“This book...will challenge you to reexamine everything you believe about business as it is currently practiced, how we create meaning in our lives, and the fabric of the legacy we are weaving for our children. No doubt some business people will read this book and think it describes a future that is threatening and foreboding. I think it describes a present that is exhilarating and ennobling. The Ecology of Commerce is nothing less than a masterpiece by the poet laureate of American capitalism.”
—GEORGE GENDRON, Editor-in-Chief, Inc. Magazine


“The Ecology of Commerce is the first important book of the 21st century. It may well revolutionize the relationship between business and the environment, and in so doing will take its place among the great and insightful writings that seek to increase the odds for planetary survival. Hawken speaks to business people as a practitioner, in business terms—and therein lies the power and influence that this book will certainly have.”
—DR. DONALD FALK, Executive Director, Society for Ecological Restoration


“The Ecology of Commerce is so stunningly visionary yet eminently practical that liberals and conservatives embrace it alike. Hawken looks at things with fresh eyes. His vision is nether left nor right, but way up front.”
—ERIC UTNE, Editor-in-Chief, Utne Reader

“The best business book of 1993. Its sheer volume of new ideas coupled with Hawken’s elegant style of disclosure makes almost all business books pale beside it. The tonnage of new publications on environmental degradation and what to do about it reflects increasing concern, but rarely has that concern been so productively expressed.”
—MICHAEL PELLECCHIA, Dallas Morning News


“Hawken calls for a new understanding of what it means to engage in commerce in the first place. A vivid blueprint.... A daring, urgent vision of a kind of 21st century Canaan that Hawken yet believes we can reach.”
—PHILLIP CATALFO, San Francisco Chronicle


“This is, in my view, the first extensive, truly ecological analysis of business; deeply disturbing and yet full of hope. Essential reading for all who care about our planet.”
—FRITJOF CAPRA, author of The Tao of Physics


“For environmentalists who think general ledger refers to a World War II hero, and for business people who thing ‘green economics’ is an oxymoron, Paul Hawken has long offered a common harbor. He’s done it again with The Ecology of Commerce. It offers a radical vision from a hard-nosed businessman who recognizes that, since we can’t break Nature’s laws, we have to design an economy that acknowledges them.”
—DENIS HAYES, Co-founder, Earth Day


“In The Ecology of Commerce, Hawken advances a systematic understanding of the structure and operations of a real ecological economic system. Hawken proclaims that any substantial change in the way we protect our planet will have to come from business leadership. I don’t want to agree. Now I think I am wrong. His ‘restorative economy’ is fundamentally practical, and most importantly—doable. We can only hope The Ecology of Commerce is acted upon before it is too late.”
—RANDY HAYES, Executive Director, Rainforest Action Network