Natural Capitalism: Creating the Next Industrial Revolution
Paul Hawken, Amory Lovins, & L. Hunter Lovins
Most businesses still operate according to a world view that hasn't changed
since the start of the Industrial Revolution. Then, natural resources were
abundant and labor was the limiting factor of production. But now, there's a
surplus of people, while natural capital-natural resources and the
ecological systems that provide vital life-support services-is scarce and
relatively expensive.
In this groundbreaking blueprint for a new economy, three leading business
visionaries explain how the world is on the verge of a new industrial
revolution. Natural Capitalism describes a future in which business and
environmental interests increasingly overlap, and in which companies can
improve their bottom lines, help solve environmental problems-and feel
better about what they do-all at the same time.
Citing hundreds of compelling stories from a wide array of sectors, the book
shows how to realize benefits both for today's shareholders and for future
generations-and how, by firing the "unproductive tons, gallons, and
kilowatt-hours," it's possible to keep the people who will foster the
innovation that drives future improvement. "An ambitious, visionary monster
of a book..the book's reach is phenomenal. It belongs to the galvanizing
tradition of Frances Moore Lappe's Diet for a Small Planet and Stewart
Brand's The Whole Earth Catalog."-Publishers Weekly. Highly recommended for
corporate reading lists-please contact the Rocky Mountain Institute
Publications Department about discounted sales. Published by Little, Brown.
Hardcover, 416 pages, NC99-13.
$26.95 plus shipping & handling*
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Book Excerpts and Downloadable Chapters
The following table of contents provides links to excerpts of each chapter
of Natural Capitalism. You can also download the entire chapters as PDF
(Portable Document Format) files. To read and print a PDF file you must have
Adobe Acrobat Reader installed on your computer-it's available for free from
Adobe Systems.
Preface
Acknowledgments
1. The Next Industrial Revolution
-an introduction to the principles and underlying theory of natural
capitalism
2. Reinventing the Wheels: Hypercars and Neighborhoods
-how natural capitalism principles are transforming one of the world's
largest industries, automobiles
3. Waste Not
-the opportunities inherent in the extraordinary wastefulness of the current
industrial system
4. Making the World
-ingenious and fundamental principles of resource productivity in industry
and materials
5. Building Blocks
-how natural capitalism is revolutionizing the building and real-estate
industries
6. Tunneling Through the Cost Barrier
-design principles for achieving large gains in resource productivity
7. Muda, Service, and Flow
-enhancing competitiveness through a combination of waste elimination and
business redefinition
8. Capital Gains
-restructuring to value and reinvest in natural capital
9. Nature's Filaments
-applying biologically inspired redesign to the forestry industry
10. Food for Life
-ditto, to agriculture
11. Aqueous Solutions
-ditto, to the water industry
12. Climate: Making Sense and Making Money
-how to end the threat of global warming at a profit
13. Making Markets Work
-how to harness market principles for both short- and long-term gain
14. Human Capitalism
-a case study of natural capitalism at the metropolitan level
15. Once Upon a Planet
-the growing movement toward a more durable and sustaining economy
Notes
- downloadable file only (PDF-218k)
References
- downloadable file only (PDF-256k)
Index
- downloadable file only (PDF-156k)
Footnotes have been removed from the chapter excerpts for technical
reasons. They're retained in the PDF versions.
You may also be interested in these recent articles on natural capitalism:
"A Road Map for Natural Capitalism" (downloadable PDF). A good overview,
from the May-June 1999 issue of Harvard Business Review.
"Natural Capitalism." The book's first public incarnation, an article in the
March/April 1997 issue of Mother Jones.