The Ecology of Commerce: A Declaration of Sustainability

Paul Hawken has made a career of challenging basic business assumptions, both as an entrepreneur and as the author of the bestselling books. Now he turns to the crucial question confronting businesses large and small today: With every living system on the earth in decline, can we create profitable, expandable companies that do not destroy, directly or indirectly, the world around them? The answer, and the launching point for this visionary book, starts with one simple but radical notion: Business is not just a reasonable agent for such change; it is the only mechanism powerful enough to reverse global environmental and social degradation.
Every commercial act in today’s industrial society, regardless of intention, degrades the environment. We need, says Hawken, a system where the opposite is true, where the everyday acts of work and production accumulate in a better world as a matter of course. Hawken outlines a series of economic strategies that will overthrow the conventional wisdom among both economists and environmentalists. His innovations include an intelligent product system where toxins are rented, never sold, and – heretically – recycling is reduced if not eliminated. We can also phase out all payroll and income taxes over twenty years by adopting abroad base of green fees that will make it possible for companies to engage in sustainable production as they increase profitability, hire new workers, and become more competitive.
The Ecology of Commerce is the first book to design a comprehensive system that makes conservation profitable, productive, and possible. It is a practical blueprint for a prosperous, sustainable future – radically different from anything that has come before it – because it replaces the unsolvable puzzle, “How do we save the environment?” with the revolutionary challenge, “How do we save business?”

Includes bibliographical references and index.