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A Finer Future: Creating an Economy in Service to Life Hardcover – October 9, 2018
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The blueprint for an inspiring regenerative economy that avoids collapse and works for people and the planet.
Humanity is in a race with catastrophe. Is the future one of global warming, 65 million migrants fleeing failed states, soaring inequality, and grid-locked politics? Or one of empowered entrepreneurs and innovators working towards social change, leveling the playing field, and building a world that works for everyone? While the specter of collapse looms large, A Finer Future demonstrates that humanity has a chance - just - to thread the needle of sustainability and build a regenerative economy through a powerful combination of enlightened entrepreneurialism, regenerative economy, technology, and innovative policy.
The authors - world leaders in business, economics, and sustainability - gather the environmental economics evidence, outline the principles of a regenerative economy, and detail a policy roadmap to achieving it, including:
- Transforming finance and corporations
- Reimagining energy, agriculture, ecosystems, and the nature of how we work
- Enhancing human well-being
- Delivering a world that respects ecosystems and human community.
Charting the course to a regenerative economy is the most important work facing humanity and A Finer Future provides the essential blueprint for business leaders, entrepreneurs, environmentalists, politicians, policymakers, and others working to create a world that works for people and the planet.
AWARDS
- SILVER | 2020 Eric Zencey Prize
- SILVER | 2018 Nautilus Book Awards: Ecology & Environment
- BRONZE | 2018 Foreword INDIES: Business & Economics
- Print length448 pages
- LanguageEnglish
- PublisherNew Society Publishers
- Publication dateOctober 9, 2018
- Dimensions6 x 0.87 x 9 inches
- ISBN-100865718989
- ISBN-13978-0865718982
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Editorial Reviews
Review
"A Finer Future brings hope by showing us a vision of a future with greater wellbeing, deep engagement with nature and each other, and the enormous economic benefit in transforming how we deliver energy, grow food, and finance industry. A manifesto for the future we must create."
— Jennifer Holmgren, CEO, LanzaTech
"A Finer Future is an important book for our times. The world is facing deep environmental and social challenges that threaten our collective well-being. These thought leaders provide the clearest explanation I've seen of how the world got to this point — the culprit is a fatally flawed story about what makes economies hum and people happy. This me-first philosophy now dominates the thinking in governments and businesses around the world, and it's dead wrong. But A Finer Future offers us some optimism, giving us a new and better story about how to build a thriving future. And like all good stories, this one is well-told — it feels a lot like sitting down with Hunter Lovins to talk about the future of humanity over a good drink."
— Andrew Winston, author, The Big Pivot and Green to Gold
"Join the movement for an economy driven by sustainable wellbeing rather than consumerism, profit and growth. This book is your introduction to a movement for sustainable wellbeing and a better world."
— Kate E. Pickett, Professor of Epidemiology, and Deputy Director, Centre for Future Health, University of York
"Amidst the wreckage of the industrial economy, a better, more humane, more just, and more durable economy is emerging. The obstacles and the economic alternatives and alternatives are laid out here by four of the most observant and prescient thinkers of our time. Indeed, there is a regenerative economy to be built and it will be the keystone of a finer future."
— David W. Orr, Paul Sears Distinguished Professor of Environmental Studies and Politics, Oberlin College, and author, Dangerous Years: Climate Change, the Long Emergency, and the Way Forward
"A Finer Future provides a thought-provoking perspective and a call to action on the role of sustainability as a key factor in driving value. It challenges all of us to find strategies that truly align our economic, community, and environmental stakeholders."
— Rob Katz, CEO, Vail Resorts, Inc.
"The end of the exploitive, and the rise of the regenerative: that's the clarion call in this must-read book. Our consumptive status quo is too costly for the economy and it's past-time we mainstream a new way. What we eat, wear, ride, fly, and build must be regenerative. How? This book shows the way. An authoritative nod towards a much-needed norm and narrative, this book is a masterful mix of the hard and soft sciences, putting solid numbers behind sound narratives. For anyone wanting to save people and the planet, this book is the path to pursue and the story to tell."
— Nils Moe, Managing Director, Urban Sustainability Directors Network
"Beautifully comprehensive and inspiring. What we need."
— Dr Eban Goodstein, Director, Bard Center for Environmental Policy
"Hunter Lovins is a pragmatic visionary, and the strategy she lays out in this book is the best chance we have to date of actualizing a regenerative future. One of the most luminary thought leaders of our time. Simply a must-read if you are interested in the future of the planet and your role in it."
— Brenna St. Onge, Executive Director, The Alliance Center
"A Finer Future captures the reason we created our company. Hunter Lovins is a much needed elder telling a new story that can galvanize the largest "we" in human history. This book calls us to serve sanity, justice, and every living thing."
— Donna Morton, CEO, Change Finance
"Rarely has economics been so fun and exhilarating to read about. Four scholars at the forefront of the wellbeing economy agenda have crafted a pacy, captivating book. It blends vision with insightful analysis of why our world is in such a perilous state, with a good helping of tangible examples of the changes so vitally needed. Anyone reading it will soon find assurance that a finer, more functional and more fun future is entirely possible."
— Dr Katherine Trebeck, Research Director, Wellbeing Economy Alliance
"We spend too much time discussing problems without getting to solutions. This book provides the solutions needed to transform our economy into one that actually serves all of humanity, instead of only the rich. It's a must-read for anyone that cares about creating a better world not only for themselves but their children and grandchildren."
— Ida Kubiszewski, Ph.D., Associate Professor, Crawford School of Public Policy, The Australian National University
"A Finer Future is a work of refined synthesis and insightful visioning. Rooted in a stark analysis of current development trends its authors rapidly move beyond critique to developing an inspiring yet deeply practical narrative about transitioning to a regenerative economy. More than a guide or blueprint — it is an enlightened, pragmatic, and empowering roadmap through life as we know it, the choices we make, and the future we want."
— Achim Steiner, Administrator, United Nations Development Programme
"A Finer Future is a brilliant and well-researched book that guides readers to rethink what the future will look like once we shatter old narratives, paradigms, and models that no longer serve humanity and the planet. We are through with the waste and the inefficiencies and inequities that have been the unintended consequences of the last 100 years. This is a roadmap to a truly sustainable future."
— Catherine Greener, VP Sustainability, Xanterra Travel Collection and Founder, Greener Solutions Inc
"To build a better world, first we must imagine one. In this book, the authors do just that, laying out a vision for a better life and, crucially, a practical roadmap to get there. If you're disillusioned with today, this deeply researched book offers the path forward. I'll see you in our finer future..."
— Freya Williams, CEO, Futerra North America
"In this most compelling text Hunter Lovins delivers an engaging walk through what is possible for achieving — and excelling — in delivering products and services that are good for planet and people! It is a must-have for students and practitioners seeking to accelerate and amplify the transition to economies around the world where humanity and nature thrive."
— Professor Cheryl Desha, Head of Civil Engineering (Nathan), Griffith University
"This is the book we've been waiting for. With clarity and vision, Hunter and her co-authors give us the playbook for how we can craft the future in which we want to live. Buy it, read it, and live it."
— John Steiner and Margo King, founders, Bridge Alliance.
"A Finer Future is the best book out on how to reform capitalism in the direction of more fundamental changes and to buy much needed time."
— Randy Hayes, Executive Director, Foundation Earth; and founder, Rainforest Action Network
"A much-needed book with a call for constructive collaboration towards a finer future we all yearn for. We have all the technological solutions we need we just need to implement them. Lovins and colleagues show a path forward that allows all those of good will, some smarts, and stamina to get us out of the mess we are in towards an economy and society that works for 100% of humanity."
— Dr Michael Pirson, Director, Center for Humanistic Management; Director, Master of Science in Management, Fordham University; and author, Humanistic Management: Protecting Dignity and Promoting Well Being
"This book will make you smarter about creating real, lasting, generational value. If you know in your gut that we can prosper and restore our environment at the same time, but are told by politics you're wrong, then this book is for you."
— Will Semmes, former Chief Deputy Director, California Department of General Services; and CEO, Bellwether Consultants
"This book gives us the map, a voice, and the reassurance that we are on the right course. It has all come full circle; Natural Capitalism inspired us to start Waste Farmers, and Hunter's latest book provides the necessary roadmap for an economy that supports companies like ours and all of the stakeholders we serve."
— John-Paul Maxfield, Founder & CEO, Waste Farmers
"A Finer Future is perhaps the most important book of this century: the future of humanity may well rest on the achievement of the recommendations. If you care about the future of our species and our biosphere — really about the future of everything we hold dear — read this book, then roll up your sleeves and get to work."
— Kim Coupounas, social entrepreneur and Director of B Lab, the certifying body behind B Corporations
Review
"A Finer Future brings hope by showing us a vision of a future with greater wellbeing, deep engagement with nature and each other, and the enormous economic benefit in transforming how we deliver energy, grow food, and finance industry. A manifesto for the future we must create."
― Jennifer Holmgren, CEO, LanzaTech
"A Finer Future is an important book for our times. The world is facing deep environmental and social challenges that threaten our collective well-being. These thought leaders provide the clearest explanation I've seen of how the world got to this point ― the culprit is a fatally flawed story about what makes economies hum and people happy. This me-first philosophy now dominates the thinking in governments and businesses around the world, and it's dead wrong. But A Finer Future offers us some optimism, giving us a new and better story about how to build a thriving future. And like all good stories, this one is well-told ― it feels a lot like sitting down with Hunter Lovins to talk about the future of humanity over a good drink."
― Andrew Winston, author, The Big Pivot and Green to Gold
"Join the movement for an economy driven by sustainable wellbeing rather than consumerism, profit and growth. This book is your introduction to a movement for sustainable wellbeing and a better world."
― Kate E. Pickett, Professor of Epidemiology, and Deputy Director, Centre for Future Health, University of York
"Amidst the wreckage of the industrial economy, a better, more humane, more just, and more durable economy is emerging. The obstacles and the economic alternatives and alternatives are laid out here by four of the most observant and prescient thinkers of our time. Indeed, there is a regenerative economy to be built and it will be the keystone of a finer future."
― David W. Orr, Paul Sears Distinguished Professor of Environmental Studies and Politics, Oberlin College, and author, Dangerous Years: Climate Change, the Long Emergency, and the Way Forward
"A Finer Future provides a thought-provoking perspective and a call to action on the role of sustainability as a key factor in driving value. It challenges all of us to find strategies that truly align our economic, community, and environmental stakeholders."
― Rob Katz, CEO, Vail Resorts, Inc.
"The end of the exploitive, and the rise of the regenerative: that's the clarion call in this must-read book. Our consumptive status quo is too costly for the economy and it's past-time we mainstream a new way. What we eat, wear, ride, fly, and build must be regenerative. How? This book shows the way. An authoritative nod towards a much-needed norm and narrative, this book is a masterful mix of the hard and soft sciences, putting solid numbers behind sound narratives. For anyone wanting to save people and the planet, this book is the path to pursue and the story to tell."
― Nils Moe, Managing Director, Urban Sustainability Directors Network
"Beautifully comprehensive and inspiring. What we need."
― Dr Eban Goodstein, Director, Bard Center for Environmental Policy
"Hunter Lovins is a pragmatic visionary, and the strategy she lays out in this book is the best chance we have to date of actualizing a regenerative future. One of the most luminary thought leaders of our time. Simply a must-read if you are interested in the future of the planet and your role in it."
― Brenna St. Onge, Executive Director, The Alliance Center
"A Finer Future captures the reason we created our company. Hunter Lovins is a much needed elder telling a new story that can galvanize the largest "we" in human history. This book calls us to serve sanity, justice, and every living thing."
― Donna Morton, CEO, Change Finance
"Rarely has economics been so fun and exhilarating to read about. Four scholars at the forefront of the wellbeing economy agenda have crafted a pacy, captivating book. It blends vision with insightful analysis of why our world is in such a perilous state, with a good helping of tangible examples of the changes so vitally needed. Anyone reading it will soon find assurance that a finer, more functional and more fun future is entirely possible."
― Dr Katherine Trebeck, Research Director, Wellbeing Economy Alliance
"We spend too much time discussing problems without getting to solutions. This book provides the solutions needed to transform our economy into one that actually serves all of humanity, instead of only the rich. It's a must-read for anyone that cares about creating a better world not only for themselves but their children and grandchildren."
― Ida Kubiszewski, Ph.D., Associate Professor, Crawford School of Public Policy, The Australian National University
"A Finer Future is a work of refined synthesis and insightful visioning. Rooted in a stark analysis of current development trends its authors rapidly move beyond critique to developing an inspiring yet deeply practical narrative about transitioning to a regenerative economy. More than a guide or blueprint ― it is an enlightened, pragmatic, and empowering roadmap through life as we know it, the choices we make, and the future we want."
― Achim Steiner, Administrator, United Nations Development Programme
"A Finer Future is a brilliant and well-researched book that guides readers to rethink what the future will look like once we shatter old narratives, paradigms, and models that no longer serve humanity and the planet. We are through with the waste and the inefficiencies and inequities that have been the unintended consequences of the last 100 years. This is a roadmap to a truly sustainable future."
― Catherine Greener, VP Sustainability, Xanterra Travel Collection and Founder, Greener Solutions Inc
"To build a better world, first we must imagine one. In this book, the authors do just that, laying out a vision for a better life and, crucially, a practical roadmap to get there. If you're disillusioned with today, this deeply researched book offers the path forward. I'll see you in our finer future..."
― Freya Williams, CEO, Futerra North America
"In this most compelling text Hunter Lovins delivers an engaging walk through what is possible for achieving ― and excelling ― in delivering products and services that are good for planet and people! It is a must-have for students and practitioners seeking to accelerate and amplify the transition to economies around the world where humanity and nature thrive."
― Professor Cheryl Desha, Head of Civil Engineering (Nathan), Griffith University
"This is the book we've been waiting for. With clarity and vision, Hunter and her co-authors give us the playbook for how we can craft the future in which we want to live. Buy it, read it, and live it."
― John Steiner and Margo King, founders, Bridge Alliance.
"A Finer Future is the best book out on how to reform capitalism in the direction of more fundamental changes and to buy much needed time."
― Randy Hayes, Executive Director, Foundation Earth; and founder, Rainforest Action Network
"A much-needed book with a call for constructive collaboration towards a finer future we all yearn for. We have all the technological solutions we need we just need to implement them. Lovins and colleagues show a path forward that allows all those of good will, some smarts, and stamina to get us out of the mess we are in towards an economy and society that works for 100% of humanity."
― Dr Michael Pirson, Director, Center for Humanistic Management; Director, Master of Science in Management, Fordham University; and author, Humanistic Management: Protecting Dignity and Promoting Well Being
"This book will make you smarter about creating real, lasting, generational value. If you know in your gut that we can prosper and restore our environment at the same time, but are told by politics you're wrong, then this book is for you."
― Will Semmes, former Chief Deputy Director, California Department of General Services; and CEO, Bellwether Consultants
"This book gives us the map, a voice, and the reassurance that we are on the right course. It has all come full circle; Natural Capitalism inspired us to start Waste Farmers, and Hunter's latest book provides the necessary roadmap for an economy that supports companies like ours and all of the stakeholders we serve."
― John-Paul Maxfield, Founder & CEO, Waste Farmers
"A Finer Future is perhaps the most important book of this century: the future of humanity may well rest on the achievement of the recommendations. If you care about the future of our species and our biosphere ― really about the future of everything we hold dear ― read this book, then roll up your sleeves and get to work."
― Kim Coupounas, social entrepreneur and Director of B Lab, the certifying body behind B Corporations
Book Description
The blueprint for an inspiring regenerative economy that avoids collapse and works for people and the planet
From the Inside Flap
The blueprint for an inspiring regenerative economy that avoids collapse and works for people and the planet
This book is your entry ticket to the movement for sustainable well-being and a better world.
-- Richard Wilkinson and Kate Pickett, authors, The Spirit Level
Indeed, there is a regenerative economy to be built and it will be the keystone of a finer future, laid out here by four of the most observant and prescient thinkers of our time.
-- David W. Orr, Paul Sears Distinguished Professor of Environmental Studies and Politics, Oberlin College, and author, Dangerous Years
An important book for our times.
-- Andrew Winston, author, The Big Pivot and Green to Gold
Beautifully comprehensive and inspiring. What we need.
-- Dr. Eban Goodstein, director, Bard Center for Environmental Policy
Simply a must-read if you are interested in the future of the planet and your role in it!
-- Brenna St. Onge, executive director, The Alliance Center
A new story that can galvanize the largest "we" in human history. This book calls us to serve sanity, justice, and every living thing.
-- Donna Morton, CEO, Change Finance
A masterful mix of the hard and soft sciences, putting solid numbers behind sound narratives.
-- Nils Moe, managing director, Urban Sustainability Directors Network
Essential reading to enable an avalanche of creative solutions that embed resilience and restore natural capital in every project.
-- Professor Cheryl Desha, Head of Civil Engineering, Griffith University and co-author, Factor 5 and Whole System Design
Rarely has economics been so fun and exhilarating to read about. It blends vision with insightful analysis of why our world is in such a perilous state, with a good helping of tangible examples of the changes so vitally needed.
-- Dr. Katherine Trebeck, research director, Wellbeing Economy Alliance
From the Back Cover
The blueprint for an inspiring regenerative economy that avoids collapse and works for people and the planet
This book is your entry ticket to the movement for sustainable well-being and a better world.
― Richard Wilkinson and Kate Pickett, authors, The Spirit Level
Indeed, there is a regenerative economy to be built and it will be the keystone of a finer future, laid out here by four of the most observant and prescient thinkers of our time.
― David W. Orr, Paul Sears Distinguished Professor of Environmental Studies and Politics,Oberlin College, and author, Dangerous Years
An important book for our times.
― Andrew Winston, author, The Big Pivot and Green to Gold
Beautifully comprehensive and inspiring. What we need.
― Dr. Eban Goodstein, director, Bard Center for Environmental Policy
Simply a must-read if you are interested in the future of the planet and your role in it!
― Brenna St. Onge, executive director, The Alliance Center
A new story that can galvanize the largest "we" in human history. This book calls us to serve sanity, justice, and every living thing.
― Donna Morton, CEO, Change Finance
A masterful mix of the hard and soft sciences, putting solid numbers behind sound narratives.
― Nils Moe, managing director, Urban Sustainability Directors Network
Essential reading to enable an avalanche of creative solutions that embed resilience and restore natural capital in every project.
― Professor Cheryl Desha, Head of Civil Engineering, Griffith University and co-author, Factor 5 and Whole System Design
Rarely has economics been so fun and exhilarating to read about. It blends vision with insightful analysis of why our world is in such a perilous state, with a good helping of tangible examples of the changes so vitally needed.
― Dr. Katherine Trebeck, research director, Wellbeing Economy Alliance
About the Author
L. Hunter Lovins, Time Magazine's Millennium Hero for the Planet, is a business professor, President and Founder of Natural Capitalism Solutions, and co-author of The Way Out and the best-selling Natural Capitalism.
Stewart Wallis was Executive Director of the New Economics Foundation, UK, and advises the World Economic Forum.
Anders Wijkman is Co-Chair of the Club of Rome, a former EU parliamentarian, and co-author of Bankrupting Nature and Come On!
John Fullerton is President of Capital Institute and former Managing Director at JP Morgan.
Kate Raworth is a renegade economist focused on exploring the economic mindset needed to address the 21st century's social and ecological challenges, and is the creator of the Doughnut of social and planetary boundaries.
Product details
- Publisher : New Society Publishers (October 9, 2018)
- Language : English
- Hardcover : 448 pages
- ISBN-10 : 0865718989
- ISBN-13 : 978-0865718982
- Item Weight : 2.31 pounds
- Dimensions : 6 x 0.87 x 9 inches
- Best Sellers Rank: #566,271 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #63 in Green Business (Books)
- #504 in Economic Policy & Development (Books)
- #537 in Environmental Economics (Books)
- Customer Reviews:
About the authors
Discover more of the author’s books, see similar authors, read book recommendations and more.
Discover more of the author’s books, see similar authors, read book recommendations and more.
L. Hunter Lovins is the President and Founder of Natural Capitalism Solutions (NCS), a non-profit formed in 2002 in Longmont, CO. A renowned author and champion of sustainable development for over 35 years, Hunter has consulted on sustainable agriculture, energy, water, security, and climate policies for scores of governments, communities, and companies worldwide. Within the United States, she has consulted for the Presidential Cabinet, Department of Defense, EPA, Department of Energy and numerous state and local agencies.
Hunter believes that citizens, communities and companies, working together within the market context, are the most dynamic problem-solving force on the planet. She has devoted herself to building teams that can create and implement practical and affordable solutions to the problems facing us in creating a sustainable future.
Hunter has co‐authored fifteen books and hundreds of articles, and was featured in the award‐winning film, Lovins On the Soft Path. Her best‐known book, Natural Capitalism, has been translated into a more than three dozen languages and summarized in Harvard Business Review. Its sequel, Climate Capitalism, won the Atlas Award. Her latest, Creating a Lean and Green Business System won the Shingo Prize. Hunter has taught at numerous universities around the world, was a founding professor of Sustainable Management at Presidio Graduate School.
Currently she is a professor of Sustainable Management at Bard MBA. Named a Master at the Chinese De Tao Academy, Hunter helped launch the Institute for Green Investment in Shanghai, and she is a Fellow of the Fowler Center at Case Western University.
Lovins has consulted for scores of industries and governments worldwide, including International Finance Corporation, Unilever, Walmart, the United Nations and Royal Dutch Shell, as well as such sustainability champions as Interface, Patagonia and Clif Bar. She has briefed heads of state, leaders of the numerous local governments, the Pentagon, Congress and officials in more that 30 other countries.
Hunter lectures regularly to audiences around the globe. She has worked in economic development from Afghanistan to New Zealand, and served the King of Bhutan on his International Expert Working Group, charged with reinventing the global economy. She sits on the Executive Committee of the Club of Rome, the steering committee of the Alliance for Sustainability And Prosperity, and Capital Institute’s Advisory Board. A founding mentor of the Unreasonable Institute, Hunter teaches entrepreneurship and coaches social enterprises around the world. She is also a founding partner in Principium, an impact-investing firm. Hunter has won dozens of awards from the Right Livelihood Award (Alternative Nobel), Leadership in Business, The Rachel Carson Award, and the European Sustainability Pioneer award. Time Magazine recognized her as a Millennium Hero for the Planet, and Newsweek called her the Green Business Icon.
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- Reviewed in the United States on November 21, 2020I found this book exciting. A Finer Future delivers concentrated facts, analyses and real-world innovations that instantly get us past the often ill-informed and misleading "political debate" over climate change and sustainable business practices. The book is so focused and practical that it makes you want get up and get something useful done. It quickly reveals that "green" and sustainable policies are not liberal pie-in-the-sky fantasies that would ruin the economy, as some unaware folks and vested interests like to claim, and that instead they advance hard-nosed, profit-driven, job-creating, free commerce principles, and the spirit of independence and entrepreneurship at the core of American values. Written by four of the most influential thought leaders in the accelerating sustainability movement, this book is galvanizing because it lights the way forward, toward a more practical, profitable, survivable, healthy and innovative future for us all. I couldn't put it down, and then it got me looking into more.
- Reviewed in the United States on January 1, 2020A Finer Future: creating an Economy in Service to Life is an important book with workable solutions in these times of climate crisis and ecological overreach and collapse. It should be foundational reading in business, economics and environmental courses.
- Reviewed in the United States on August 7, 2019This book is a very interesting take on how climate change can impact the economy.
- Reviewed in the United States on May 3, 2019I use this book in a course I teach at the University of Denver. Students like the book because it is realistic about the social, economic, and environmental problems we face - and describes them succinctly and clearly; however, it then proceeds to describe solutions that already exist and simply need to be fostered and other solutions that are possible. My students are typically environmentally aware and concerned but they are exhausted with elaborate and repetitive descriptions of the problems. They yearn for solutions they can take part in. This book tackles that challenge.
- Reviewed in the United States on April 25, 2019This book does what too few books attempt: paint a picture of a present-day world where business, technology, politics, etc., can actually be harnessed to create a better (even shining) future. It does so with massively researched, briskly written prose. Sign me up for this any day.
- Reviewed in the United States on February 2, 2019Just when you thought climate change and the global economy were spiraling out of control, this book does a wonderful job of painting a more hopeful and regenerative future. Well written, with many real-life examples of positive change in process. Highly recommend.
- Reviewed in the United States on November 10, 2018Thank you very much everything was fine
- Reviewed in the United States on March 8, 2020I was actually very disappointed by this book. Which is a shame, because I looking forward to it coming out since I first heard about it several years ago. As a student of these topics and as an engineer and sustainability consultant, I am always looking for well-researched references that I can lean on when arguing for making changes to the status quo in business and the built environment. While I agree with the intent of the book, the quality of the arguments being made are just not where they need to be if we want to change anybody's mind. (Maybe they are good enough for the echo chamber of people who already believe in this movement.) In fact, I feel like I walked away from many of the sections with a poorer understanding than when I started.
I think my biggest complaint would be the references. You can tell a lot about the quality of a book by the references they use, and this text used very basic references. For example, many of the "facts" they use to support the arguments being made come from a simple web search or a news article they found online (and by some clearly biased news organizations). One author appears to site a lot of his own previous writing as evidence to support the arguments he is making, a form of circular logic that is easy to pick apart. And just as a pet peeve, there are frequent grammar errors that should have been easily caught by the editors, which is frustrating for a book that was being worked on for so long.
In summary, I am sad to admit that I would not recommend this book to anybody who is serious about making change to the status quo - exactly the kinds of changes that are called for in this book. I cannot trust the references being used to build up their arguments, and therefore I cannot use this book as a foundation for building a movement. I must continue my research elsewhere.
Top reviews from other countries
- Douglas NewberryReviewed in the United Kingdom on May 7, 2024
5.0 out of 5 stars One of the most constructive books on economic options I've found
This is a truly inspirational book about constructive way out of our current climate and economic crisis.
Another book for the club of Rome called money and sustainability, a report by the European chapter of the club of Rome describes and documents with very good references the problems of our current economic system system, and begins to describe some more sustainable alternatives.
A finer future is an outstanding and surprisingly readable description of the dead end that our current system is headed for
Followed by inspiring real life examples of economic success from applying sustainability principles to real life businesses and a inspirational invitation to be part of creating a truly sustainable future for a human mankind.
This book is in my view a must read for anyone who has an opinion about what we should be doing to solve our economic problems