CleanTech.Org

Natural Capitalism: Creating the Next Industrial Revolution

by Paul Hawken, Amory Lovins, L. Hunter Lovins

 

If there was one key to turning around the damaging business and environmental practices of modern culture, what would it be?  'Natural Capitalism,' the seminal 1999 call for a broader focus on sustainability, presents an overwhelming case that the key is resource efficiency and effectiveness.  Just as conventional capitalism is all about using financial capital effectively, so 'natural capitalism' is about expanding that bottom line focus to include the  natural resources and ecosystem services underlying the ability of business and society to function in the first place.  The authors argue that with appropriate shifts in business perspective and government policy, our economy could be something like 90% more efficient in its use of irreplaceable natural resources, thereby mitigating ecosystem impacts, enabling global development, and staving off climate change.

Throughout history, until very recently, man has been a small actor in an overwhelmingly large world.  Most of the book explores how this has given rise to our ingrained cultural patterns of wasteful resource utilization, limited focus on capital efficiency, and drive for production volumes, while assuming unbounded access to subsidized natural resources and 'free' ecosystem services.  Shifting perspective to include natural capital on the business balance sheet, and to expand lean manufacturing principles beyond the factory walls is what's required to address the ecology/climate change nexus.  This change in perspective is embodied in a range of sustainable business concepts, including the 'triple bottom line' (profits, people, and planet), and the 'cradle-to-cradle' model for recycling products and integrating industries to eliminate 'waste'.

The basic principles of natural capitalism put forward can be summarized as: (1) focus on natural resource efficiency (2) using closed loop, biomemetic, nontoxic processes (3) to deliver more appropriate end-user services (4) while investing in restoring, sustaining, and expanding natural capital.  Following these principles leads not to constraints on business or lowered expectations, but an enormous range of new business opportunities to profit from improved efficiencies and environmentally beneficial activities.  One of the best expressions of this perspective comes in the discussion on climate change, providing a refreshing contrast to the recent spate of bad news on this front: "Together, the [available business] opportunities can turn climate change into an unnecessary artifact of [our] uneconomically wasteful use of resources."

While the authors deliver an awesome, deeply researched articulation of their vision, showing with many examples why it's important and how it can work within our current capitalistic economies, the book has two key flaws.  First, it falls prey to the syndrome first articulated by Paul Saffo, founder of the Institute for the Future, of confusing a clear vision of the future with a short path.  This combines with an  excessive reliance on sheer volume of examples to make their points, too many of them poorly explained, bristling with non-comparable numbers, and substituting hand-waving for real outcomes.  Deeper exploration of fewer examples might have illustrated the principles better, and have been much easier to read.  Also, 11 years after the original publication, many of the examples are seen to be hastily chosen and and used to support glib and overreaching conclusions that make the authors seem naive.  Examples include the advent hydrogen powered cars ("hypercars"), the potential for shutting down Ruhr Valley coal production in favor of direct social payments to coal workers, or the imminent triumph of the Kyoto Protocols for international carbon trading.  And, while much attention is paid to articulating the perverse incentives, misguided taxes and subsidies, and split responsibilities that impede more efficient system approaches, there's short shrift given to new technology adoption rates, the scale of existing infrastructure investments, or the political complexities of changing incentives and subsidies.

However, if you are interested in understanding the genesis and foundations of the modern sustainability movement, this is a fundamental text.  Despite its flaws, after 11 years the fundamental argument and principles hold up well and are still inspiring.

 

Power Hungry: The Myths of "Green" Energy and the Real Fuels of the Future
by Robert Bryce

Bryce bills himself as a purveyor of "industrial strength journalism," and 'Power Hungry' doesn't disappoint. Starting with a clear statement of his own energy policy - "I'm in favor of air conditioning and cold beer." - Bryce provides a muscular, data-driven analysis of our modern industrial civilization and the changing mix of energy sources that power it. This is an eye-opening discussion that does an unusually good job of conveying the scale of our existing energy infrastructure, and the challenge of providing adequate energy supplies for the future, not just for the US and Europe, but for the developing world and the third world as well, under the constraints of economics and decarbonization. Bryce articulate four energy imperatives - power density, energy density, cost, and scale - and uses them as a consistent framework for looking at what he calls the "Myths of Green Energy." His "myths" run the gamut from the idea that wind power can really reduce overall CO2 emissions, to the idea that the US lags other countries in energy efficiency, to the idea that carbon capture and sequestration could work at scale, and intriguingly, even the idea that oil is a dirty fuel compared to the alternatives. While the debunking of green alternatives has flaws, especially in the lack of attention to advanced biofuels, smart grid technologies, and green building materials, it is refreshingly apolitical - focused on facts, practical alternatives, and the requirements of scale. In some ways Bryce ends up with conclusions similar to those of Bill McKibben in his recent book 'Eaarth': we will not be able to turn the tide on atmospheric CO2 quickly enough, the scale is too large, the transition times are too long, the pressure for global development is too great. We will have no choice but to mitigate some problems and adapt to the rest. However, instead of advocating acceptance of a "graceful decline" as McKibben does, Bryce lays out an energetic path forward, a "no regrets" policy he dubs N2N: shifting electrical generation aggressively towards natural gas in the near term, while investing in advanced nuclear technologies for the long run. The strongest element of the book is how he effectively links the future economic health of the US with rising prospects for the rest of the world ... and that will take massive quantities of carbon-free power, not only for economic development, but for mitigating unavoidable climate change impacts as well. 'Power Hungry' is a challenging and valuable read for everyone interested in green energy and an effective response to the climate crisis.

Whole Earth Discipline: An Ecopragmatist Manifesto

Eaarth: Making a Life on a Tough New Planet

Science as a Contact Sport: Inside the Battle to Save Earth's Climate

http://www.whatswiththeclimate.org/2009/11/29/brand-iit-and-iim-grab-lion%E2%80%99s-share-of-awards-at-the-al-gore-sustainable-technology-venture-competition%E2%84%A2-2009-at-iit-kharagpur-november-6-7/

 

I’m usually one of the last people to jump on the “let’s name a day” bandwagon, but Blog Action Day for Climate Change was one I could embrace.  Beyond the “sexy factor” of climate change, green, sustainability and the like, is a real need for people to understand what climate change is and why it’s relevant now.

The Environmental Protection Agency defines climate change as ”a change in long-term weather patterns. [Weather patterns] can become warmer or colder. Annual amounts of rainfall or snowfall can increase or decrease.”

Climate change seems to be a normal occurrence, natural even.  But, problems arise with the degree and rate to which our climate changes, resulting in global warming, the greenhouse effect and sea level rising, among other things.

How are we doing?

Climate Change in ºF
(Environmental Protection Agency)

• Average global temperature has increased by almost 1ºF during the past hundred years
• Scientists expect the average global temperature to increase an additional 2ºF to 6ºF over the next one hundred years.
• At the peak of the last ice age (18,000 years ago), the temperature was only 7ºF colder than it is today, and glaciers covered much of North America.

It’s easy to take for granted that the world as we experience it today will remain the same for all of OUR tomorrows, but what about when our children and grandchildren are planning for the future of their families?

What’s happening in California
(California Department of Water Resources)

• Snowpack: By 2050, scientists project a loss of at least 25 percent of the Sierra snowpack, an important source of urban, agricultural and environmental water.

• Floods: An increase in extreme weather will lead to higher winter river flows, runoff and flooding.
  • Runoff water contaminates the water supply by carrying soil contaminants, motor oil and other ground coverings into bays, watersheds and out into the ocean.
• Water Quality: Less fresh water flowing out of the Delta in spring and early summer will allow more salt water to intrude.
  • Salt water is great for soaking, not so great for drinking.

Don’t get me wrong. I am not the doomsday type. I am not ready to go off the grid. I realize that I am very privileged to have a life where water magically flows at the twist of a lever and I can communicate via gadgets galore.

I also realize I have a responsibility to not only do less harm, but to do more good; look at the little things I can do to contribute to making a big difference.

More than 10,000 people from more than 150 countries took one day to blog about climate change in an effort to get your attention.

Want to know what you can do to make a difference?

Following are some resources to get you started.

EPA
Climate Change: What you can do

TUAW
Five Apps to help save the world

Ecology Center
Ecology Center resource page

On Twitter: Follow #BAD09 – @AndaPR – @blogactionday

Dear Sir,
There is an urgent need to combat climate change effectively,
as we are all waiting for a "time bomb" to explode with regard to capping
carbon emissions from fossil fuel.
The rate of daily Global fossil fuel consumptions stand at around 85millions
to 90millions barrel, and the rate of emissions are not decreasing any
time soon. There are daily catastrophic climate change related disasters
all over the World now. From India to Pacific and fire to USA and
Australia and etc etc catastrophic floodings in Filippines.
The Maldives cabinet will be having an underwater parliament soon,
to dramatise the danger and urgency of using lesser fossil fuel.
The IEA www.iea.org is advocating that fuel and energy efficiency
are the major parts of ecosolutions to reduce ghg emissions.
The lesser fossil fuel we burn with lesser with carbon intensity the
lesser the ghg emissions. But, there are more rhetoric forum than
real actions to reduce carbon fuel consumptions.
Policy makers are still sleeping in their bed on the issue of climate
change, although more are aware now. But, the World needs urgent
actions to cap CO2 emissions to 450ppm, and below the threshold
of 2 degree hike in global temperatures.
To all policy makers , please wake up from your sleep and jump
into http://www.infernofuel.com
to reduce carbon fuel consumptions now. The danger maybe,
we are late at the tipping point of no return.That will be
catastrophic and too late. Act now on www.infernofuel.com