Paul Hawken

29 May 2008 A pioneering visionary thinker on sustainability, Hawken has been called a “poet laureate on the subject of capitalism.” After successfully founding garden and catalogue retail shop, Smith and Hawken, authored some six ground-breaking books on the subject of environmentally responsible business; presently heads a research institute, Natural Capital Institute, which is devoted to helping facilitate positive global change.

BEEN THERE, DONE THAT

An environmentalist from the get-go, Hawken’s original foray into the business world was to open some of the very first natural food stores to carry sustainable products; his 1993 book, “The Ecology of Commerce” has become a classic text in colleges, and is thought to be one of the first to make a compelling argument for socially-responsible business. “Natural Capitol,” written with eco-strategists, Amory and Hunter Lovins in 2000, espouses the now popular principle that business can do good for the environment, and has been called one of the most important books in the world today by Bill Clinton.

IF THE FUTURE WERE HIS

Hawken believes that the success of the sustainability movement means moving away from a world that was created “by privilege,” to a world that is created by “community.” In such a world, a product or service will not succeed if it is harming the collective community. To that end he’s created Wiserearth.org (World Index for Social and Environmental Responsibility), a Wikipedia-like database in which NGO’s and activist-minded folk can post information, build community, recognize their common goals and hopefully gain strength in numbers.

IN HIS WORDS

"Sustainability means re-imagining the world in such a way that we can stay here."

LINKS

Paul Hawken’s website

WiserEarth.org