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Environmental Debt: The Hidden Costs of a Changing Global Economy
An award-winning environmental activist and social entrepreneur exposes the link between our financial and environmental crises
For decades, politicians and business leaders alike told the American public that today's challenge was growing the economy, and that environmental protection could be left to future generations. Now in the wake of billions of dollars in costs associated with coastal devastation from Hurricane Sandy, rampant wildfires across the West, and groundwater contamination from reckless drilling, it's becoming increasingly clear that yesterday's carefree attitude about the environment has morphed into a fiscal crisis of epic proportions. Amy Larkin has been at the forefront of the fight for the environment for years, and in Environmental Debt she argues that the costs of global warming, extreme weather, pollution and other forms of "environmental debt" are wreaking havoc on the economy. Synthesizing complex ideas, she pulls back the curtain on some of the biggest cultural touchstones of the environmental debate, revealing how, for instance, despite coal's relative fame as a "cheap" energy source, ordinary Americans pay $350 billion a year for coal's damage in business related expenses, polluted watersheds, and in healthcare costs. And the problem stretches far beyond our deforestation from twenty years ago in Thailand caused catastrophic flooding in 2011, and cost Toyota 3.4 percent of its annual production while causing tens of thousands of workers to lose jobs in three different countries. To combat these trends, Larkin proposes a new framework for 21st century commerce, based on three 1) Pollution can no longer be free; 2) All business decision making and accounting must incorporate the long view; and 3) Government must play a vital role in catalyzing clean technology and growth while preventing environmental destruction. As companies and nations struggle to strategize in the face of global financial debt, many businesses have begun to recognize the causal relationship between a degraded environment and a degraded bottom line. Profiling the multinational corporations that are transforming their operations with downright radical initiatives, Larkin presents smart policy choices that would actually unleash these business solutions to many global financial and environmental problems. Provocative and hard-hitting, Environmental Debt sweeps aside the false choices of today's environmental debate, and shows how to revitalize the economy through nature's bounty.
For decades, politicians and business leaders alike told the American public that today's challenge was growing the economy, and that environmental protection could be left to future generations. Now in the wake of billions of dollars in costs associated with coastal devastation from Hurricane Sandy, rampant wildfires across the West, and groundwater contamination from reckless drilling, it's becoming increasingly clear that yesterday's carefree attitude about the environment has morphed into a fiscal crisis of epic proportions. Amy Larkin has been at the forefront of the fight for the environment for years, and in Environmental Debt she argues that the costs of global warming, extreme weather, pollution and other forms of "environmental debt" are wreaking havoc on the economy. Synthesizing complex ideas, she pulls back the curtain on some of the biggest cultural touchstones of the environmental debate, revealing how, for instance, despite coal's relative fame as a "cheap" energy source, ordinary Americans pay $350 billion a year for coal's damage in business related expenses, polluted watersheds, and in healthcare costs. And the problem stretches far beyond our deforestation from twenty years ago in Thailand caused catastrophic flooding in 2011, and cost Toyota 3.4 percent of its annual production while causing tens of thousands of workers to lose jobs in three different countries. To combat these trends, Larkin proposes a new framework for 21st century commerce, based on three 1) Pollution can no longer be free; 2) All business decision making and accounting must incorporate the long view; and 3) Government must play a vital role in catalyzing clean technology and growth while preventing environmental destruction. As companies and nations struggle to strategize in the face of global financial debt, many businesses have begun to recognize the causal relationship between a degraded environment and a degraded bottom line. Profiling the multinational corporations that are transforming their operations with downright radical initiatives, Larkin presents smart policy choices that would actually unleash these business solutions to many global financial and environmental problems. Provocative and hard-hitting, Environmental Debt sweeps aside the false choices of today's environmental debate, and shows how to revitalize the economy through nature's bounty.
256 pages, Hardcover
First published June 25, 2013
13 people are currently reading
346 people want to read
About the author
Amy Larkin
4 books2 followersAmy Larkin is the author of Environmental Debt: The Hidden Costs of a Changing Global Economy. In the book, Larkin connects the environmental and financial crises -- both causes and solutions. Amy is an award-winning entrepreneur and environmental activist who has launched cultural institutions, co-founded one of the first affinity-marketing businesses, and was involved with Greenpeace for 30 years -- as a Board member, advisor, and from 2005 -– 2011, Director of Greenpeace Solutions.
Environmental Debt has received glowing reviews from a cross section of major media and garnered attention through Amazon (Editors’ list for Best Business Books of June), and Vanity Fair (July Hot Type). Amy has also recently appeared at Bloomberg Radio, the Commonwealth Club of San Francisco, the Leonard Lopate Show on WNYC (NYC’s NPR Affiliate) and AtGoogleTalks. She is also a regular contributor to Huffington Post and CSRwire.
In 2010, Greenpeace Solutions worked with the Consumer Goods Forum, a consortium of 400 companies with $3 trillion in revenue, to eliminate HFCs from all new equipment starting in 2015. This industry transformation will eliminate 1-2 percent of the world’s greenhouse gas emissions over the next 30 years. This work won the prestigious 2011 Roy Award from Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government for public/private partnerships that protect natural resources.
Through her consulting business, she has recently worked with the Agricultural Sustainability Institute of UC/Davis, Greenpeace International, the Children’s Investment Fund Foundation and the Consumer Goods Forum.
Amy currently serves as the Chair of the Advisory Board of BiomimicryNYC and is also the Chair of the Board of the ARChive of Contemporary Music, the largest collection of contemporary music in the world.
Environmental Debt has received glowing reviews from a cross section of major media and garnered attention through Amazon (Editors’ list for Best Business Books of June), and Vanity Fair (July Hot Type). Amy has also recently appeared at Bloomberg Radio, the Commonwealth Club of San Francisco, the Leonard Lopate Show on WNYC (NYC’s NPR Affiliate) and AtGoogleTalks. She is also a regular contributor to Huffington Post and CSRwire.
In 2010, Greenpeace Solutions worked with the Consumer Goods Forum, a consortium of 400 companies with $3 trillion in revenue, to eliminate HFCs from all new equipment starting in 2015. This industry transformation will eliminate 1-2 percent of the world’s greenhouse gas emissions over the next 30 years. This work won the prestigious 2011 Roy Award from Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government for public/private partnerships that protect natural resources.
Through her consulting business, she has recently worked with the Agricultural Sustainability Institute of UC/Davis, Greenpeace International, the Children’s Investment Fund Foundation and the Consumer Goods Forum.
Amy currently serves as the Chair of the Advisory Board of BiomimicryNYC and is also the Chair of the Board of the ARChive of Contemporary Music, the largest collection of contemporary music in the world.
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Displaying 1 - 9 of 9 reviews
February 24, 2015
I'm sorry to say that this book was so bad, a disappointment. I was hoping this would be an informative book for people who have little background on the subject, and with Larkin representing a well-known (if extreme) environmental organization, as I care about the environment and want more people to be informed about climate change and other environmental issues, the importance of public policy, and what individuals can do to act.
Instead, Larkin wrote a book for "believers", not something to convince anyone who doesn't already think what she does. She presented a broad range of topics, with countless unsubstantiated arguments and used extremely colloquial tone, verging on inappropriate at times. Instead she should have had a clear focus and incorporated many more facts, data, charts throughout the book -- this is exactly what climate change deniers expect from emotional environmentalists, and made Greenpeace look badly even to an environmentalist like myself. I hope that those looking for information about the current state of the environment and climate change don't stop with this book. Check out publications from the World Resources Institute, wri.org, for unbiased data-driven research about the environment - full disclosure, I worked there for a bit!
Instead, Larkin wrote a book for "believers", not something to convince anyone who doesn't already think what she does. She presented a broad range of topics, with countless unsubstantiated arguments and used extremely colloquial tone, verging on inappropriate at times. Instead she should have had a clear focus and incorporated many more facts, data, charts throughout the book -- this is exactly what climate change deniers expect from emotional environmentalists, and made Greenpeace look badly even to an environmentalist like myself. I hope that those looking for information about the current state of the environment and climate change don't stop with this book. Check out publications from the World Resources Institute, wri.org, for unbiased data-driven research about the environment - full disclosure, I worked there for a bit!
Read
July 11, 2013My review for The Associated Press: Money doesn't grow on trees, especially not when you've cut down all the trees to reap short-term profits, argues a former Greenpeace USA official pitching conservation to corporate executives.
With more than two decades of experience at the high-profile environmental group, Amy Larkin might be expected to publish a screed against corporations for their polluting greed. Instead, "Environmental Debt" highlights the efforts companies such as Puma, Wal-Mart, Coca-Cola, McDonald's and Tiffany & Co. — yes, the same brands many so-called tree-huggers might associate with global ills — have already made to reduce waste, change their supply chains and embrace environmentally sustainable practices.
Larkin, now a consultant with her own firm, isn't pushing for more government regulations, though she does encourage executives to invest in the infrastructure that governments build and maintain. She puts her pitch in terms businesspeople understand: It all comes down to money. Successful companies, Larkin argues, understand that they will pay more for resources and production down the line if they don't invest now in energy-efficient upgrades and other changes.
Corporations may balk at the cost of those changes now, but Larkin says they will face far greater deficits when they have unhealthy work forces, facilities damaged by extreme weather events and unstable supply chains.
"Environmental Debt" is presumably Larkin's consulting pitch in book-length form, but it raises a question that consumers might consider as well as corporations: Are you taking the long view?
http://bigstory.ap.org/article/larkin...
With more than two decades of experience at the high-profile environmental group, Amy Larkin might be expected to publish a screed against corporations for their polluting greed. Instead, "Environmental Debt" highlights the efforts companies such as Puma, Wal-Mart, Coca-Cola, McDonald's and Tiffany & Co. — yes, the same brands many so-called tree-huggers might associate with global ills — have already made to reduce waste, change their supply chains and embrace environmentally sustainable practices.
Larkin, now a consultant with her own firm, isn't pushing for more government regulations, though she does encourage executives to invest in the infrastructure that governments build and maintain. She puts her pitch in terms businesspeople understand: It all comes down to money. Successful companies, Larkin argues, understand that they will pay more for resources and production down the line if they don't invest now in energy-efficient upgrades and other changes.
Corporations may balk at the cost of those changes now, but Larkin says they will face far greater deficits when they have unhealthy work forces, facilities damaged by extreme weather events and unstable supply chains.
"Environmental Debt" is presumably Larkin's consulting pitch in book-length form, but it raises a question that consumers might consider as well as corporations: Are you taking the long view?
http://bigstory.ap.org/article/larkin...
Read
December 10, 2014Featured on Science for the People show #270 on June 20, 2014, during an interview with author Amy Larkin. http://www.scienceforthepeople.ca/epi...
July 29, 2015
Environmental Debt is a great beginning step to convince businesses, government, and individuals to connect financial and environmental debt, in order to significantly slow the pace of inevitable environmental disasters (climate change, pollution, potable water scarcity, etc.).
Amy Larkin approaches the idea of connection through a capitalist lens, presuming that "business both large and small can provide underlying security for most of the people in the world," that "business must thrive in order to have global stability," and "unless business respects the laws of nature, it will suffer along with the rest of us." (preface, pg. xi)
Larkin suggests accounting and regulatory changes to change the current "Business as Usual" model of:
1. pollution is free (i.e., has no consequence for the producer)
2. long-term financial, environmental, and social impact are not accounted for in financial statements
3. government subsidies not taking into account environmental impact
to her proposed "Nature Means Business" model (p. 7) of:
1. pollution can no longer be free (i.e., must be accounted for in financial reporting) and can no longer be subsidized
2. the long view must guide all decision making and accounting
3. government plays a vital role in catalyzing clean technology and growth while preventing environmental destruction (just as government once subsidized the oil and coal industry to help it get to where it is today)
Larkin knows what she's talking about, as she was a business owner herself, and has worked with large corporations in achieving climate change-slowing wins (such as being a part of not only the approval of hydrocarbon refrigerants - less toxic and more efficient than the hydrofluorocarbons they can replace - for use in the US, but also getting the major players in the soft-drink industry to agree to transition to cleaner, safer refrigerants by 2015). Her suggestions are aggressive and urgent, and she knows what she's asking, as evidenced by these quotes on p. 26 (paperback), "...oil is simply not sustainable as the central ingredient for transportation fuel and material manufacturing. Its environmental costs run too high. But the transition away from oil is gonna [sic] be painful. Really painful. ... We need a transition agenda so that the fossil fuel industry can make its money by supplying cleaner energy and resources in the near term." On the next page, she lays out what she sees as the only way this will happen. "If pollution is no longer free and businesses are responsible for the long-term consequences of their actions, then renewable options are automatically cost-competitive." Throughout the book, there are many real world examples, specified in actual dollars, of the total cost of different types of energy, and it's very enlightening.
By very rough estimate, it seems like half of the book is dedicated to Larkin's "Nature Means Business" model and what actions/changes might help it be implemented. The rest of the book seems to be case studies and retelling of different corporate and executive reactions to the environmental crisis, and I was surprised by how much companies like Unilever, Coca Cola, McDonalds, and WalMart have done in terms of moving toward sustainability. (I was happy about, but not as surprised by sustainability moves made by companies like Google and Apple.) Thankfully, there are already some moves in these directions by corporations, NGOs and regulatory agencies, but a lot more needs to be done.
I feel like I have done a lot to reduce my own waste and resource usage, but in reading, I found that I can do a lot more to reduce my personal contribution to the environmental crisis. So, this book educates on many levels.
The concepts in Environmental Debt are very important for and relevant to anyone who buys things, sells things, and/or regulates things, so I guess that means everyone should read it.
Amy Larkin approaches the idea of connection through a capitalist lens, presuming that "business both large and small can provide underlying security for most of the people in the world," that "business must thrive in order to have global stability," and "unless business respects the laws of nature, it will suffer along with the rest of us." (preface, pg. xi)
Larkin suggests accounting and regulatory changes to change the current "Business as Usual" model of:
1. pollution is free (i.e., has no consequence for the producer)
2. long-term financial, environmental, and social impact are not accounted for in financial statements
3. government subsidies not taking into account environmental impact
to her proposed "Nature Means Business" model (p. 7) of:
1. pollution can no longer be free (i.e., must be accounted for in financial reporting) and can no longer be subsidized
2. the long view must guide all decision making and accounting
3. government plays a vital role in catalyzing clean technology and growth while preventing environmental destruction (just as government once subsidized the oil and coal industry to help it get to where it is today)
Larkin knows what she's talking about, as she was a business owner herself, and has worked with large corporations in achieving climate change-slowing wins (such as being a part of not only the approval of hydrocarbon refrigerants - less toxic and more efficient than the hydrofluorocarbons they can replace - for use in the US, but also getting the major players in the soft-drink industry to agree to transition to cleaner, safer refrigerants by 2015). Her suggestions are aggressive and urgent, and she knows what she's asking, as evidenced by these quotes on p. 26 (paperback), "...oil is simply not sustainable as the central ingredient for transportation fuel and material manufacturing. Its environmental costs run too high. But the transition away from oil is gonna [sic] be painful. Really painful. ... We need a transition agenda so that the fossil fuel industry can make its money by supplying cleaner energy and resources in the near term." On the next page, she lays out what she sees as the only way this will happen. "If pollution is no longer free and businesses are responsible for the long-term consequences of their actions, then renewable options are automatically cost-competitive." Throughout the book, there are many real world examples, specified in actual dollars, of the total cost of different types of energy, and it's very enlightening.
By very rough estimate, it seems like half of the book is dedicated to Larkin's "Nature Means Business" model and what actions/changes might help it be implemented. The rest of the book seems to be case studies and retelling of different corporate and executive reactions to the environmental crisis, and I was surprised by how much companies like Unilever, Coca Cola, McDonalds, and WalMart have done in terms of moving toward sustainability. (I was happy about, but not as surprised by sustainability moves made by companies like Google and Apple.) Thankfully, there are already some moves in these directions by corporations, NGOs and regulatory agencies, but a lot more needs to be done.
I feel like I have done a lot to reduce my own waste and resource usage, but in reading, I found that I can do a lot more to reduce my personal contribution to the environmental crisis. So, this book educates on many levels.
The concepts in Environmental Debt are very important for and relevant to anyone who buys things, sells things, and/or regulates things, so I guess that means everyone should read it.
May 12, 2019
I thought this book was written in a really irresponsible way. It focused a lot on praising big companies for their efforts in changing their own destructive environmental policies, while completely ignoring the harm they're still doing. Just one(1) example; There were four(4) pages applauding Tiffany's for changing their diamond source and then two(2) throw away sentences about them only doing so because of pressure from customers and that their new mining operation is almost as bad. To use a company like this as an example, and not discuss how much more they need to change to be considered environmentally ethical, is ill-considered reporting and irresponsible to not present the whole picture clearly. Basically I wanted a book discussing how the US economy and big businesses were hurting the environment, but what this actually is, is a book praising companies for any tiny (perceived) improvements they may have made.
February 22, 2015
I love this book! There may not be a good environmental book that is not depressing -- at least not in my experience. Larkin's work is appropriately depressing but she talks about the efforts, especially those in business. It was heartening for me to learn that in sustainable energy in company structures, Walmart was a leader. As the author says, there is much to love and much to hate about Walmart. She talks about other companies and surprises me with the good and bad things they do. Larkin also clearly states that which must be done -- and done now! That is where I get depressed because it seems the trajectory is wrong and we lack the will to change.
September 17, 2013
This book was interesting, but a bit simple. I think about environmental externalities all the time and am really interested in economic models that account for them within the financial statements of companies. I wish the book has stayed more focused on that topic, but appreciate that it at least introduced the concept.
October 15, 2015
First time I've ever found accounting to be interesting. The movement to include environmental externalities in finance reports could possibly be a way to change harmful and unsustainable structures from within the business community.
Displaying 1 - 9 of 9 reviews