Klarity Blog

Bioneers and Rocky Mountain Institute offer much inspiration and practical wisdom towards real solutions.______________________ See link at___________________________ http://ecodesign.bioneers.org/node/16 ______________________________________ Here’s an excerpt:_________________ The best technologies can’t substitute for water and nutrient cycling, nor for atmospheric and ecological stability. Imagine hand-pollinating all of agriculture. Our best technologies can’t substitute for natural processes of assimilating and detoxifying all of society’s waste. With 10,000 more of us humans arriving every hour, what’s in short supply these days isn’t people. It’s nature.________________ Natural capitalism, the alternative we propose, uses four principles that can offer business increased profits; in many cases, dramatically increased profits. At the same time, this system addresses many of environmental problems facing us. For instance, global warming is an artifact of an economically inefficient energy policy. Just doing what’s cost-effective in energy would largely abate the problem of climate change. __________________ The four principles are: ______________________ Harnessing advanced resource efficiency to create profits by eliminating the need to pay for extraction at one end and pollution at the other._____________________ Eliminating the concept of waste by redesigning industry along biological lines, closing loops in the flow of materials, and not producing persistent toxins.____________________ Changing the business model to encourage these two shifts by rewarding both the provider and the customer for doing more and better with less for longer.______________________ Reversing planetary destruction by restoring natural capital. Any good capitalist reinvests in the capital that’s in short supply.____________ Together these principles enable companies to behave as if ecosystem services, the natural capital, were properly valued. Of course, where the rubber meets the road is in real-world case studies of successful projects actually implemented by companies, many of which we have worked with to achieve their goals._____________________