The Next Industrial Revolution Summary and Analysis

Following a preface describing the influence of such works as "Factor Four" and "The Ecology of Commerce" on the writing of this book, it begins with a chapter laying out the four strategies of the green revolution. It sets the scene of future possibilities by describing a world of clean industry, universally high standards of living, and an economy in which welfare gives way to family-wage jobs, all attainable following economic and technological trends already in place.

Modern industry depletes natural resources out of proportion to their production, leading to the inevitable loss of the natural capital that makes industry and life possible. The strategy the group proposes will require four kinds of capital: human capital (intelligence, creativity, labor); financial capital (investment); manufactured capital (factories, infrastructure); and the natural capital of living ecosystems and resources...