“Once regarded as irrelevant to economic activity, environmental problems are drastically rewriting the rules for business, investors, and consumers, affecting over $100 billion in annual capital flows,” say Worldwatch Institute project co-directors Gary Gardner and Thomas Prugh.

The Worldwatch Institute report State of the World 2008: Innovations for a Sustainable Economy (full report available for purchase: $15 e-book, $18.95 paperback) highlighted that the world’s first global, sustainable market is becoming a reality with environmental initiatives, revolutionary industrial production methods and a surge in environmentally focused investment groups.

In Green Economics: Turning Mainstream Thinking on Its Head, Worldwatch Institute’s Thomas Prugh offers what ‘truer, greener, more sustainable’ economics look like and why we should pay attention to the paradigm shift that is shaping the green economy.

Prugh’s vision of the green economy considers the following:

• Scale. Or understanding ecosystems.
• Stress development over growth.
• Make prices tell the ecological truth.
• Account for nature’s services.
• The precautionary principle.
• Commons management.
• Value women.

Get the whole picture at Green Economic: Turning Mainstream Thinking on its Head at Worldwatch Institute.

Post from: EveryJoe

Truer, Greener, More Sustainable Economics

The world’s first global, sustainable market is becoming a reality according to a new report from the Worldwatch Institute. Environmental initiatives, revolutionary industrial production methods and a surge in environmentally focused investment groups are all highlighted among the increasingly important role that environmental issues play in the new world economy.

Another sign of dramatic change is the 575 environmental and energy hedge funds now in existence, most of them formed in the last few years. “Clean tech” has rapidly grown to be the third largest recipient of venture capital, trailing only the Internet and biotechnology. And 54 banks, representing 85 percent of global private project finance capacity, have endorsed the Equator Principles, a new international standard of sustainability investment.

The report also highlights how the current global economy is outpacing its “ecological base” using up natural resources at an unsustainable rate but notes that we possess the power and tools to change its course.

“Continued human progress now depends on an economic transformation that is more profound than any seen in the last century,” says Worldwatch president Christopher Flavin. “We should be practicing a sustainable approach to economics that takes advantage of the ability of markets to allocate scarce resources while explicitly recognizing that our economy is dependent on the broader ecosystem that contains it.”

Read the Worldwatch article at Adam Smith, Meet Mother Earth, more on the report at State of the World 2008: Innovations for a Sustainable Economy (full report available for purchase: $15 e-book, $18.95 paperback)

Post from: EveryJoe

Economic Innovations Surge With Environmentalism

There are over 600 members in the United States alone including Via Viva, Totally Organic, Purely Shea, N’East Magazine, Native Energy and many more great companies and individuals.

How it works: Members of 1% For The Planet can contribute 1% of sales to any of the environmental organizations listed on the web site. Member companies donate directly to their desired nonprofits—not through 1% FTP. We do this to encourage independent, personal relationships between member companies and the groups they support. These relationships are a real positive for businesses, enabling them to get involved and affect change firsthand.

Why give? In the words of playwrite Thornton Wilder: “Money, if you’ll pardon the expression, is like manure. It’s not worth a thing unless you spread it around encouraging young things to grow.” And that’s the idea of 1% FTP, to help good things grow by encouraging corporate giving.

The list of non-profits is growing steadily but today include important organizations like Worldwatch Institute, World Wildlife Fund, Wild Aid, The Sierra Fund and The Nature Conservancy, among many others.

This holiday season, and throughout the year, consider giving 1% For The Planet to make it go around for the environment and keep the earth in business.

Post from: EveryJoe

Are You Giving 1%?