Natural Capitalism

Creating the Next Industrial Revolution

4.04 based on 462 reviews.

Media:

Paperback Book

Our Price:

$5.96 (+ FREE shipping in the U.S.)  

List Price:

$18.99

You Save:

$13.03 (68.62 %)

Product Description

Hawken ("The Ecology of Commerce") and Amory and Hunter Lovins of the Rocky Mountain Institute, an environmental think tank, have put together an ambitious, visionary book advocating "natural capitalism." Based on the principle that businesses can be good for the environment, "Natural Capitalism" shows how leading-edge companies are practicing "a new type of industrialism" that is both more efficient and more profitable, while simultaneously protecting the planet and creating jobs. Natural capitalism is a way of thinking that seeks to apply market principles to all sources of material value, most importantly natural resources. The authors have two related goals: first, to show the vast array of ecologically smart options available to businesses; second, to argue that it is possible for society and industry to adopt them.

Product Details

  • Media: Paperback Book, 396 pages
  • Publisher: Back Bay Books (Oct. 31st, 2000)
  • ISBN-10: 0316353000
  • ISBN-13: 9780316353007
  • Dimensions: 6.10 x 9.20 x 1.07 inches
  • Shipping Weight: 1.50 lbs

You might like these titles in Theory

$7.98 USED

The Wealth of Nations
Smith, Adam / Krueger, Alan B.

The Wealth of Nations
by Adam Smith
It is symbolic that Adam Smith's...

$6.39 USED

Natural Capitalism: Creating the Next Industrial Revolution
Hawken, Paul / Lovins, Amory / Lovins, L. Hunter

This groundbreaking book reveals how today's global businesses can be both environmentally...

$13.98 NEW

The Road to Serfdom: Text and Documents
Hayek, Friedrich A. Von / Caldwell, Bruce

...

Customer Reviews

  • Book Rating 2 out of 5
    Read Reviews on Goodreads

    by Momma Willy from Loveland, CO | May 5, 2008

    I chose this book for my reading list this quarter because it is one of the most widely discussed books on the transition from our current unsustainable economic system to a more sustainable system. Natural Capitalism is listed amongst the books on Evergreen’s sustainability webpage, so I thought it was important in my path to understanding the various aspects of sustainability. It was then so unsatisfying then that this book is so significantly flawed. The author’s believe that the transition will be awesome and profitable that, by golly, everyone and every business will want to help out. The author’s maintain a position that the market will drive this transition to a sustainable market without unwanted and unwarranted government intervention.
    Their preface states: 'We believe the world stands at the threshold of basic changes in the conditions of business. Companies that ignore the message of natural capitalism do so at their peril....(We) show that the move towards radical resource productivity and natural capitalism is beginning to feel inevitable rather than merely possible.... If at times we lean more to enthusiasm than reportage, it is because we can see the tremendous array of possibilities for healing the most intransigent problems of our time'.
    According to the authors, David Brower, the American environmentalist and mountaineer, once proposed a user's manual for those buying an Earth. 'This planet has been delivered in perfect working condition, and cannot be replaced. Please don't adjust the thermostat or the atmosphere'. The author’s do recognize the need for change from the unsustainable course we are on but believe that the answers lie in technology, if we but adopt what the authors call 'Natural Capitalism' - 'the next industrial revolution'. The question is do the author’s really believe in this position or are they cajoling us to act. They call their approach natural capitalism because it's based on the principle that business can be good for the environment. If natural capitalism continues to blossom, so much money and resources will be saved that societies will be able to focus on issues such as housing.
    Admittedly this is an informative, visionary and thought provoking book that I would recommend. It is their faith in a technological solution to what I have come to view as a cultural and political problem, that I take issue with. They do have a plan that seems en face, very plausible and hopeful. It seems that they really do believe that the carrot approach will work without needing a stick at all. Natural Capitalism is a assemblage of successful entrepreneurial anecdotes of how more service can be gotten from less materials and less energy. In Natural Capitalism the authors expand the range of anecdotal information, gloss them with science, and extrapolate diminishing dollar costs into the distant future. In this rosy future there will be so much energy saving that oil will scarcely sell for $5 a barrel. To arrive at this sate of affairs they make some assumptions cast with an incredible reach. One example is asking the reader to interpret generalities such as '92% less energy use ' or '100% saving', or the claim that electricity from photo-voltaic devices is of 'higher quality' (p97), or that 'combined cycle gas turbines are not subject to Carnot's Law', or phrases like 'useful work extracted ... to more than 90% of the original fuel energy'? I asked someone more familiar with energy consumption statistics and she scoffed that the author was forgetting the laws of thermodynamics. Since Hawken is a physicist, this seems problematic.
    They surmise that is waste was eliminated we would have a raw energy surplus. Those of us that have kept track of our time and then made (or tried to make) adjustments to wast less time, recognize the difficulties in eliminating wast. The technique is simple, recent technological developments are reported which can cut the energy and materials needs by half. Then new ways of doing things can cut the need for that energy by a further half (half of a half equals a quarter), then, since we have cut some inputs to a quarter, other economies follow. This is a very dangerous argument. Here is a quote from page 244:
    "Over the next half-century, even if global economy expanded by 6 - 8 fold, the rate of releasing carbon by burning of fossil fuels could simultaneously decrease by anywhere from one third to nine-tenths below current rate. This is because of the multiplicative effect of four kinds of actions. Switching to natural gas and renewable energy, as fast as Shell Oil planners consider likely, would cut by one half to three quarters the fossil-fuel.”
    The allure of this argument is clear- we don’t have to change we just have to think smarter and develop more and better technologies. Like Lomborg in The Skeptical Environmentalist they use a process that Daniel Sarewitz criticizes as attempting to “support a view where appropriate action is determined by scientific inquiry.” Sarewitz explores the problems inherent with using science to articulate, define and solve environmental controversies requires scientists to focus on reducing risks from uncertainty. Hawins and the Lovin’s blithely reduce these risks by painting a very rosy future. Interestingly enough, in looking at the book, written nearly a decade ago, I did find the book outdated, particularly with regard to automobile technology.
    In viewing this book from another angle, I have another concern. In economics, the theory goes that when you get more from less, you take advantage of the slack, this is know as the rebound effect. Common sense tells me that human greed with take advantage of this rebound effect and capture any possible savings.
    The many happy solutions to energy problems did not convince me of their solution paradigm; in fact, I found much of the book redundant. I absolutely appreciate the author’s for their optimism; I hope that corporations, business and consumers drive the revolution for change. I allow for the possibility that change can come from a utopian and peaceful adoption of appropriate technologies. I can understand that many students of environmentalism would hold this book with reverence and hope. Perhaps it is too cynical of me but I maintain that the revolution for a sustainable planet will only occur when we reduce what we want to what we need. And even then, it might be too little-too late.


     1 people found this review helpful


  • Book Rating 4 out of 5
    Read Reviews on Goodreads

    by Sean from Los Angeles, CA | Aug 6, 2007

    Capitalism is probably here to stay. While there are alternatives that can work on a local level, I remain unconvinced that these can either be dispersed widely enough or "scaled up" enough to supplant capitalism as a whole. So the question becomes: how can we make it less damaging -- to our environment? -- to our spirit?

    The answer proposed in this book is, simply put, to appeal to the logic of capitalism: i.e. profits. Being good makes sense because it makes money.

    Well, almost. While their descriptions of lost opportunities for simple, yet dramatic, efficiencies is a little disturbing (putting the pipe there saves how much?), it is their plea to attach realistic costs to resource usage that really has force. Which is to say that being good doesn't necessarily make sense (money) now, but it will in the long run (if the right legislation is drawn up). Let's hope so -- not for the capitalist's sake but all of ours.

    Truthfully, I have a hard time fathoming how anyone could write a book like this without a hefty dose of cynicism. I am probably more idealistic but less optimistic; maybe this book verges on the realistic? Regardless, it is definitely interesting, dense with information and ideas.


     1 people found this review helpful


  • Book Rating 3 out of 5
    Read Reviews on Goodreads

    by ValerieLyn from Los Angeles, CA | Aug 17, 2007

    Not quick or easy (nor off-puttingly technical), but this book has a ton of great information about what it means to overhaul society to make it greener and how doing do would make it a less anti-social society.
    Best read over tea, and not necessarily in order.
    Generally, there is a specter haunting non fiction, namely that the authors take about 35% more pages than they need to expound their ideas. I want to scream "I GET IT! LET'S MOVE ON!" but no one is listening.
    I'm sure there were some excellent concepts in the last 100 pages, but I'll probably never see those pages. Let's return to the era of the pamphlet, the broadside.


     1 people found this review helpful


  • Book Rating 5 out of 5
    Read Reviews on Goodreads

    by Tim from Bay Village, OH | Feb 22, 2008

    This book changed my life and set me on my current path, which I hope will be a career in corporate sustainability. Basically, this is a primer for the next industrial revolution which we are currently entering and seeks to change the paradigm which says sustainability and a good bottom line for countries/corporations are mutually exclusive. In fact, it is now emerging to be just the opposite. The Lovines and Hawkin were prophetic in their predictioins, as we are now seeing what they spelled out in their book.


     1 people found this review helpful


  • Book Rating 5 out of 5
    Read Reviews on Goodreads

    by Justin from Vancouver, BC, Canada | Oct 12, 2008

    I learned so much from this book that it is impossible to record in one review. To some extent I already knew or knew of many theories and approaches outlined in Natural Capitalism, however, finding it all in one coherent and interesting presentation was refreshing.

    It has clearly refreshed and renewed my desire to study further system engineering approaches to civic problems.

    More review details at: http://jritch.net/2008/12/29/finally-fin...


     1 people found this review helpful


Place Order



$5.96
(Marketplace, Paperback, None)

Already Own It?

We're paying $2.00 for this book and accepting donations to support non-profit literacy partners.

 
Bargain Bin Discount

Staff Picks

taff picks: New and used, from best-selling titles to best-kept secrets out of the corners of our warehouse, Better World employees share what’s on their night table. > View More Staff Picks (rss)

Jon's Pick

Grave Peril (The Dresden Files, Book 3)
by Butcher, Jim

Sam Spade meets Gandalf in some of the most fun modern genre fiction out there!