No nature, no business

Har­mo­niz­ing the Rules of Busi­ness with the Laws of Nature

Envi­ron­men­tal Debt: The Hid­den Costs of a Chang­ing Global Econ­omy, writ­ten by Amy Larkin and researched by Johanna Goet­zel, was released by Pal­grave Macmil­lan June 25, 2013.

The book con­nects the finan­cial and envi­ron­men­tal crises – through both causes and solu­tions. The book intro­duces the “Nature Means Busi­ness Frame­work for the 21st Cen­tury,” which pro­vides a road map for con­nect­ing the Return On Invest­ment (ROI) of busi­ness with the sur­vival of the nat­ural world.

The three pil­lars of the The Nature Means Busi­ness Frame­work aim to empower prof­itable busi­ness that, by nature, coex­ist with the envi­ron­ment. They are as follows:

(1) Pol­lu­tion can no longer be free and can no longer be subsidized

(2) The long view must guide all decision-making and accounting

(3) Gov­ern­ment plays a vital role in cat­alyz­ing clean tech­nol­ogy and growth while pre­vent­ing envi­ron­men­tal destruction.

Larkin’s “great­est hope is that Envi­ron­men­tal Debt pro­mul­gates new ideas into the cul­ture that in turn change our under­stand­ing of busi­ness.” The book reveals the com­mon ground between busi­ness, civil soci­ety, sci­ence, reli­gion, cul­ture and  pol­icy reform­ers. The ideas pre­sented in the book take on extended life through an online forum called The Tran­si­tion Agenda, hosted by RESOLVE, where indi­vid­u­als from a vari­ety of sec­tors can dis­cuss and engage with issues essen­tial to our sur­vival. No nature, no business.

Reviews of the book have been encour­ag­ing. Pub­lish­ers Weekly writes: “For any­one inter­ested in envi­ron­men­tal and eco­nomic pol­icy, this is a fas­ci­nat­ing, provoca­tive book. Brisk, bold, and blunt, Larkin is a dev­as­tat­ing critic of cur­rent busi­ness prac­tices, but she wants to inspire, not scold.”

A New York native, Larkin writes about local and global issues in a clear and direct way.  Her years of work with Green­peace along with her entre­pre­neur­ial expe­ri­ence present the short and long term impacts of envi­ron­men­tal debt. The tone is encouraging–action is pos­si­ble, and the time is now!

Amy Larkin blogs for the Huff­in­g­ton Post about these and other issues.