Ethical Markets: Growing the Green Economy (Paperback)

~ (Author), Simran Sethi (Author)
Key Phrases: ethical markets, love economy, stakeholder analyst, United States, Fair Trade, Business Week (more...)

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

In this companion to the television series of the same name, economist Henderson delivers an optimistic overview of socially responsible, environmentally sensitive businesses, investors and visionaries. Keeping an eye on the "triple bottom line" that adds "people" and "planet" to the usual focus on "profits," the book divides "cleaner, greener, more ethical and more female sectors of our U.S. economy" into three areas: lifestyles of health and sustainability, socially responsible investing and corporate social responsibility. An economist with a long history of activism in "redefining success" (for example, revamping the GDP to include environmental capital and unpaid labor such as child-rearing), Henderson adeptly packs large amounts of information into chapters within her expertise. Discussion of topics that are further from her experience, such as green building and the health care system, tends to careen from problems to solutions so quickly that a reader can become confused. The interviews after each chapter, meant to show how CEOs are "walking the talk," seem to be taken unedited from the TV show, coming across as incoherent and shallow. Fortunately, the book is crammed with Web references that can offer a fuller picture to readers tantalized by this glimpse of the economic revolution thriving below the radar of mainstream media. (Mar.)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Review

"Hazel Henderson has been pointing the way to a responsible future for decades, and with this book she now shows us that, lo and behold, the future is here! The stories she tells about the people who are bringing it to us are fascinating—and important."--James Gustave Speth, Dean, School of Forestry & Environmental Studies, Yale University

"Hazel Henderson has come forth with a magnificent map for action at the precise moment in our evolutionary crisis when we must redirect our most basic behavior. Ethical Markets is a must read."--Barbara Marx Hubbard, author, Conscious Evolution: Awakening the Power of our Social Potential, president, Foundation for Conscious Evolution

"This book is as thought provoking as its title. Henderson provides a comprehensive review of leading-edge global initiatives to sustain the planet, people and profits. As a pioneer activist, Henderson has both authority and intimate knowledge to document current efforts to sustain humanity and the quality of life. The book makes an invaluable contribution to its subject by providing examples and references for others to promote, adopt and/or develop the green economy."--Dr. Shann Turnbull, Principal, International Institute for Self-governance

"Hazel Henderson has compiled the stories of key players both within and without the establishment who are giving voice to an awakening environmental consciousness and the need to green the economy."--David C. Korten, author, The Great Turning: From Empire to Earth Community and When Corporations Rule the World

"Hazel Henderson has done it again. For decades she's managed to stay ahead of the curve in corporate social responsibility, lighting the path that others follow. If you want good news on where the world is heading, read this book."--Marjorie Kelly, author of The Divine Right of Capital, and co-founder of Business Ethics Magazine

"With her characteristic clarity and readability, Hazel Henderson maps emerging movements for social, economic and ecological change that all of us--whether we share her enthusiasm for them or not--need to know about."--Alvin Toffler, author of Future Shock and co-author with Heidi Toffler of Revolutionary Wealth

"There are thinkers, there are philosophers, there are prophets, and then there is Hazel Henderson. She sees the future and finds its seeds in the present. Visionary and practical, this book will make you feel better about the choices you make on behalf of humanity.--Jessica Lipnack and Jeff Stamps, co-authors of Virtual Teams and The Age of the Network (www.netage.com)

"This book is a powerful and much needed antidote to the wide-spread hopelessness about our global ecological crisis. Hazel Henderson uses her flawless systemic analysis, great eloquence, and her unique gift for provocative, yet disarming aphorisms to show us not only that the transition to a sustainable future is possible with existing technologies and conceptual models, but also that it is already well on its way." --Fritjof Capra, author, The Web of Life and The Hidden Connections

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Product Details

• Paperback: 300 pages
• Publisher: Chelsea Green (February 1, 2007)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1933392231
• ISBN-13: 978-1933392233
• Product Dimensions: 9.9 x 6.9 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #694,269 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Broad, Deep view of Social Change Through Economic Change, December 7, 2008

By	Shel Horowitz "Shel Horowitz, author, Princip... (Hadley, MA United States) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

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 identifies four pillars of socially responsible investing (a field where she has had major influence through her work with Calvert and other organizations): social and environmental screens, community investing, shareholder activism, and socially responsible venture capital. She also wants us to place economic value on "the love economy" (work done for free, in the home or as volunteers).

In short, despite the mess we're in, many, many trends are positive. She even finds support in the writings of those two writers whose works have often been used to justify the worst aspects of the corporate oligarchy: Adam Smith, 18th-century author of The Wealth of Nations, and Charles Darwin, 19th-century author of The Origin of Species.
A few specific examples of positive change among the many she cites:

* Socially responsible investments in the U.S. and worldwide now total $2.3 and $5 trillion, respectively
* Socially screened companies outperform the S&P 500 and similar indices around the world-and that may have something to do with why socially responsible mutual funds grew 156% in five years (to $32 billion) while that market as a whole grew only 22%
* In Brazil, about 1/3 of the nation's GDP is accounted for by companies that have joined an ethical-principles umbrella organization-and the country's celulosic (i.e., not from diverted food sources such as corn) ethanol production has made it energy self-sufficient
* Fair-trade coffee consumption in the UK multiplied 400% from 1998 to 2005
* Green venture capital is growing at 36% per year; wind power is growing at 29% per year; solar grew by 63% from 2004 to 2005, and countries such as China are becoming major players (very hopeful for those of us who worry about the environmental disaster that would happen if China adopted traditional, polluting, resource-hogging technologies to achieve Western living standards)
* At least some clothing companies have rejected sweatshops in favor of production that is certified under the Social Accountability 8000 standard (mentioned in a profile of one of those companies, Eileen Fisher)
* Technology exists to supply all the power California currently generates with traditional powerplants, just by switching four percent of the state's vehicles to fuel cell power
* Shareholder activists have achieved numerous victories, from switching McDonald's off polystyrene containers to getting Home Depot to carry sustainably-forested wood

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Holistic Corporate Ethics, March 31, 2008

By	Robert A. G. Monks (Portland, ME United States) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

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".

3 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars It's a recipe for and predictor of the future., April 19, 2007

By	Midwest Book Review (Oregon, WI USA) - See all my reviews

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