a variety of pleasurable activities. Family and friends may be high on such a list of activities, along with travel, the theater, music, books, movies, sporting events, exercise, camping, and service to church or community. Our education, life experiences, and personal likes and dislikes all influence the free-time activities we select. Even though the amount of leisure time in many developed nations has been shrinking for the past several decades, our free-time pursuits remain very important to us and to the quality of our lives.1
Our material belongings also influence the quality of our lives because they enable us to reside comfortably in our homes, travel to distant places, communicate with others, and enjoy a relatively comfortable life. Most readers of this book likely have a large inventory of possessions including vehicles, furniture, appliances, electronic devices, clothes, and recreational equipment. We have access to nearly unlimited retail product and service options, for example, a regional mall for clothing, a super-store for electronics, and grocery stores or restaurants for food. Many of us have come to expect fully stocked store shelves and easily accessible e-businesses offering endless products via the Internet. Products at these outlets appear limitless, and only our cash supply or credit availability restricts our purchases.
Spiritual considerations aside, what provides your material possessions and makes your enjoyable free-time activities possible? A common answer to this question might be simply the business sector. The worldwide industrial infrastructure extracts, processes, manufactures, and markets the goods and services that global consumers desire. But a closer look at this question begs further consideration: what actually supplies the raw materials and energy that must feed the myriad of industrial processes? Consider that whether you live in Bangkok, Thailand, or Bar Harbor, Maine, every human endeavor, project, and activity is made possible directly by the natural world. Whether you enjoy rap music, classical music, walks on the beach, walks down Fifth Avenue, gourmet meals, Big Macs, television, smartphones, the company of family and friends, or simply relaxing and breathing, the natural world continually provides all the essential materials and energy for life on Earth. For example, green plants are the only entity on Earth that capture incoming solar energy and store it in the chemical bonds of simple sugars; through this process, they release oxygen, a vital component of the air. In short, the entire animal kingdom, including man, entirely depends upon green plants for food to eat and for oxygen to breathe. No other earthly source for these two vital commodities exists. Green plants also help to maintain global and local climates, make habitat available for wildlife, build soil fertility and reduce erosion, muffle urban noise, offer shade and wind protection, provide the basis for many dozens of medicines, and beautify the planet in general.
Today most of us go about our lives breathing, drinking, eating, working, and recreating, all the while taking for granted the abundant oxygen, clean water, beauty, and food available to us. Americans typically are not aware at a conscious level of our dependence upon the natural world for the things we need and the things we enjoy most in our daily lives. The combination of the prodigious retail and marketing sectors and the lack of understanding of natural world principles in all levels of education also contribute substantially toward a developed world culture largely ignorant of the vital role of nature in our everyday lives. Not surprisingly, this constantly reinforced environmental disconnect translates into a general apathy for the natural world. Another commonly held supposition is that the natural world has an unlimited capacity to continue to provide us with everything we need and want and to absorb the various types and levels of industrial harvests, assaults, and pollution.
Some of us may also be surprised to learn that the way our industrial systems meet our physical needs also unnecessarily depletes resources, puts persistent toxins into the biosphere, and results in global climate change, thereby decreasing options for future generations. The lack of recognition of the link between human prosperity and a healthy natural world has fostered an industrial system that still provides the goods and services we want in the immediate future and also brings momentous long-term negative consequences for all life on Earth. After briefly framing this unfortunate reality in Chapter 1, Fundamentals of Sustainable Business then outlines a new approach of solution-oriented systemic changes that have begun to solve these dilemmas and to offer rational hope for an abundant and healthy future.
Regarding personal transportation in the U.S., today gasoline costs approximately 10 times what it did just 45 years ago, and, even when adjusted for inflation, this substantial price increase influences the transportation habits of many middle- and lower-class Americans. Had the automobile industry originally chosen a perpetually abundant and clean source of energy, such as sunlight, and then continuously improved technology to support this selection, both the price and cost (which are in fact quite different) of personal transportation would be far less today, as would the climate warming emissions from humanity’s massive vehicle fleet.
But rising energy prices, tailpipe pollution, and a changing global climate are not the only undesirable results of our transportation technology of choice. We consistently use materials for the interior of our vehicles that release volatile toxins during the first year of ownership (yes, that new car smell) and subject riders to chronic inhalation of harmful contaminates. Owners of new cars are mostly unaware of this insidious assault on their bodies, or if aware, they may simply accept these conditions and consider these harmful effects as an unavoidable price of affluence. We also find that similar tragic consequences accompany numerous other products we use, from hospital intravenous (IV) tubes to carpeting to baby toys. Most of these isolated toxic exposures do not cause serious health problems alone, but the combined effects from dozens of minor (and completely unnecessary as we will see) day-to-day exposures pose significant threats to human health.
The following chapters present a truly revolutionary approach to business that has the capacity to concurrently produce long-term profitable businesses and local jobs, help support healthy and vibrant communities, and enhance the natural world. We will examine a new paradigm for communities and organizations that a growing group of open-minded business leaders around the world have already begun to embrace and implement. We will discuss the work of a number of visionary commercial pioneers that have set the wheels in motion for this next industrial revolution. In the development of this new strategy, we will study an energy and materials system that has over 3.5 billion years of unprecedented success. We will learn how to build lasting value and wealth for ourselves, for future generations, and for all other species henceforth by our everyday actions at home, at work, and even during our leisure time.
Does this optimistic scenario sound too good to be true? This movement has already begun in many places around the world and has become, among other things, a considerable advantage for businesses and communities involved. This book summarizes the most salient work of leading visionaries in the sustainable business movement and introduces some original concepts as well. I ask that you read the following chapters with an open mind, allowing your imagination free rein. I encourage you to prepare to challenge and reshape a number of your basic beliefs and trust your intuition rather than rely on your past practices throughout the process. Realize that remodeling a personal paradigm is often uncomfortable, but at the same time such a conversion can be immensely rewarding. Expect your perspective of modern life to change during and after reading this solution-oriented text and expect to find the experience startling, logical, and captivating. Most importantly, do not be surprised to find yourself drawn toward a more satisfying and engaging relationship with your community, the natural world, and business, which may inspire new personal contributions from you that will aid in the transformation of humans into a positive force on our planet for all time.
The following is a preview of what we can expect as we move through Fundamentals of Sustainable Business: First, an initial short summary of the adverse effects of commerce since the first industrial revolution is presented. Several serious flaws of conventional business are briefly discussed as well as problems in the natural world and our own communities that were brought on by these failings. We examine the subsequent emergence of a movement from inside business that has begun to direct organizations to more effective and positive activities.
