Undoing the damage - business and the environment - Part 1

Vegetarian Times, Sept, 1996 by Paul Hawken

Another example of forward-thinking design is the hypercar, or hybrid electric. June 1996 was the 100th anniversary of the motor car in America, and it was remarkable because the automobile has remained essentially unchanged since it was invented. Yes, cars get better mileage than they once did, but they are still extremely wasteful; today's cars waste approximately 80 percent of their energy before the wheels even move. Why so inefficient? Because most of the car is made of heavy iron and steel. The heavier the car, the more energy required.

Enter Amory Lovins of the Rocky Mountain Institute in Snowmass, Colo., Paul MacCready of the Art Center in Pasadena and a host of other engineers and designers. What they are creating is a whole new generation of vehicles that are astonishingly efficient, in part because they weigh in at 600 to 800 pounds for a four-passenger sedan. They are ultra-light and, like race cars, are made of carbon fibers that can withstand enormous impact with little damage. They are "slippery" in the wind and create less resistance. Flywheels, an old steam engine technology, captures the energy lost when braking. These three factors together cut weight, drag and energy loss by up to 80 percent. The propulsion is provided by hydrogen fuel cells and small motor scooter-sized engines, both of which provide electricity to variable-speed electric motors located on all four axles. The hypercar will get approximately 120 miles per gallon not bad for a prototype. The production models of the hypercar are expected to be on the streets before the end of the decade.

THIS REDUCTION of "throughput"--the economic term for how much material is metabolized by industrial system--dramatically reduces the overall impact on the environment. And although none of these technologies, ideas or changes alone will get us there, together they describe something quite remarkable and dramatic that will occur in our lifetime: the complete redesign of everything we make, use and need.

We are on the cusp of a revolution. It's not about the celebration of nature, although that is certainly a part. It's not about saving nature, although that is certainly its outcome. It's about the incorporation of natural systems into our industrial life--into our way of making things, processing things and deprocessing things. It is an industrial system that is as elegantly designed as the forest floor, a coral reef or a wetland. The reason this shift will prevail is because it works better and has a track record as old as the planet. All businesses seek efficiency. The conceptual and technological breakthroughs in efficiency that are forthcoming will make our old system seem as old-fashioned as a donkey. And business will never be the same.

Paul Hawken, co-founder of Smith & Hawken, lives in Sausalito, Calif. He chairs the U.S. Natural Step program and is working on Factor Ten: The Next Industrial Revolution (Hyperion, New York) with Amory and Hunter Lovins.