Natural
Capitalism is both a book (by Amory Lovins, Hunter Lovins,
and Paul Hawken) and a new and exciting perspective that calls for a new
relationship between businesses, society, and sustainability. Lovins, Lovins,
and Hunter offer a summary of natural capitalism in this pdf reprint of
their May/June 1999 Harvard Business Review article, A Roadmap for Natural
Capitalism.
Green Accounting
refers to economic and business accounting methods that incorporate aspects
of human activity that relate to sustainability but are ignored by traditional
accounting methods. Green accounting seeks to measure and incorporate aspects
such as pollution, intergenerational equity, and unpaid household labor. Check
out Green National Accounts: Policy Uses and Empirical Experience, by Kirk
Hamilton and Ernst Lutz of the World Bank.
Small Businesses
are a well-spring of entrepreneurial activity, and a great way for individuals
and groups to contribute to sustainable communities in a meaningful way.
Check out this pdf document on Small Business Facts put out by the U.S.
Small Business Administration. Also by the SBA is this pdf Small Business
Resource Guide that provides useful information on how to start a small
business.
Non-profit/Private-sector
Collaboration is a critical component of ecological entrepreneurship.
Businesses and non-profit organizations used to be considered as separate,
fairly independent sectors of society, but today this is less and less the
case. Each sector has relative strengths in the ways they can serve society;
for both sectors to reach their maximum effectiveness, they must work together,
each leveraging these relative strengths in a collaborative relationship.
An excellent source of information on how non-profits can collaborate with
the private sector is "Meeting the Collaboration Challenge", from the Peter
F. Drucker Foundation (see link below.)
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Rocky Mountain
Institute (RMI): The Rocky Mountain Institute is a leader in promoting
green technology and new ways of organizing business activity to lead to
sustainability, especially in terms of massive reductions of materials and
energy usage. Check them out at http://www.rmi.org
Peter F. Drucker
Foundation: Peter F. Drucker is one of the most influential and
prolific writers in the area of non-profit management and philosophy. The
Peter F. Drucker Foundation offers volumes of information and other resources,
including fellowships, awards, and the "non-profit innovation of the week."
Check out the foundation at http://www.pfdf.org
Sustainable
Communities Network: Ecological entrepreneurship is all about individuals
and organizations leading to community sustainability. The Sustainable Community
Network is one of many clearinghouse organizations that provide information
on ecological entrepreneurship themes. Check them out at http://www.sustainable.org/index.html
Life Cycle
Assessment and Building for Environmental and Economic Sustainability (BEES):
For technology to be "green," its environmental and social impact must be
assessed "from cradle to grave," i.e. in terms of its production, shipment,
use, and disposal. Such analysis is known as Life Cycle Assessment, and
a surprising number of businesses use it. You can learn more about LCA at
the website of the American Center for Life Cycle Assessment, at http://www.lcacenter.org/
. BEES is a free, downloadable computer program developed by the U.S. Environmental
Protection that actually does LCA for 65 different building products; it
allows the user to set various parameters to determine which materials are
best for the user. Check out BEES at
http://www.bfrl.nist.gov/oae/software/bees.html
Grameen Bank:
Ecological entrepreneurship has international applications as well
as ones here in the United States. A classic example of people creating
an innovative organization is the Grameen Bank in Bangladesh. Grameen is
a not-for-profit organization that has sparked entrepreneurial activity
by giving out hundred of microloans to individuals who would not qualify
for credit through normal channels. Check out Grameen at http://www.grameen-info.org/.
Redefining Progress:
Reaching a sustainable path for America's communities will involve an entire
reorientation of the U.S. economy. Redefining Progress is an non-profit
organization that "develops policies and tools to reorient the economy so
that it will value people and nature first." Check them out at http://www.rprogress.org
Small Business
Administration (SBA), SCORE, and the Maine Small Business Development Centers:
There is tons of information on the web regarding how to start
a small business. The Small Business Administration has all kinds of information
on aspects of starting a business, and is the leading source of start-up
loans in the United States. Working closely with the SBA is SCORE, the Service
Corps of Retired Executives, who provide counseling and other services for
individuals exploring small business options. With hundreds of offices around
the country, there probably is an SBA or SCORE office near you. Check them
out at http://www.sba.gov/ and http://www.score.org/ . At the state level,
Maine Small Business Development Centers are located throughout the state;
they provide similar information and services, but have more offices around
the state. Check them out at http://www.mainesbdc.org
EcoLogic: Beyond
organzations and technology, ecological entrepreneurship seeks to foster
sustainable communities. In developing regions, non-governmental organizations
(NGOs) increasingly recognize the links between community development and
environmental protection: people in poverty and insecurity often have no
choice but to over-exploit environmental resources. Thus, environmental
NGOs in developing regions almost always link community development, often
in the context of creating small-scale community enterprises. EcoLogic is
one such organization. In particular, their Ecologic Enterprise Ventures, Inc. (EEV), offers
loans and other forms of support to environmentally-based enterprises in
Central Americal. Check out Ecologic
or go
directly to Ecologic Ventures.
Leadership,
Management, Groups, and Organizations: Successful ecological entrepreneurship
requires innovative leadership, sound management skills, and effective groups
that form organizations that work. There are numerous resources on these
topics available on the internet. One useful website was compiled by students
at the University of Edinburgh; check is out at http://www.ee.ed.ac.uk/~gerard/MENG/
Interface and
Dr. Broner's Magic Soaps: There are lots of companies big and small
that are revolutionizing how business is done in the United States. These
companies use energy efficient processes to produce products that use a
minimum amount of materials, materials that are completely or nearly completely
recyclable or biodegradable. They also seek to make their employees partners
in forging a sustainable future for their local communities and the world.
They recognize that doing so is both socially responsible and good for the
bottom line. An example of a revolutionary larger corporation is Interface
(http://www.ifsia.com/us/Company/
), which is revolutionizing the relationship between customers, firms, and
products; an example of a smaller company is Dr. Broner's Magic Soaps (http://www.drbronner.com),
long known for producing ecologically sound products while preaching an
alternative vision for the world.
National Center
for Economic and Security Alternatives: Ecological entrepreneurship
doesn't just apply to individual organizations. It also can be applied to
community-building in general. In particular, ecological entrepreneurship
seeks to fix and contextualize economic activity to particular places, the
places where people live. The National Center for Economic and Security
Alternatives is a non-profit organization that provides "information about
community building, models and experiments in locally-based economic development,
as well as theory and vision of the 'good society.'" Their website has information
on a wide range of topics, from local currencies and community-supported
agriculture to community development corporations; you can check it out
at http://www.ncesa.org
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Anderson, Ray C., Mid-Course
Correction. Chelsea Green Publishing Company, 1998.
The story of Anderson's
conversion to the Natural Step for Business, and how he changed Interface,
Inc. into a revolutionary company that is changing how corporations deliver
products to their customers. Anderson also offers an overall vision of
why and how overall society must and can move to a sustainable path.
Brechin, Steven R.,
Planting Trees in the Developing World: A Sociology of International
Organizations. Johns Hopkins University Press, 1997.
This excellent book
is more accurately described by its subtitle, although it certainly does
address social forestry. Brechin provides a very insightful case study
of how three different organizations, the World Bank, the United Nations'
Food and Agriculture Organization, and CARE USA, "get things done." This
is a very valuable resource ecological entrepreneurs working in international
aid, or any large non-private sector organization.
Dreher, Diane, The
Tao of Personal Leadership. HarperCollins Publishers, 1996.
Dreher makes invaluable
contributions to both of the overcrowded fields of "Tao of..." tomes and
leadership how-to's. Ecological entrepreneurship involves not just starting
innovative organizations, but running them in innovative ways that work
with people's natural strengths rather than combating them.
Hawken, Paul, The
Ecology of Commerce: A Declaration of Sustainability. HarpersCollins
Publishers, 1993.
Hawken's work stands
as an enduring classic in the field, arguably one of the most influential
business books written in the 1990's. Hawken calls for businesses to completely
re-envision how they do business...and shows how it can work.
Horowitz, Shel, Grassroots
Marketing: Getting Noticed in a Noisy World. Chelsea Green Publishing
Company, 2000.
An awesome guide to
how small organizations (businesses, non-profits, community organizations)
can get their message out on a shoe-string budget.
Lovins, Amory, Hunter
Lovins, and Paul Hawken,? Natural Capitalism: Creating the Next Industrial
Revolution. Back Bay, 2000.
Another one of the
classics, Lovins, Lovins, and Hawken challenge companies and society to
reconceptualize how we do business. They provide an amazing range of insights
on product design, organizational innovation, and everything in between.
Nattrass, Brian, and
Mary Altomare, The Natural Step for Business: Wealth, Ecology, and the
Evolutionary Corporation. Best Book Manufacturers, 1999.
Another classic in
the field, the book that led Ray Anderson to revolutionize Interface.
. Nattrass and Altomare provide a blueprint for "the business of sustainability,"
arguing that environmentalism and social responsibility do not have to
be bad for the bottom line. Chock full of case-studies, including the
amazing sustainable forest products company, Collins Pine.
Olenick, Arnold J. and
Philip R. Olenick, A Nonprofit Organization Operating Manual: Planning
for Survival and Growth.
The Foundation Center,
1991. A very good, practical guide to starting and maintaining a non-profit
organization. The Olenicks cover it all: achieving tax-exempt status,
raising funds, collaborating with the private sector.
Shuman, Michael H.,
Going Local: Creating Self-Reliant Communities in a Global Age.
Routledge, 2000.
Shuman makes a persuasive
argument for "community corporations," firms whose stock ownership is
limited to people within a certain geographical area. He offers the Green
Bay Packers (who knew?!) as an example of a successful community corporation
that has remained true to its community in an era of footloose global
capital and corporations.
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