For example, clear-cutting forests for wood fiber damages forests’ ability to store water, provide animal habitats, and regulate climate. The earth’s ability to sustain life is in peril-as companies consume natural resources in ways that prevent ecosystems from regenerating our air, water, and food supplies. And the companies that are furthest down the road will have the competitive edge. The last stage involves reinvesting in natural capital to restore, sustain, and expand the planet’s ecosystem.īecause natural capitalism is both necessary and profitable, it will subsume traditional industrialism, the authors argue, just as industrialism subsumed agrarianism. For example, instead of selling lightbulbs, a manufacturer sells lighting services, with both the seller and the customer benefiting from the development of extremely efficient, durable bulbs. The third stage requires a fundamental change of business model-from selling products to delivering services. In the second stage, companies adopt closed-loop production systems that yield no waste or toxicity. The first involves dramatically increasing the productivity of natural resources-by as much as 100-fold. Natural capitalism comprises four major shifts in business practices. Their early embrace of natural capitalism is even more important to emulate today. This article shows how a few farsighted companies, like DuPont and Xerox, were able to find powerful business opportunities in conserving resources on a similarly grand scale. Not accounting for that cost has led to waste on a grand scale, the authors maintain. It was a staggering omission: Calculations at that time placed the value of those services-water storage, atmosphere regulation, climate control, and others-at $33 trillion per year. Yet in 1999, when this article was originally published, most companies overlooked one major capital component-the value of the earth’s ecosystem services. No one would run a business without accounting for its capital outlays.
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