Future environmental impacts can be solved through capitalism

Now I want to convince the reader that the fullest implementation of the principles of Natural Capitalism can be sustainable; more than sustainable, it could greatly assist with the restoration of natural capital and do so without abandoning Capitalism as such. I will do this by comparing an implementation of the model directly with our definition of sustainability from Chapter 2. The specific implementation I have in mind takes us back to the example of Interface from our discussion of the first principle. We have already seen how, in designing their new factory in China, Interface availed themselves of the opportunity to rethink design from a whole system perspective and, together with embracing the latest and best existing technologies, were able to realize significant savings in terms of inputs (on the order of 90–95%) while simultaneously reducing waste outputs to near zero. I want to pick up the story with subsequent developments at Interface. It is a truly remarkable story of corporate commitment to sustainability. To fully appreciate the significance of this, let’s first contextualize the problem by understanding a few basics about floor coverings in a commercial setting. Consider a law firm occupying, say, four floors in a high-rise building. The floor coverings are looking old and worn, which doesn’t take long in the high-traffic areas, perhaps four years or less. Now consider what’s required to update these. Proceeding one floor at a time, we must first relocate all the employees, perhaps in the same building if another floor is available for short-term lease or maybe elsewhere if not. These days it may be possible to assign at least some of them to work from home. IT people will be needed to coordinate reconnection of the workers wherever they end up, and document storage facilities may be required to handle sensitive and private legal documents that must remain secure yet accessible. Then a cartage company has to 58 Sustainability and Natural Capitalism come in and disassemble and remove all the furniture, perhaps to reassemble it in a temporary location, or perhaps to store it until the present location is ready to be reassembled. Then the old flooring is torn up and carted off to landfill. The surface is cleaned and prepared, and finally the new flooring is laid down. The workspace is reassembled, reconnectted, the workers moved back in, and it’s on to the next floor. The disruption and the lost productivity can’t be exaggerated.