Customer Reviews
Can capitalism ever be truly sustainable? - By: Jeremy Williams, 03 Oct 2008 
In a consumer society slowly eating itself, there's no more pressing question than whether or not capitalism & 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 gamein town."
Capitalism has been effectivein providing goods & services,in creating wealth & raising standards of living. It has also created gross inequality & 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, & tests the limits of corporate responsibility.
Porritt has gotin trouble with some environmentalists for working a little too closely with big business, & he explores some of these initiativesin 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, & a roadmap for more responsible capitalism.
A revelation - By: Mr. A. K. Beck, 03 Jun 2007 
A revelation. Really an excellent book. It should be read by all political & 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 - By: Rolf Dobelli, 04 Apr 2007 Activist Jonathon Porritt offers the startling proposal that capitalism may provide the best solution to poverty & global environmental degradation, though his solution requires reshaping capitalism. Porritt is aware that conventional environmental activists, greens & political academics favor socialism more than capitalism. However, he takes them to task for ignoring the power & potential of such capitalist mechanisms as markets & property rights & for their naïvetéin 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 & is sometimes directionless. The author makes his passions apparent, including anti-Americanism & 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 - By: carcassone, 23 Feb 2007 A hugely important & passionate book written by someone who has real gravitasin this field. The messages are profound & they are pragmatic.The weight of Porritts intellect, based on 40 years of engagementin the environmental cause, is staggering & stretches into economics, business, psychology & ecology.
Read it. Then read it again. And then get engagedin the debates that it raises. It matters.
The Definitive Message for the Future - By: W. Stephens, 24 Aug 2006 Porritt is THE leading environmental crusaderin the UK & now vitally close to both governments & large corporations. Here is a man who has been working every minute god gives him for the last 40 years to promote social & 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 happenin the next 10 years & watching climate changein action we don't have longer - so we have to adapt our current system (capitalism) & use it to deliver the better world that we all long for. If you buy one book this year make sure this is it!
