Natural Capitalism

I recently finished Natural Capitalism (1999) by Paul Hawken, Amory Lovins, and L Hunter Lovins.

I thought it was really great, and I highly recommend it as background reading for sustainability.

Each chapter is either about a particular solution specific to a topic (transportation, water, food), a key strategy applicable to any topic, or examples of sustainable projects. I've labeled each chapter below as either a solution, strategy, or example. I'd like to write a post on each chapter describing the big ideas, noting key words and key players, and commenting on follow up research that could be useful for next year's Summit.

Table of contents:
1. The Next Industrial Revolution - (strategy) an intro.

2. Reinventing the Wheels: Hypercars and Neighborhoods - (solution)

3. Waste Not - (strategy)

4. Making the World - (strategy)

5. Building Blocks - (solution)

6. Tunneling Through the Cost Barrier - (strategy) Incremental gains in efficiency cost more until eventually they cost much less. Redefining the costs vs efficiency gains curve.

7. Muda, Service, and Flow - (strategy) This chapter is really a culmination of the previous strategy chapters.

8. Capital Gains - (strategy) Natural system's services are literally priceless since many of them are impossible for us to reproduce. This leads to proposals for changing the tax system, including the idea that we need to tax waste not work.

9. Nature's Filaments (example) Technological gains are allowing us to make textiles and paper more resource efficiently.

10. Food For Life - (solution) How can we achieve sustainable agriculture?

11. Aqueous Solutions - (solution) How can we manage our limited water resources?

12. Climate: Making Sense and Making Money (strategy)

13. Making Markets Work - (strategy)

14. Human Capitalism - (example)