F UNDAMENTALS OF S USTAINABILITY EVSS 695 Class 4: Ecology of Commerce P. Brian Fisher

H AWKEN, E COLOGY OF C OMMERCE (1993) 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."

E COLOGY VS C OMMERCE “there is no polite way to say that business is destroying the world.” (p3) An oxymoron that speaks to the gap between how earth lives and how we now conduct our commercial lives. “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)

W HAT WE N EED TO D O “Constructive changes in our relationship to the environment have thus far been thwarted because business is not properly designed to adapt to the situation we face.” (p5) “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).

D EATH OF B IRTH Biodiversity loss is massive and widespread  “Every natural system in the world today is in decline.” (p22) Human systems exceeding carrying capacity (p24-6) Econ System = “immature” system “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 resource-conserving  “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 resource-hungry 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)

H AWKEN ’ S 8 E LEMENTS TO S OLVE E NVIRO C RISIS 1. Reduce energy/resource consumption by 80% in next half century 2. Secure, productive employment for all 3. "Be self-actuating as opposed to regulated or morally mandated.” 4. Honor market principles 5. Be more rewarding (than our present way of life) 6. Exceed sustainability by restoring degraded habitats and ecosystems to their fullest biological capacity.” 7. Rely on current income 8. “Be fun and engaging, and strive for an aesthetic outcome."