FUNDAMENTALS OF
SUSTAINABILITY
EVSS 695
Class 4: Ecology of Commerce
P. Brian Fisher
HAWKEN, ECOLOGY OF
COMMERCE
REVIEW
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A Step Back…moments of transition in our lives
End of Nature; Collapse – Civilizations from enviro reasons
State of Earth
Historical Drivers of Env Degradation: Pop growth, econ
growth, technology
IPAT, Projections of our future (Sachs)
American’s Perceptions – Paradox
Environmental Movement – Death?!
Ecological Analysis – Testing your connections
“The Lorax Problem”: Individualization
Fulfillment and Happiness = Sustainability
Education = Sustainability (deep learning)
NOW: Systemic problems of businesses and capitalism and
the myths of “progress” that support them
HAWKEN, ECOLOGY OF COMMERCE (1993)
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Thesis: Biosphere is being destroyed by our industrial society and
economic system, but same elements that destroy the biosphere—
markets and gov’ts, are the solution (if can replace “greed”)
“I have come to believe that we in America and in the rest of the
industrialized West do not know what business really is, or, therefore,
what it can become.” (p1)
"The promise of business is to increase the general well-being of
humankind through service, a creative invention and ethical
philosophy. Making money is, on its own terms, totally meaningless, an
insufficient pursuit for the complex and decaying world we live in. We
have reached an unsettling and portentous turning pt in industrial
civilization.” (p1)
The current economic system is not "the inherent nature of business,
nor the inevitable outcome of a free-market system. It is merely the
result of the present commercial system's design and use."
ECOLOGY VS COMMERCE
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“there is no polite way to say that business is destroying the
world.” (p3)
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An oxymoron that speaks to the gap between how earth lives
and how we now conduct our commercial lives.
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“We don’t think of ecology and commerce as compatible subjects.
While much of our current environmental policy seek a ‘balance’
between the needs of business and the needs of environment,
common sense says there is only one critical balance and one set
of needs: the dynamic, ever-changing interplay of the forces of
life” (p3)
** Ecology of commerce is the unity of them into “one
sustainable act of production and distribution that mimics and
enhances natural processes” (p3)
A TEASING IRONY
Gap between environment and business, ecology and
economics
 Industry suppresses our immune system
 Free market capitalism?
 Restorative economy
 Waste, income and capital, diversity
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THE DEATH OF BIRTH
Transforming ecology is unavoidable. American culture
to invasive weeds
 What are we taking?
 Usurpation of planetary production
 Carrying capacity
 Species loss
 Self interest and the myth of overabundance
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DEATH OF BIRTH
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Biodiversity loss is massive and widespread  “Every natural system in the
world today is in decline.” (p22)
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Human systems exceeding carrying capacity (p24-6)
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Econ System = “immature” system
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“immature system” = aggressive & invasive weeds take over space…wasting
energy, undermining diversity, with plants of lower quality and usefulness
(p19)
Mature system = evolution from “growth” to high efficiency and resourceconserving  “climax systems comprise an assoc of organisms that reach a
state of equilibrium which leaves the habitat largely unchanged…they are
more diverse, stable and complex communities, and are thus more resilient.”
David Wann: “the present American culture is still the bare field full of
colonizing weeds, struggling toward something more sophisticated,
interwoven and permanent. Until now, we’ve consistently chose the resourcehungry path of least resistance. (p20-1).
“Because richer northern countries do not see or experience the impact they
have on their poorer southern nations, we do not realize what a powerful and
destructive impact our demand on carrying capacity is having.” (p26)
THE CREATION OF WASTE
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End-of-pipe cleanup
 Creation
of waste is the root, Disposal is a
symptom
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Molecular waste. Bioaccumulation. Biomagnification.
 Economic
growth as a prerequisite for
environmental health?
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Redesign, Robèrt’s “Natural Step”, succession
Step: evolution of “sustainable” cellular
biology—self sustaining cycles where waste is
cycled back  see naturalstep.org
 Natural
WHAT WE NEED TO DO
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“having expropriated resources from the natural world in order
to fuel a rather transient period of materialistic freedom, we
must now restore no small measure of those resources and accept
the limits and discipline inherent in that relationship. Until
business does that, it will continue to be maladaptive and
predatory.” (p6)
Today, the liner process of industrialization creates massive
amts of waste and its grossly inefficient, resulting a decayed
earth.
“the economics of restoration is the opposite of industrialization.
Industrial economics separated production processes from the
land, the land from people, and, ultimately, economic values from
personal values…in a restorative economy, viability is
determined by the ability to integrate with or replicate cyclical
systems, in its means of production and distribution (p11).
HAWKEN’S 8 ELEMENTS TO SOLVE ENVIRO CRISIS
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Reduce energy/resource consumption by 80% in next
half century
Secure, productive employment for all
"Be self-organizing as opposed to regulated or morally
mandated.”
Honor market principles
Be more rewarding (than our present way of life)
Exceed sustainability by restoring degraded habitats
and ecosystems to their fullest biological capacity.”
Rely on current income
“Be fun and engaging, and strive for an aesthetic
outcome."
STORY OF STUFF
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Annie Leonard, Story
CHAPTER BY CHAPTER
Ecology of Commerce
Paul Hawken
A TEASING IRONY
Gap between environment and business, ecology
and economics
 Industry suppresses our immune system
 Free market capitalism?
 Restorative economy
 Waste, income and capital, diversity

THE DEATH OF BIRTH
Transforming ecology is unavoidable. American
culture to invasive weeds
 What are we taking?
 Usurpation of planetary production
 Carrying capacity
 Species loss
 Self interest and the myth of overabundance

THE CREATION OF WASTE

End-of-pipe cleanup
 Creation
of waste is the root, Disposal is a
symptom

Molecular waste. Bioaccumulation. Biomagnification.
 Economic
growth as a prerequisite for
environmental health?

Redesign, Robèrt’s “Natural Step”, succession
Step: evolution of “sustainable” cellular
biology—self sustaining cycles where waste is
cycled back  see naturalstep.org
 Natural
PARKING LOTS AND POTATO HEADS
Restoration, rejuvenation, innovation
 Interface modular carpeting
 Industrial Ecology
 Degradable products, reclaimable products of service,
parking lots of unsalables
 Responsibility
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PIGOU’S SOLUTION
Prices, costs, market economy?
 The primary freedom is growth
 Industrialization
 Pigouvian taxes
 Higher costs to consumers?
 Cheapness threatens our integrity
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THE SIZE THING
Multinational corporations, politics, money, power
 Globalization
 GATT, WTO, environmental regs
 Enormity
 Corporations are the opposite of nature.
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WHEN AN ETHIC IS NOT AN ETHIC
Growth addiction, indebtedness, stress
 Propaganda
 What is for sale in America is our welfare.
 Time
 Values, creating meaningful employment
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RESTORING THE GUARDIAN
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systemic problem
 Governance and commerce
 Reward those that internalize costs most
 Set standards for planning/developing new
business
 Green taxes. A shift from goods to bads
 Creativity
PINK SALMON AND GREEN FEES
Efficiency
 Green fees: energy, farming, traffic, war
 Public utilities: publicly regulated, privately
managed, market-based
 Salmon utility?
 Low or no tariffs to most sustainable nations
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THE INESTIMABLE GIFT OF A FUTURE
 Resilience
 Carrying
capacity, exemptionalist thinking,
Malthusianism
 The 29th day, exponential growth
 Q of life, increasing stratification
 Waste, shift to income not capital, diversity
 Favelas
 Democracy