The Ecology of Commerce: A Declaration of Sustainability

Capitalism and Ecology

by Paul Hawken. HarperCollins Publishers, 1993. Hardcover, 250 pages, $23.

The Ecology of Commerce argues eloquently for radical change in how business works. Hawken compares our present economic system to immature, opportunistic natural environments that grow and spread rapidly but do not last. A mature system of commerce, like a mature ecosystem, would be entirely cyclical: nothing would be produced that isn’t useful—consum­- able—by some part of the system. In Hawken’s mature economic system, toxic materials, and all synthetic chemicals that aren’t readily decomposed into their naturally digestible elements have very little place. Of the corporations that make them, Hawken says: “If DuPont, Monsanto, and Dow believe they are in the synthetic chemical production business, and cannot change this belief, they and we are in trouble. If they believe they are in business to serve people, to help solve problems, to use and employ the ingenuity of their workers to improve the lives of people around them by learning from the nature that gives us life, we have a chance.”

The book’s initial chapters are devoted to a litany of environmental and social horrors, illustrating just how awry modern capitalism has become. Hawken presents a grim, eye-opening view of how the legal status of corporations has changed, how multinational corporations have had tremendous influence over negotiations like the GATT, and the impact of these situations on the disenfranchised people and other species inhabiting the planet.

As he discusses possible solutions, Hawken recognizes that businesses are not about to become altruistic ecological organizations. He devotes the latter part of the book to exploring ways in which making money and ecological restoration can become mutually supportive. One of these ways entails a reversal of our existing tax structure. Rather than tax interactions that we wish to encourage, such as wages and sales, he proposes that government fund itself primarily from “green” taxes, or taxes on activities society wishes to discourage. These would include consumption of natural resources, destruction of habitats, and pollution. As the transition to these green taxes would be revenue-neutral, capital would be freed-up from sales and income taxes to offset any negative effects of new green taxes.

Ideas like this one offer, if not clear-cut solutions, at least some glimmers of hope that capitalism and environmental quality need not be mutually exclusive. Hawken’s talent for pulling together disparate ideas into a common scheme is remarkable. Yet the tremendous range of information Hawken draws upon is obtained at a cost in accuracy and reliability. He states, for example, that wood for Wal-Mart’s Ecostore came from the Menominee Tribal Enterprises (it didn’t); and EBN could find no evidence of the “10 to 20 grams of mercury” that he claims are contained in each television set.

The Ecology of Commerce is a valuable contribution to the discussion of how our economic system might adapt for our survival as a species. Read it for the ideas, but take some of the background information with a little salt.