The Ecology of Commerce Revised Edition
A Declaration of Sustainability
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4.5 • 4 Ratings
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- $15.99
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- $15.99
Publisher Description
The world has changed in the seventeen years since the controversial initial publication of Paul Hawken's Ecology of Commerce, a stirring treatise about the perceived antagonism between ecology and business. Yet Hawken's impassioned argument—that business both causes the most egregious abuses of the environment and, crucially, holds the most potential for solving our sustainability problems—is more relevant and resonant than ever.
Containing updated and revised material for a new audience, The Ecology of Commerce presents a compelling vision of the restorative (rather than destructive) economy we must create, centered on eight imperatives: Reduce energy carbon emissions 80 percent by 2030 and total natural resource usage 80 percent by 2050. Provide secure, stable, and meaningful employment to people everywhere. Be self-organizing rather than regulated or morally mandated. Honor market principles. Restore habitats, ecosystems, and societies to their optimum. Rely on current income. Be fun and engaging, and strive for an aesthetic outcome.
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.
