Paul Hawken
Encyclopedia
Paul Hawken is an environmentalist
, entrepreneur
, and author.
, and the White Mountain area
above Owens Valley
." He received no formal degrees but attended UC Berkeley and San Francisco State University
.
He worked in the Civil Rights Movement.
He currently lives in or near Sausalito, California
, a neighbor of Stewart Brand
.
The businessman and environmentalist Ray Anderson
of Interface, Inc. credited The Ecology of Commerce with his environmental awakening. He described reading it as a “spear in the chest experience”, after which Anderson started crisscrossing the country with a near-evangelical fervor, telling fellow executives about the need to reduce waste and carbon emissions.
Hawken's book, Natural Capitalism: Creating the Next Industrial Revolution (1999) coauthored with Amory Lovins
and Hunter Lovins
, popularized the now-standard idea of natural capital
and direct accounting for ecosystem services
. Natural Capitalism has been translated into 26 other languages.
Blessed Unrest, How the Largest Movement in the World Came into Being and Why No One Saw It Coming
published by Viking Press (New York) in May 2007, argues that a vast world-changing “movement with no name” is now forming, which Hawken believes will prevail. He conceives of this "movement" as developing not by ideology
but rather through the identification of what is and is not humane, like an immune system
. The following passage gives an idea of his conception of the movement: “It is axiomatic that we are at a threshold in human existence, a fundamental change in understanding about our relationship to nature and each other. We are moving from a world created by privilege to a world created by community. The current thrust of history is too supple to be labeled, but global themes are emerging in response to cascading ecological crises
and human suffering. These ideas include the need for radical social change, the reinvention of market-based economics, the empowerment of women
, activism on all levels, and the need for localized economic control. There are insistent calls for autonomy, appeals for a new resource ethic based on the tradition of the commons, demands for the reinstatement of cultural primacy over corporate hegemony, and a rising demand for radical transparency
in politics and corporate decision making
. It has been said that environmentalism
failed as a movement, or worse yet, died. It is the other way around. Everyone on earth will be an environmentalist in the not too distant future, driven there by necessity and experience.”
Hawken's books have been published in over 50 countries in 27 languages.
Growing a Business became the basis of a 17-part PBS series, which Mr. Hawken hosted and produced. The program, which explored the challenges and pitfalls of starting and operating socially responsive companies, was shown on television in 115 countries.
's utopian novel
published anonymously in 1872) and turned it into the Erewhon Trading Company, a natural-foods wholesaler. With Dave Smith, he co-founded the Smith & Hawken
garden supply company in 1979, a retail and catalog business. He heads PaxFan, which uses geometries found in nature to increase the efficiency of industrial fans, turbines, and electronic thermal management. In 2008, he co-founded Biomimicry Technologies with biologist Janine Benyus
, the author of Biomimicry, Innovation Inspired by Nature, HarperCollins, 1997.
(NCI) located in Sausalito, California
. Its main focus is WiserEarth
, an open source database of activists and civil society
organizations focused on environmental and social justice.
Mr. Hawken has served on the board of public organizations including Point Foundation (publisher of the Whole Earth Catalog
s), Center for Plant Conservation, Conservation International, Trust for Public Land, Friends of the Earth, and National Audubon Society. He was the founder of The Natural Step in the United States.
In 2002, Fortune
called him “the original hippie entrepreneur, the merchant of Marin County who got turned on to business when others were still dropping out,” adding: “Today Hawken occupies a unique niche in the American landscape, combining bottom-line business credentials [he regularly addresses corporate audiences] with credibility among environmentalists and social critics. He once wrote, and stands by, the following sentence: ‘There is no polite way to say that business is destroying the world.’ Yet he also believes, passionately, that business―with its restless energy, imagination, and creativity―will one day get us out of the mess it has made. Says Hawken: ‘I believe business is on the verge of . . . a change brought on by social and biological forces that can no longer be ignored or put aside.’”
Paul Hawken was hired by Ben & Jerry's
to perform a social audit.
Other recognition and awards received listed on his website biography are:
Environmentalist
An environmentalist broadly supports the goals of the environmental movement, "a political and ethical movement that seeks to improve and protect the quality of the natural environment through changes to environmentally harmful human activities"...
, entrepreneur
Entrepreneur
An entrepreneur is an owner or manager of a business enterprise who makes money through risk and initiative.The term was originally a loanword from French and was first defined by the Irish-French economist Richard Cantillon. Entrepreneur in English is a term applied to a person who is willing to...
, and author.
Life
Paul Hawken had a Swedish grandmother and a Scottish grandfather with a farm. His father worked at UC Berkeley. As a teenager, he "roam[ed] the peaks of the Sierra Nevada, the dry eastern valleys that sprawl down to Mono LakeMono Lake
Mono Lake is a large, shallow saline lake in Mono County, California, formed at least 760,000 years ago as a terminal lake in a basin that has no outlet to the ocean...
, and the White Mountain area
White Mountains (California)
The White Mountains of California are a triangular fault block mountain range facing the Sierra Nevada across the upper Owens Valley. They extend for approximately as a greatly elevated plateau about wide on the south, narrowing to a point at the north, with elevations generally increasing...
above Owens Valley
Owens Valley
Owens Valley is the arid valley of the Owens River in eastern California in the United States, to the east of the Sierra Nevada and west of the White Mountains and Inyo Mountains on the west edge of the Great Basin section...
." He received no formal degrees but attended UC Berkeley and San Francisco State University
San Francisco State University
San Francisco State University is a public university located in San Francisco, California. As part of the 23-campus California State University system, the university offers over 100 areas of study from nine academic colleges...
.
He worked in the Civil Rights Movement.
He currently lives in or near Sausalito, California
Sausalito, California
Sausalito is a San Francisco Bay Area city, in Marin County, California, United States. Sausalito is south-southeast of San Rafael, at an elevation of 13 feet . The population was 7,061 as of the 2010 census. The community is situated near the northern end of the Golden Gate Bridge, and prior to...
, a neighbor of Stewart Brand
Stewart Brand
Stewart Brand is an American writer, best known as editor of the Whole Earth Catalog. He founded a number of organizations including The WELL, the Global Business Network, and the Long Now Foundation...
.
Writing
Hawken has authored six books, including The Next Economy (1983), Growing a Business, and The Ecology of Commerce (1993), wherein he coined the term the "restoration economy."The businessman and environmentalist Ray Anderson
Ray Anderson (entrepreneur)
Ray C. Anderson was founder and chairman of Interface Inc., one of the world's largest manufacturers of modular carpet for commercial and residential applications and a leading producer of commercial broadloom and commercial fabrics...
of Interface, Inc. credited The Ecology of Commerce with his environmental awakening. He described reading it as a “spear in the chest experience”, after which Anderson started crisscrossing the country with a near-evangelical fervor, telling fellow executives about the need to reduce waste and carbon emissions.
Hawken's book, Natural Capitalism: Creating the Next Industrial Revolution (1999) coauthored with Amory Lovins
Amory Lovins
Amory Bloch Lovins is an American environmental scientist and writer, Chairman and Chief Scientist of the Rocky Mountain Institute. He has worked in the field of energy policy and related areas for four decades...
and Hunter Lovins
Hunter Lovins
L. Hunter Lovins is an author and a promoter of sustainable development for over 30 years, is president of Natural Capitalism Solutions, a 5013 non-profit in Longmont, Colorado and the Chief Insurgent of the Madrone Project...
, popularized the now-standard idea of natural capital
Natural capital
Natural capital is the extension of the economic notion of capital to goods and services relating to the natural environment. Natural capital is thus the stock of natural ecosystems that yields a flow of valuable ecosystem goods or services into the future...
and direct accounting for ecosystem services
Ecosystem services
Humankind benefits from a multitude of resources and processes that are supplied by natural ecosystems. Collectively, these benefits are known as ecosystem services and include products like clean drinking water and processes such as the decomposition of wastes...
. Natural Capitalism has been translated into 26 other languages.
Blessed Unrest, How the Largest Movement in the World Came into Being and Why No One Saw It Coming
Blessed Unrest
Blessed Unrest: How the Largest Movement in the World Came into Being and Why No One Saw It Coming is a 2007 New York Times bestseller by Paul Hawken. The book is about the many non-profit groups and community organizations, dedicated to many different causes, which Hawken calls the “environmental...
published by Viking Press (New York) in May 2007, argues that a vast world-changing “movement with no name” is now forming, which Hawken believes will prevail. He conceives of this "movement" as developing not by ideology
Ideology
An ideology is a set of ideas that constitutes one's goals, expectations, and actions. An ideology can be thought of as a comprehensive vision, as a way of looking at things , as in common sense and several philosophical tendencies , or a set of ideas proposed by the dominant class of a society to...
but rather through the identification of what is and is not humane, like an immune system
Immune system
An immune system is a system of biological structures and processes within an organism that protects against disease by identifying and killing pathogens and tumor cells. It detects a wide variety of agents, from viruses to parasitic worms, and needs to distinguish them from the organism's own...
. The following passage gives an idea of his conception of the movement: “It is axiomatic that we are at a threshold in human existence, a fundamental change in understanding about our relationship to nature and each other. We are moving from a world created by privilege to a world created by community. The current thrust of history is too supple to be labeled, but global themes are emerging in response to cascading ecological crises
Ecological crisis
An ecological crisis occurs when the environment of a species or a population changes in a way that destabilizes its continued survival. There are many possible causes of such crises:...
and human suffering. These ideas include the need for radical social change, the reinvention of market-based economics, the empowerment of women
Women's rights
Women's rights are entitlements and freedoms claimed for women and girls of all ages in many societies.In some places these rights are institutionalized or supported by law, local custom, and behaviour, whereas in others they may be ignored or suppressed...
, activism on all levels, and the need for localized economic control. There are insistent calls for autonomy, appeals for a new resource ethic based on the tradition of the commons, demands for the reinstatement of cultural primacy over corporate hegemony, and a rising demand for radical transparency
Radical transparency
Radical transparency is a management approach in which all decision making is carried out publicly. The term was used by Daniel Goleman in his book...
in politics and corporate decision making
Corporatocracy
Corporatocracy, in social theories that focus on conflicts and opposing interests within society, denotes a system of government that serves the interest of, and may be run by, corporations and involves ties between government and business...
. It has been said that environmentalism
Environmentalism
Environmentalism is a broad philosophy, ideology and social movement regarding concerns for environmental conservation and improvement of the health of the environment, particularly as the measure for this health seeks to incorporate the concerns of non-human elements...
failed as a movement, or worse yet, died. It is the other way around. Everyone on earth will be an environmentalist in the not too distant future, driven there by necessity and experience.”
Hawken's books have been published in over 50 countries in 27 languages.
Growing a Business became the basis of a 17-part PBS series, which Mr. Hawken hosted and produced. The program, which explored the challenges and pitfalls of starting and operating socially responsive companies, was shown on television in 115 countries.
Business
Hawken took over a small retail store in Boston in 1966 called Erewhon (after Samuel ButlerSamuel Butler (novelist)
Samuel Butler was an iconoclastic Victorian author who published a variety of works. Two of his most famous pieces are the Utopian satire Erewhon and a semi-autobiographical novel published posthumously, The Way of All Flesh...
's utopian novel
Erewhon
Erewhon: or, Over the Range is a novel by Samuel Butler, published anonymously in 1872. The title is also the name of a country, supposedly discovered by the protagonist. In the novel, it is not revealed in which part of the world Erewhon is, but it is clear that it is a fictional country...
published anonymously in 1872) and turned it into the Erewhon Trading Company, a natural-foods wholesaler. With Dave Smith, he co-founded the Smith & Hawken
Smith & Hawken
Smith & Hawken was garden lifestyle brand that operated retail stores, direct mail and e-commerce in the United States. On July 10, 2009, it was announced that all Smith & Hawken stores would cease operation. Smith & Hawken stores were located in upscale retail locations in 22 states.Smith & Hawken...
garden supply company in 1979, a retail and catalog business. He heads PaxFan, which uses geometries found in nature to increase the efficiency of industrial fans, turbines, and electronic thermal management. In 2008, he co-founded Biomimicry Technologies with biologist Janine Benyus
Janine Benyus
Janine M. Benyus is an American natural sciences writer, innovation consultant, and author.-Life:Benyus graduated summa cum laude from Rutgers University with degrees in natural resource management and english literature/writing. Benyus teaches interpretive writing, lectures at the University of...
, the author of Biomimicry, Innovation Inspired by Nature, HarperCollins, 1997.
Activism
Hawken founded and directs the Natural Capital InstituteNatural Capital Institute
The Natural Capital Institute is a non-profit non-governmental organization based in Sausalito, CA. It was founded by the environmentalist, entrepreneur, journalist, and author Paul Hawken. -Mission statement:...
(NCI) located in Sausalito, California
Sausalito, California
Sausalito is a San Francisco Bay Area city, in Marin County, California, United States. Sausalito is south-southeast of San Rafael, at an elevation of 13 feet . The population was 7,061 as of the 2010 census. The community is situated near the northern end of the Golden Gate Bridge, and prior to...
. Its main focus is WiserEarth
WiserEarth
WiserEarth.org is a user-generated online community space for the social and environmental movement , tracking the work of non-profits around the world...
, an open source database of activists and civil society
Civil society
Civil society is composed of the totality of many voluntary social relationships, civic and social organizations, and institutions that form the basis of a functioning society, as distinct from the force-backed structures of a state , the commercial institutions of the market, and private criminal...
organizations focused on environmental and social justice.
Mr. Hawken has served on the board of public organizations including Point Foundation (publisher of the Whole Earth Catalog
Whole Earth Catalog
The Whole Earth Catalog was an American counterculture catalog published by Stewart Brand between 1968 and 1972, and occasionally thereafter, until 1998...
s), Center for Plant Conservation, Conservation International, Trust for Public Land, Friends of the Earth, and National Audubon Society. He was the founder of The Natural Step in the United States.
Recognition
As of 2009 Paul Hawken had been awarded six honorary doctorates.In 2002, Fortune
Fortune (magazine)
Fortune is a global business magazine published by Time Inc. Founded by Henry Luce in 1930, the publishing business, consisting of Time, Life, Fortune, and Sports Illustrated, grew to become Time Warner. In turn, AOL grew as it acquired Time Warner in 2000 when Time Warner was the world's largest...
called him “the original hippie entrepreneur, the merchant of Marin County who got turned on to business when others were still dropping out,” adding: “Today Hawken occupies a unique niche in the American landscape, combining bottom-line business credentials [he regularly addresses corporate audiences] with credibility among environmentalists and social critics. He once wrote, and stands by, the following sentence: ‘There is no polite way to say that business is destroying the world.’ Yet he also believes, passionately, that business―with its restless energy, imagination, and creativity―will one day get us out of the mess it has made. Says Hawken: ‘I believe business is on the verge of . . . a change brought on by social and biological forces that can no longer be ignored or put aside.’”
Paul Hawken was hired by Ben & Jerry's
Ben & Jerry's
Ben & Jerry's is an American ice cream company, a division of the British-Dutch Unilever conglomerate, that manufactures ice cream, frozen yogurt, sorbet, and ice cream novelty products, manufactured by Ben & Jerry's Homemade Holdings, Inc., headquartered in South Burlington, Vermont, United...
to perform a social audit.
Other recognition and awards received listed on his website biography are:
- Green Cross Millennium Award for Individual Environmental Leadership presented by Mikhail GorbachevMikhail GorbachevMikhail Sergeyevich Gorbachev is a former Soviet statesman, having served as General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union from 1985 until 1991, and as the last head of state of the USSR, having served from 1988 until its dissolution in 1991...
in 2003 - World Council for Corporate Governance in 2002
- Design Futures CouncilDesign Futures CouncilThe Design Futures Council is an interdisciplinary network of design, product, and construction leaders exploring global trends, challenges, and opportunities to advance innovation and shape the future of the industry and environment...
Senior Fellow - Small Business Administration Entrepreneur of the Year in 1990
- Utne One Hundred Visionaries who could Change our Lives in 1995
- Western Publications Association Maggie award for Natural Capitalism as the best Signed Editorial/Essay in 1997
- Creative Visionary Award by the International Society of Industrial Design
- Design in Business Award for environmental responsibility by the American Center for Design
- Council on Economic Priorities’ 1990 Corporate Conscience Award
- American Horticultural Society Award for commitment to excellence in commercial horticulture
- Metropolitan Home Design 100 Editorial Award for the 100 best people, products and ideas that shape our lives
- The Cine Golden Eagle award in video for the PBS program Marketing from Growing a Business
- California Institute of Integral Studies Award For Ongoing Humanitarian Contributions to the Bay Area Communities
- Esquire Magazine award for the best 100 People of a Generation (1984)
External links
- Official Paul Hawken website
- Natural Capital Institute NCI
- Wiser Earth - World Index for Social and Environmental Responsibility
- Natural Capitalism - Website about the book of the same title
- Natural Capitalism - Mother Jones article that inspired the book of the same title
- Paul Hawken piece on Worldchanging
- Official book site for Blessed Unrest
Video
- Paul Hawken interview from Democracy Now! program, May 23, 2007
- Hope: an interview with Paul Hawken by elephant journal