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Natural Capitalism by Paul Hawken, Amory and L. Hunter Lovins
HOW GREEN IS MY FACTORY?
If you wanted to concoct an idea that would initially horrify both
"Watermelons" i.e. green on the outside and red on the inside and Big
Corporation Apologists you might think to go to businessman and
environmentalist Paul Hawken. Hawken is a revolutionary thinker like the
great anarchist thinker P.J. Proudhon; both are masters of the paradox and
have fun doing it at the same time.
The idea behind Natural Capitalism is that we can have our green industrial
cake and eat it too if we are willing to forgo the old way of doing things.
In a tour de force of environmental and economic facts Hawken expands on the
ideas in his first and shorter work The Ecology of Commerce. Hawken draws a
blueprint for the implementation of the New Industrialism. This emerging
phenomenon is based on using less materials and energy in a "cradle to
cradle" approach.
Imagine an economy in which corporations took full responsibility for their
actions and products are no longer sold but leased as products-plus-service. In this economy, washing machines, computers, cars, and a whole host
of producer and consumer goods are leased and serviced by a company that
would take back the worn out product and recycle its parts and materials.
Literally everything would be designed to be reused or recycled with little
waste. Here is the real economic payoff -- Hawken makes a solid case that such
an economy would actually increase jobs.
Hawken is proclaiming a way of doing capitalism that is familiar to
progressive Europeans but will undoubtedly cause apoplexy in the boardrooms
of the United States. Hawken carefully documents where these innovations are
taking place where the results are profits and a cleaner environment.
Many libertarians may be uneasy about Hawken's belief that a combination of a
green shift in taxes (taxing pollution, virgin materials extraction, and land
as opposed to taxing incomes and sales) and government regulations will be
necessary to expedite the New Industrialism. That is until they realize that
Hawken is redefining property rights to make them more inclusive of
responsibilities as well. The subject of corporate responsibility has been
taboo among some free market theorists.
Many on the left are puzzled that anyone could possibly believe that a
reformed industrial-capitalist economy could possibly be green. The evidence
in Natural Capitalism is compelling that we indeed can have an affluent and
green society. Hawken's New Industrialism would benefit from a sound
philosophical foundation based on geo-libertarian ideas. Those who are
seeking a balanced future both ecologically and economically will find an
excellent start in Natural Capitalism.
Natural Capitalism, 1995 is published by Little, Brown and Company and sells
for $26.95 hardcover.
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