Ethical Markets: Growing the Green Economy

So many books about the need for change are nothing but doom-and-gloom. Focusing on the successes, Ethical Markets: Growing the Green Economy by Hazel Henderson (with Simran Sethi) (Chelsea Green, 2006) is fundamentally about hope. Mind, there's plenty of information in these pages about the world's problems and the consequences of doing nothing. And lots more about the way government and business collude to skew the system in favor of the traditional model (such as unsubsidized solar and wind energy having to compete against heavily subsidized oil, coal, and nuclear, and lifecycle costs such as disposal transferred from the manufacturer to the consumer). But the book profiles dozens of entrepreneurs in both the business and service sectors who have found a way to help humanity address that raft of problems. If the entire world adopted the solutions modeled and piloted by these visionaries, it would go a very long way toward reversing negative climate change (a/k/a global warming...reducing poverty...creating economic support systems that lift up not only the middle class but also the very poorest-and do so without government handouts. Henderson, whose many websites include [...], has been taking a leadership role in the environmental/activist/ethical investor sector for decades (I have a book of hers that was published in 1978; this book is based on a PBS TV series she produced. The ultimate message is that we, not only as consumers but as citizens (yes, there is a difference!) can impact the world of business and shape it away from the rigid single-bottom-line, profit-at-all-costs model popularized by economists like Milton Friedman, in favor of a more humanistic triple-bottom-line approach that is shaped to benefit all stakeholders, not just those who happen to own stock. Ironically, but perhaps not surprisingly, socially responsible companies tend to perform better. As I discuss in my own award-winning sixth book, Principled Profit: Marketing That Puts People First, and as Henderson points out over and over again, these companies are better managed, they're not embroiled in costly lawsuits, and they've made strides to reduce their own environmental footprint in ways that actually lower costs. And Henderson tracks probably hundreds of ways that this attitude has filtered from the hippie pioneers of the 60s and 70s into the mainstream business world-not only through the successes of companies that were built from their founding on social and environmental responsibility (e.g., Greyston Bakery, Grameen Bank), but also in how this ethic is slowly spreading into even the largest of traditional businesses, even to the likes of auto companies, oil companies, General Electric, Wal-Mart, and so forth. The book is wide-ranging, with chapters covering not only the obvious (energy, environmental impact, fair trade) but also the pervasive areas of society that need to-and are starting to-shift (health and wellness, joy at work, investing). Henderson

When you think "it can't be done" in reference to staying green environmentally and financially, this book gives you the inside picture of the many businesses, organizations and experts who prove it can. Part expose, part how-to, this book leaves the reader with a positive feeling that efforts to protect the enviroment and live responsibly are worthwhile. And, for those of us willing to try, we are not alone. Success after success is documented, making this a hopeful book at a time when many are disillusioned.

Hazel Henderson has a holistic concern for the world. She understands economics and she writes delightful English. Her most recent book is yet another contribution to a world needing courageous common sense. The book is superbly produced with helpful illustrations on most important subjects. Has anyone ever explained the Total Productive system of an Industrial Society with the clarity and ingenuity of Hazel's Layer Cake with Icing (p 54) originally conceived in 1981. This graphic alone is a reason to buy and read this book, as it manages to communicate several different modes of interrelated and important information. There is such detail and depth of coverage in this book that I will only suggest its flavor from the closing sentence of the First Chapter "Redefining Success": "As statisticians worldwide continue redefining true prosperity - real human development - using new measurements, recalculating GNP to add human, social, and ecological capital, and subtract pollution - we can see more clearly what success means in our own lives." (p 18) Really, this says it all. Managers are decent people. They can manage enterprises to achieve agreed results. Priority effort must be devoted to developing increasingly satisfactory numerical expression for the many impacts that corporate functioning has on human society. Only when we can create a meaningful single "bottom line" will businesses be able to co-exist constructively with human needs. This is the one book to buy, own and read if you want to be fully up to date and informed about "ethical markets".

Modern businesses who would conduct ethical operations must read ETHICAL MARKETS: GROWING THE GREEN ECONOMY, which is based on a popular television series and covers an 'alternative' business strategy rapidly moving into the mainstream. The green economy already exists, and ETHICAL MARKETS covers its foundations, from the impact and nature of community investing to shareholder activists enacting change from within. An inspirational, revealing survey, ETHICAL MARKETS needs to be part of any serious business library: it's a recipe for and predictor of the future. Diane C. Donovan California Bookwatch