitis and emphysema, when all the ills of our "capitalistic" economy are enumerated including increasing failure of our children to have IQ above retardation level, i.e. "Survivor", etc. and most of them have failing immune systems, how can capitalism have survived? Paul Hawkens, I believe, is the first real thinker to address the issue. He gets rid of those self-assured Americans who name themselves environmentalists because they put out their trash at the recycling curb while proceeding as usual otherwise. The other frivolous reviews you have at the first is further evidence of the old business ethic that is afraid to rethink or,indeed, to even think! Put my review at the first where it belongs, corporate giant, soon to be owned by Wal-Mart, the corporate giant that dots the American landscape with even more junk and cuts every tree in its path!
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Summary: Nice try, but simply not enough
Review: Don't get me wrong: I agree with the vast bulk of this book. Yet Paul Hawken's attempt at a new vision of corporate behavior and business ethics is more mirage than masterpiece. I have two main criticisms of this otherwise eloquent book. First, although Hawken bravely tries to bridge the ideological gap between his two different audiences (the rapacious businessman and economically-uninformed environmentalist), he ultimately has to pull punches on both fronts; this is okay for political compromise, but not for building vision or revealing "inherent" truthes (which seem to be the book's aims). Second, and more important, the book has almost no helpful detail, either for policy or for corporate behavior. Perhaps I'm really just complaining that the book is too short, but a call for Pigovian taxes and a vague yet comprehensive overhall of business philosophy does not a vision make. But read the book anyway, since there's little else out there in this vein (though I recommend When Corporations Rule the World, David Korten). ;-)
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Summary: Use, Reuse rather than Use, Throwaway
Review: Environmental and business sustainability are covered in depth. This is truly revolutionary in that Hawken illuminates a new vision of being not just for business but for humanity in general. Hawken's message is increasingly vital with each day's passing.
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Summary: Internet Site Reviews Hawken's Book.
Review: Go to http://www.serve.com/stevie2/parker.html to see an extensive review of Hawken's Book
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Summary: Superb, thought-provoking and long overdue
Review: Hawken comes at the environmental crises not from the the perspective of someone worried about saving animals and beautiful spaces (although he clearly loves those things), but as an economist who sees our system as inherantly unsustainable. The resources for our lifestyle are quickly running out, and the result will be global catastrophe. He bravely points the finger at the root cause of it all, laissez-faire capitalism, our culture's sacred cow. Though this is not a new suggestion, Hawken goes further than anyone I've ever read to describe realistic ways of fixing the problems. The key to accomplishing this is to get as many young people as possible aware of the truth (minus corporate propaganda), so that the next generation might work toward some of the changes Hawken proposes. Another good writer on this subject is Daniel Quinn, whose book "Ishmael" is excellent.
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Summary: This guy is a true economic visionary - yes!
Review: Hawken's book is a shocker, it's jolting, it provoked my mind into concepts I'd never entertained before - it opened my thinking and beliefs to new possibilities ... this is the real power of the written word. The man has an expanded consciousness, what can I say - and the book will do the same to people who read it with at least a partially open mind ... one of the top ten books of the decade in my view ...
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Summary: Thought Provoking
Review: I had to read this book for a class. I found it to be very thought provoking, but a little short on substance. Hawken raises many questions that I think need to be answered concerning the business and the economy. However, he often doesn't provide any solutions himself. When he does offer solutions, I was left wondering, "Just how is that supposed to work?" This book is definitely worth reading because it provides a new perspective on business.
I think Hawken raises some important questions in his book, and I wish more business people would read it.
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