Harnessing Corporate Power to Heal the Planet

The report introduces 'natural capitalism,' a business framework that argues the current economic model is deficient because it liquidates natural capital and ecosystem services. The authors propose four principles—increasing resource productivity, eliminating waste, shifting to service-and-flow models, and investing in natural capital—to align corporate profit with planetary health.

• The authors define 'natural capitalism' as a new form of economics that recognizes natural capital—natural resources and ecosystem services—as the most important form of capital, arguing that current capitalist practices are an aberration because they liquidate these services rather than valuing them.
• The first principle of natural capitalism is to radically increase resource productivity. The authors argue that because current industrial processes are incredibly wasteful, there is a vast business opportunity in reducing the flow of materials and energy, which can increase profits while slowing resource depletion and pollution.
• The second principle is the total elimination of the concept of waste by redesigning the economy based on biological models that close material loops. This involves removing toxic chemicals from production so that industrial outputs are salable products rather than disposal costs.
• The third principle suggests shifting the economic structure from selling physical products to providing a continuous flow of service and value. This model aligns the interests of the provider and customer, as both profit from minimizing the flow of energy and materials.
• The fourth principle is to invest in the restoration of natural capital to reverse worldwide ecosystem destruction. This involves redesigning forestry, farming, and fishing to be restorative, using nature as a 'model and mentor' to create long-term corporate survival and wealth.
• The report provides several corporate examples of these principles in action: Southwire Corporation halved its energy per pound of product in six years; Interface reduced the mass flow of carpet to landfills by about 80 percent by leasing floor-covering services; and DuPont's Films division uses 'reverse logistics' to recycle used film.
• The authors highlight the economic scale of resource waste, noting that the industrial metabolism of the United States involves more than a million pounds of materials per person per year, and that the U.S. wastes $300 billion worth of energy annually.

APA

Lovins, L. H., & Lovins, A. B. (n.d.). Harnessing Corporate Power to Heal the Planet. RMI. https://rmi.org/app/uploads/2017/05/RMI_Document_Repository_Public-Reprts_NC00-29_HarnessCorpPwr.pdf

Chicago

Lovins, L. Hunter, and Amory B. Lovins. Harnessing Corporate Power to Heal the Planet. RMI, n.d. https://rmi.org/app/uploads/2017/05/RMI_Document_Repository_Public-Reprts_NC00-29_HarnessCorpPwr.pdf.

Wikipedia

{{cite report |last1=Lovins |first1=L. Hunter |last2=Lovins |first2=Amory B. |title=Harnessing Corporate Power to Heal the Planet |publisher=RMI |url=https://rmi.org/app/uploads/2017/05/RMI_Document_Repository_Public-Reprts_NC00-29_HarnessCorpPwr.pdf |access-date=17 August 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@techreport{lovinsndharnessing, author = {Lovins, L. Hunter and Lovins, Amory B.}, title = {{Harnessing Corporate Power to Heal the Planet}}, institution = {RMI}, url = {https://rmi.org/app/uploads/2017/05/RMI_Document_Repository_Public-Reprts_NC00-29_HarnessCorpPwr.pdf}, urldate = {2026-08-17}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }