Page 85 - ECOlogic Book

world were connected. I think if he were alive today, he’d make that
connection and would be busy developing creative approaches to
environmental problems.
Driving home from a “Green Business” advisory committee meeting on a
warm summer evening, I noticed a sign that said Bridge May be Icy. I
laughed and said out loud, “Not tonight!” Then I thought about the
adversarial relationship that has existed between people who call themselves
environmentalists and the business world. I wondered if we were being
naïve to think a strong bridge can be built between these two groups; to
expect a warm welcome in the business world. “At best”, I thought, this
venture will certainly put us between a rock and a hard place from time to
time. The bridge may indeed by icy.” Hawken analyses the problem:
Industry has a natural prejudice against environmentalism
because it seems to prevent activity, to slow down innovation,
and to restrict growth. Businesses see themselves as problem-
solving institutions, or, in the words of Hardin Tibbs, . . .
‘essentially optimistic and forward looking, with a preference
to action and a willingness to accept measured risk.’ 102
We dare not smugly assume we have all the answers. Much is being done
already. 3M has pioneered “Pollution Prevention Plus,” with a goal of
eliminating 90% of all emissions by the end of the decade, and to achieve
zero emissions sometime after. Other innovations are underway elsewhere,
ad Paul Hawken discovered:
One of the most comprehensive proposals toward
sustainable industrial methods is being called
‘industrial ecology’ . . .companies and industries
are trying to dovetail their material and waste flows,
attempting to eliminate pollution by tailoring
manufacturing by-products so that they become the
raw materials of subsequent processes. . . . using
waste so that it is no longer waste at all . . .
Industrial Ecology provides a positive means for
coporations to address environmental needs while
also working within their own natural predilictions. 103

Hawken finds hope in this movement, saying that it represents:
. . . for the first time a large-scale, integrated
management tool that designs industrial infrastructure
‘as if they were a series of interlocking artificial

102 IBID, P. 61.

103 IBID, P. 62

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