Customer Reviews:
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 Can capitalism ever be truly sustainable? October 3, 2008
In a consumer society slowly eating itself, there's no more pressing question than whether or not capitalism and sustainability can ever go together. Johnathon Porritt sets out here to prove that they can. On the one hand, "global capitalism as we know it today would appear to be inherently incompatible with the pursuit of either ecological sustainability or social justice." On the other hand, "capitalism is now the only economic game in town."
Capitalism has been effective in providing goods and services, in creating wealth and raising standards of living. It has also created gross inequality and laid waste to the planet. Business as usual will lead to ecological suicide, quite simply.
In its place, Porritt argues for better regulation, costings for externalities, better metrics than GNP alone. He questions our fixation with growth, and tests the limits of corporate responsibility.
Porritt has got in trouble with some environmentalists for working a little too closely with big business, and he explores some of these initiatives in some detail here - business excellence, business aimed at the poor, experimental corporate reporting. It's easy to see why he's been accused of selling out as he sings the praises of Dow Chemicals, but the corporation aren't going anywhere any time soon, so I applaud him for working alongside them to develop better business models.
For all its problems, capitalism is what we have to work with right now. Although it could do with an extra chapter after the events of summer 2008, this book is still a useful guidebook to the changes already underway, and a roadmap for more responsible capitalism.
 A revelation June 3, 2007
2 out of 11 found this review helpful
A revelation. Really an excellent book. It should be read by all political and business leaders. It really should be read by everyone who is literate. Whether you think he's soft on capitalism or not, he recognises that the only solution is to work with it. And how.
A bold new vision for capitalism April 4, 2007
18 out of 23 found this review helpful
Activist Jonathon Porritt offers the startling proposal that capitalism may provide the best solution to poverty and global environmental degradation, though his solution requires reshaping capitalism. Porritt is aware that conventional environmental activists, greens and political academics favor socialism more than capitalism. However, he takes them to task for ignoring the power and potential of such capitalist mechanisms as markets and property rights and for their naivete in expecting voters or political leaders to embrace their dismal vision of environmental responsibility as asceticism. We find his book more suggestive than programmatic. It meanders like a river and is sometimes directionless. The author makes his passions apparent, including anti-Americanism and scathing criticism of certain forms of Christianity. Though Porritt does not offer a detailed description of his vision or the practical steps needed to realize it, he does suggest a path toward a utopian ideal; for that hope, he deserves appropriate attention.
Important and Impressive February 23, 2007
5 out of 14 found this review helpful
A hugely important and passionate book written by someone who has real gravitas in this field. The messages are profound and they are pragmatic.The weight of Porritts intellect, based on 40 years of engagement in the environmental cause, is staggering and stretches into economics, business, psychology and ecology.
Read it. Then read it again. And then get engaged in the debates that it raises. It matters.
The Definitive Message for the Future August 24, 2006
12 out of 21 found this review helpful
Porritt is THE leading environmental crusader in the UK and now vitally close to both governments and large corporations. Here is a man who has been working every minute god gives him for the last 40 years to promote social and environmental change. His knowledge of this subject is unequalled, all the major environmental analyses over the past 20 years are distilled within this elegant summary. His message is clear; -- Sure we could do with total social change but this isn't going to happen in the next 10 years and watching climate change in action we don't have longer - so we have to adapt our current system (capitalism) and use it to deliver the better world that we all long for. If you buy one book this year make sure this is it!
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