Natural Capitalism

Conventionally producing a pound of cotton fiber takes about two and a half tons of water, and in rainy areas, causes the erosion of about forty-four pounds of topsoil.

it is far better to restore and maintain grazing by cattle and other animals on grasslands that typically coevolved with grazing animals and cannot remain healthy without them.

Distillation columns use 3 percent of total U.S. energy to separate chemical and oil products, but most operators, instead of continuously monitoring the purity of product as it emerges, test only occasionally to make sure samples meet specification.

7 percent of the carbon now in the atmosphere.

An especially profitable opportunity will involve reforming natural gas at the wellhead, where a large plant can strip out the hydrogen for shipment to wholesale markets via new or existing pipelines. Professor Robert Williams of Princeton University points out23 that the other product of the separation process, carbon dioxide, could then be reinje

“Most people believe the alternative to cars is better transit—in truth, it’s better neighborhoods.” 71

The engineer won’t be held responsible for the capital or operating costs, even though the equipment is probably severalfold larger and less efficient than it should be. The engineering looks cheap to the owner; indeed,

problems can’t be solved within the mind-set that created them,

SERVICE AND FLOW ECONOMY. This calls for a fundamental change in the relationship between producer and consumer, a shift from an economy of goods and purchases to one of service and flow.

pipe often has to go through all sorts of twists and turns to hook up equipment that’s too far apart, turned the wrong way, mounted at the wrong height, and separated by other devices installed in between.