The Birth of Evolutionary Business by Jeff Hutner

"It is my personal belief that we are at that very point in time when a four-hundred year old age is rattling in its death bed and another struggling to be born; a shifting of culture, science, society and institutions enormously greater than the world has ever experienced. Ahead, the possibility of regeneration of individuality, liberty, community and ethics such as the world has never known, and a harmony with nature, with one another and with the divine intelligence such as the world has always dreamed."
-- Dee W. Hock, Founder VISA, Chaordic Alliance

"The global crisis now facing us is, at its root, a crisis of consciousness. Something new is being called for. The old mode is destroying the world around us, and threatening the survival of our species. We need to wake up to our true identity, to make the step that many saints and mystics have already made, and discover for ourselves the peace and security that lie at our core. Freed from the need to reinforce an artificially derived sense of identity, we will be able to act in accord with our true needs -- and with the needs of others and our environment."
-- Peter Russell, author, physicist, management consultant

Something’s Happening Here

In a time when the attention of business and investors seems almost totally focused on the next dot com, the next Internet mega merger, the formation of Internet venture funds and other dynamic areas of growth like biochips, wireless services, and microdisplays, it's easy to miss an underlying shift in consciousness that promises to change the very soul of business by providing a new set of standards and definitions of success in the 21st century.

Something unprecedented is happening today and this essay is an attempt to map a small portion of the growing field of evolutionary consciousness penetrating the business world. What becomes apparent in studying this vast transforming landscape is that it reflects a deep yearning for something better and more noble than the business game we've been playing and the level we've been playing at.

The fact that business is the most powerful institution on earth and the fact that it must always grow (be reinventing itself) or die means it is well equipped to lead this evolution. It appears that business has indeed taken on this challenge and that the authors, companies and organizations mentioned within this essay reflect this new quantum agenda. Business can be either a conductor or resistor to this kind of dramatic change but everyone at every company is playing their unique role in co-creating the future in every decision they make on a daily basis. Those companies that integrate the values explored in this article will be the new leaders.

Key Concept #1: No more us and them.

We are all shareholders of a metaorganization called Planet Earth that rewards us for our stewardship and penalizes us for our forgetting. If you listen to the words that follow and allow them to penetrate your heart and soul, you will find they come from the deepest part of you expressed through another aspect of yourself that we have come to believe is another. On one level, that's true. Yet just as true is the statement of Reverend Michael Beckwith of the Agape Church in Culver City, California who likes to say that, at the deepest level "there's only one of us here." President Clinton recently pointed out that 99% of who we are is exactly the same no matter our outer appearances. The voices that speak here could easily be considered one voice-the voice of what futurist Barbara Marx Hubbard calls Conscious Evolution. In this instance, they are the voices of evolutionary business.

"It will not come when it is expected. They will not say, 'Look here,' or 'Look there.' Rather the kingdom is spread out on the earth 
and people do not see it."
-- The Gospel of Thomas

Evolutionary Entrepreneurs and Evolutionary Business are the next step in the new socially responsible business game and is in the process of re-examining basic assumptions about mission, vision and values and distributing ethical, moral and spiritual dimensions throughout the business culture to support this new way of being and operating. It is the reintegration of spirit and matter, of business and compassion, of head and heart, of conscious management and the feminine archetype in business and of a sense of love and play along with the mandate of making a profit so that these activities can thrive. This profound shift is gaining momentum daily in for-profits and non-profits and yes in government and spiritual organizations who must also grow or die.

A New Decision Making Model

In business, a new decision making system is evolving that considers the whole. Derived from systems and complexity theory, it basically says we can't just do one thing. That each act has profound effects throughout the system. More and more, science and spirituality are finding common ground and at the nexus its hard to tell the difference anymore..

The old mechanical clockwork command and control management style is giving way to a biological, fluid, ready, fire, aim approach to releasing the best in human creativity. It's finally okay not to know, to explore the unknown and to discover the deeper patterns, learning second by second by what shows up in our personal and business lives.

This powerful and exciting business trend offers both hope and opportunity to investors, the business community, and college grads seeking to integrate their unique talents with the concept of "doing well by doing good" in the world and beyond.

"This is the true joy of life, the being used for a purpose recognized by yourself as a mighty one. I am of the opinion that my life belongs to the whole community and as long as I can live it is my privilege to do for it whatever I can. Life is no brief candle to me. It is a sort of splendid torch which I have hold of for the moment and I want to make it burn as brightly as possible before handing it to future generations."
- - George Bernard Shaw

For years, management leaders argued that the business of business is business and that business is not responsible for anything but maximizing profits for shareholders. That has been a compelling argument and for many companies around the world became their raison d’être and mantra.

Evolutionary Entrepreneurs and Business places people and the planet on equal footing with profits and all stakeholders-including employees, customers, suppliers, the community and shareholders and attempts to establish feedback loops that insure an open dialog with all parts of the system. Gaiam (GAIA-NASDAQ) and Kafus Industries (KS) are two examples of companies built on the value of inclusion.

The Past Revisited

In the past, if profits were down, presumably the price of a company's stock went down and that was bad. The answer, many managers believed, was to reduce costs which, in many cases, meant the loss of jobs for hundreds or thousands of their employees regardless of how long they might have been there.

From an evolutionary perspective, these mass firings from large aerospace and industrial companies and government agencies like the Pentagon were, in fact, a blessing in disguise, releasing, as it did, a large group of bright and capable individuals, many of whom looked at the world with new eyes and began seeding it with their fresh entrepreneurial ideas. Thus began one of the longest economic booms in history, which is still alive today and shows no real sign of stopping at this writing. The postindustrial boom we are experiencing is driven largely by the burst of creativity of these fired entrepreneurs many of whom have more recently become webpreneurs. It's another example of ancient Chinese wisdom that says in every crisis lies an opportunity.

Ecocide

In addition to these firings to increase profits, if it cost a lot of money to clean up the waste stream from a company's manufacturing processes, for far too long, many companies attempted to hide their toxic waste streams rather than recycling them, investing in remediation or designing waste free, pollution free manufacturing processes and systems. The result was that these toxic waste streams ended up in pristine rivers, landfills, in the air we breathe and in some cases exported to Third World countries desperately looking for income to help pay their debts.

For example, chemical companies in Louisiana's Bayou have contributed to turning their once pristine bayou into a toxic chemical soup with serious environmental and health effects on both its water and the people who live there. Unfortunately for humanity, this is not an isolated case. These acts have been repeated by thousands of other companies around the world on a daily basis for many years to the detriment of the health of our land, water, air and ourselves. It's not surprising that cancer rates continue to climb regardless of how much money we throw at research.

The Opportunity

During the last decade of the 20th century, environmental legislation has increased dramatically and many companies see the writing on the wall. If they don't change and become good corporate eco-citizens, they may lose far more money in fines than they make by illegal dumping of their toxic wastes.

In addition, the existing and potential workforce, investors and consumers have all become highly educated about environmental and social issues, particularly with the advent of virtually instantaneous Internet news on any subject at their fingertips, and are demanding that companies live up to far higher social and environmental standards than at any time in history. Let us be clear. Nothing less than life itself is at stake here.

Companies could potentially lose both talented management and consumers to other brands and businesses with evolutionary missions and operating principles.

"Milton Freidman, the prime advocate of the position that the responsibility of business is exclusively to maximize profit for shareholder, has lost the debate. Business leaders have developed an enlightened appreciation of the value of corporate reputation as a competitive advantage."
-- Alice Tepper Marlin, Council on Economic Priorities

While some companies could be characterized as resistors of evolutionary change, others have dedicated themselves and their companies to being pro-active champions of visionary ideas, systems and products that enhance the environment and our lives. For example Chrysler recently announced the completion of its third water treatment plant that recycles 100% of its water. When the new system is launched later in 2000, not one drop of water will be released from the Toluca plant, dramatically reducing the potential for pollution to reach the nearby Lerma River system, the most extensive in Mexico.

Important Questions To Consider

Many other symptoms of a compromised eco-system reveal themselves in daily news headlines. Has anyone asked if the toxic waste stream might be contributing to these seeming anomalies? How does air, water and soil pollution originate and what are its effects and consequences on us, our children and future generations? Has the toxic waste stream compromised the mental well being of our children? Has it reached critical mass in Earth's caring capacity to recycle naturally? The recent random killings of innocent children by other children reveals a serious problem. So does the teen suicide rate which hovers near historic highs indicating a sense of hopelessness by far too many children. Could high levels of toxins in our environment play a role in these aberrant behaviors?

We could go on and on looking at problem after problem like our warehousing of criminals producing a growth industry for building and operating correctional institutions and spending more per year on keeping individuals in jail than we spend on providing a high quality education for our children. It seems we have invested more of our time, money, energy and creativity in keeping a lid on the past than on creating a positive future together.

But most of the underlying symptoms we hear about daily all have a common root- - a lack of love, compassion and concern about creating a future that works for all of us. We live in a world where Q3 profits have become more important than the next generation and where divide and conquer has resulted in us versus them wars and an ecological crisis. This feeling of separation and isolation is an illusion, like the Wizard of Oz, we must overcome if we are to truly heal and prosper.

Consuming our way out of these problems is a no-win game. One can only temporarily alleviate the individual and collective psychic pain we feel and attempt to suppress with Prozac, alcohol, cars, trips or a new relationship. This cultural trance and focus on the outer that the Hindu's call Maya must be broken if we are to break through to a new level of inner directed connection and service that business seeks to foster.

"The ultimate paradox of selfishness is that we can only
become significant and important by concentrating on others."
-- Charles Handy

Emerging Solutions

Out of these problems, amplified daily by media, signs of positive change are everywhere breaking through like mushrooms, in every field, if one but takes the time to look. It is not a perfect world by any means and perhaps it never will be but on many levels, we are a maturing species and nothing less than a rapid shift of consciousness, a "global mind change," will get us through our current set of problems. Einstein reminded us that problems cannot be solved at the level they were created. We need quantum thinking that produces quantum solutions.

Big picture thinking is a must if life is to survive and prosper and what it reveals is an interconnectedness that systems, chaos and complexity theory espouse and celebrate. For many centuries, we have worked to conquer nature and have become separated from her and each other in myriad ways. Our hope and our destiny seem intimately linked to acknowledging and operating from our understanding of our underlying oneness.

One of the best ways to explore an emerging field is to study the new ideas being offered by leading edge thinkers and visionaries. Today, books and Internet sites provide clear windows on the emerging evolutionary business community. We can no longer afford to move pieces around a tabletop but rather need to create an entirely new tabletop. This tabletop is being designed and co-created by a self organizing team of evolutionary entrepreneurs, individuals, companies, non-profit organizations and NGO's around the globe.

The institutions of government, church and education have each played their historical roles as cultural and spiritual icons in the birth and growth of the industrial age. At the dawning of the new millennium and in a digital and spiritual post-modern society, it is business that has become the new torchbearer of transformation. As the dominant institution in society today, the world of business holds the greatest responsibility to lead evolutionary change and redefine success as an inclusive activity. If it is successful, other institutions will surely follow or become irrelevant and obsolete just as horse drawn buggies, gas lamps and polyester suits have.

And it is business that is answering that clarion call. The truth is that the old game of business was often built on self-serving mandates of greed and as a result, came to be despised, mistrusted and cast as villain by large numbers of people. But the potential of business as a transforming and heroic force for good has been waiting in the wings for its moment and that moment is at hand. Looking back on the beginnings of this powerful transformation of the soul of business, historians may write that ours was the time when business shed its villain identity and became a heroic, informed, compassionate and noble human activity that truly serves while it leads.

Here for your consideration are my selections of some examples of new business heroes, leading indicators that, taken together, create a multidimensional mosaic of the work of conscious evolutionaries leading the way to the new morphed game of compassionate capitalism. It is impossible in a short essay to cover more than a few of the cascade of passionate entrepreneurs and companies large and small who stand for co-creating the new business canvas. New books and websites may more fully cover this topic in the future.

By becoming aware of this interconnected emerging pattern, we may finally recognize the evolving whole and take our place in it, contributing our unique talents to the healing and creative process of conscious evolutionary business. In that process, we may become a more hopeful people, knowing in our heart of hearts, that we can and will make it despite our problems.

"It is time to explore whether a conscious awareness of the power for change that is inherent in the institution of business, and the profoundly beneficial impact of such a shift in our thinking, might serve as an entry point into meaningful work and the enhancement of humankind and our planet while actually increasing profitability and return on investment."
- - Ronald M. Loeb, Attorney

This essay explores exciting and hopeful evolutionary trends and, like buying a new model car and suddenly becoming aware of all the other cars of the same make and model you never noticed before, it is designed to illuminate and clarify pieces of a puzzle. The picture that emerges is both inspiring and empowering. Enjoy the journey!

A Pioneering Evolutionary Business Legend

Willis Harman's highly original contributions to the evolution of sustainable business as a practical visionary and integrator of spiritual and intellectual knowledge are legend. Thousand of readers of his books that include Global Mind Change, Creative Work and Higher Creativity were inspired and ennobled and are using his powerful understandings to build leading evolutionary companies today.

For 16 years, Willis was the Senior Social Scientist at SRI International, a global futurist think-tank in Menlo Park, California.

He was emeritus professor of Engineering-Economic Systems at Stanford University, and a member of the Board of Regents at the University of California.

With astronaut Edgar Mitchell, he co-founded The Institute of Noetic Sciences  http://www.noetic.org in Sausalito, California, a research and educational organization with 50,000 members focusing on emerging worldviews and the nature of consciousness and was president until his passing in 1997.

He also co-founded The World Business Academy with businessman and consultant Rinaldo Brutoco which is an international network of business executives and entrepreneurs committed to using their skills and resources to co-create a positive future.

Reading Global Mind Change: The Promise of the 21st Century is a perfect way to gain an understanding of the roots and context of the transformation we are in the midst of today as well as access to one of the most important minds and hearts of the 20th century. (Berrett-Kohler Publishers, San Francisco, 1999)

Emerging Stars in the Evolutionary Cosmos:

The Cluetrain Manifesto: A Critical Book and Website for Understanding the New Laws of Business and the Internet.

The Cluetrain Manifesto is collaborative book/site that is making big waves mostly because it speaks in a resonant voice that perfectly captures where we've been, where we are and where we're heading.

The following paragraphs from Chapter 1, provide an insight into the changing of the guard and consciousness of business we're experiencing in this exciting and hopeful moment.

"Workers must become fully empowered and self-directed. Scary. Suppliers must become trusted allies in developing new products and business strategies. Scarier still. Markets must come to have faces and personalities in place of statistical profiles. Flat-out panic!"

"For many, the new landscape is barely recognizable, online or off. Where business is headed there are no road maps yet, and few comforting parallels with the past. The landscape has little to do with mass production, mass merchandising, mass markets, mass media, or mass culture.

Instead, the future business of businesses that have a future will be about subtle differences, not wholesale conformity; about diversity, not homogeneity; about breaking rules, not enforcing them; about pushing the envelope, not punching the clock; about invitation, not protection; about doing it first, not doing it "right"; about making it better, not making it perfect; about telling the truth, not spinning bigger lies; about turning people on, not "packaging" them; and perhaps above all, about building convivial communities and knowledge ecologies, not leveraging demographic sectors. "

Visit http://www.cluetrain.com today, order this critical book and discover for yourself the new orbit of business. Get on board or be left in the wake of its ideas and new operating principles.

The New Pioneers

Who are the people leading the evolution of business and what are they doing differently? Wall Street Journal columnist Tom Petzinger, Jr. has an amazing ability to identify spectacularly successful small and medium sized firms that represent the vanguard of the emerging economy. His superb storytelling and insightful mind provide his WSJ readers with a front row seat on evolutionary business trends including collaborative workplaces, the value added marketplace and an economy overflowing with opportunity.

When you finish reading Petzinger's remarkably informative book, you'll understand the far-reaching changes in the way business is being conducted today that include how technology is wiping out economies of scale while creating economies of scope and locality, radical new compensation and motivation strategies for a new kind of workforce, what business is learning from complexity science in the search for fundamental laws governing natural and human systems, how the family firm can serve as a model for all business and why the new ethos sweeping business signals a return to fundamental human values. The New Pioneers is a brilliant blending of microscopic reporting and macroscopic insight that makes this book a modern business classic. (Simon & Schuster, 1999)

A 21st Century Thinking System

Applied Quantum Science

Dianne and Allen Collins, principles of Star Group in Miami offer Quantum Think, their exciting multidimensional "new system of thinking for mastering effectiveness in a changing world" to clients that include Fortune 500's, government agencies, entrepreneurs and individuals worldwide. Clients report that performance, productivity, and peace of mind expand to unparalleled heights. Why not experience QuantumThinking right now by listening to free highlights from QuantumThink AudioCoach, or by listening to a free Introduction that explains the background, philosophy and operating principles of QuantumThink at their website, http://www.quantumthink.com.

Rebalancing our Lives

Mark Albion was the Marketing professor at Harvard for 15 years and achieved legendary status for "saving the soul of business". He was also the founder of Students for Social Responsibility. In his inspiring new book, Making a Life, Making a Living, he profiles twelve socially responsible entrepreneurs who prove that is both possible and essential to integrate business with a deep sense of caring about the larger human community. Marks website, http://www.makingalife.com is worth a visit.

Where Money Goes Reality Flows

Cliff Feigenbaum is the editor of Green Money Journal and a co-author of Investing With Your Values, the new bible of ethical investments. With socially responsible investing representing over 10% of invested capital or over $1 trillion dollars and the fastest growing investment category, this important website and book offer invaluable resources providing excellent insights into the field. The exponential growth of investors seeking to insure their portfolios contribute to a positive future is a trend we believe will drive business patterns for many years to come. Entrepreneurs and companies will include all stakeholders in their decision making process or potentially lose management, customers and investors to companies that do. http://www.greenmoney.com

Natural Capitalism:

Amory Lovins and Paul Hawkin have written a visionary book that provides real hope and definition to a different way of conducting business. In Natural Capitalism, they outline the ideas and strategies of the shifting evolutionary sands of business and introduce fellow business visionaries moving us into a future that works for all of us in ingenious ways. This extraordinary and sweeping tour d' force leaves the reader breathless and excited about our future and the part each of us can play directly or indirectly in its unfolding. You can also visit their website at http://www.natcap.org to monitor this ever unfolding world.

Evolutionary Economics

Hazel Henderson is a self taught economist whose ideas are being carefully considered by world leaders. Her landmark book, Building a Win-Win World examines the havoc the current short sighted, narrow, unsustainable economic system is creating at the global level and persuasively argues that win-win strategies will become the norm at every level when people realize the true current and future costs. In December 1999, Hazel offered her Calvert Henderson Index that provides a socially responsible alternative to the GNP which is rightfully named Gross, as in awful, measuring events and illnesses like oil spills, cancer and nuclear accidents as good things since they contribute to economic activity. Clearly we need new measures and definitions of success and Hazel's new indicators are a welcome harbinger of things to come. She is an amazing, passionate and dynamic evolutionary economist. To gain further insight into Hazel's ideas, visit http://www.hazelhenderson.com and http://www.calvertgroup.com.

Liberating the Corporate Soul

Richard Barrett was the Values Co-ordinator at the World Bank where he led lunch time meditations that opened hearts, connected people with their souls and shifted the bank's consciousness towards understanding some of the deeper issues about third world policies and their darker effects. After leaving the bank, Richard became a consultant, wrote his wonderful book, Liberating the Corporate Soul and developed sensitive tracking tools to measure the gap between espoused business values and how managers and employees really feel about their companies. Using his measuring tools to reveal the truth, clients then use other software in his evolutionary bag of tricks to align mission, vision and values into an integrated whole that can dramatically increase fulfillment and productivity on the job. To learn more about Richard's inspiring work, visit his website at http://www.corptools.com.

Infinite Wealth for All

Barry Carter is helping business and entrepreneurs reframe the idea of a fear based, limited, not enough for everyone world to the new world view his book, Infinite Wealth: A New World of Collaboration and Abundance in the Knowledge Era presents. Here are the new rules and paradigms you'll need to insure your business thrives and to help you identify those businesses that operate from these new assumptions. Barry is a master synthesizer of emerging and incomplete trends into a coherent whole. An important eye-opener. Visit Barry's web site at: http://www.winwinworld.net.

The Next Industrial Revolution

When William McDonough was asked to become Dean of the School of Architecture at The University of Virginia, it was because University administrators truly believed they had found a modern day Thomas Jefferson. His work as one of the world’s visionary eco-architects is awe inspiring. He has built corporate headquarters for Nike, The Gap and The Environmental Defense Fund.

He is the champion of The Next Industrial Revolution whose ideas he communicated not in an academic or architectural trade publication, but in Atlantic Monthly.

In just one example of his visionary thinking, Bill and his partner in McDonough Braungardt Design created an eco fabric manufacturing plant in Switzerland whose waste effluent was cleaner than the Swiss municipal water going into the plant. Authorities were certain their measuring instruments were not working and were astonished to learn the truth.

In one of the clearest statements this writer has read on our current crisis and real place in the world, McDonough uses his McDonough Braungardt Design Chemistry website http://www.mbdc.com to passionately speak for life itself when he says:

"If Thomas Jefferson were with us today, he would be calling for

Declarations of Interdependence, which recognize that our ability to pursue wealth, health, and happiness is dependent on other forms of life, that the rights of one species are linked to the rights of others and that none should suffer remote tyranny. "

"We must face the fact that what we are seeing across the world today is war, a war against life itself. Our present systems of design have created a civilization that grows far beyond the capacity of the environment to sustain life into the future. The industrial idiom of design, failing to honor the principles of nature, can only violate them, producing waste and harm, regardless of purported intention. If we destroy more forests, burn more garbage, drift-net more fish, burn more coal, bleach more paper, destroy more topsoil, poison more insects, build over more habitats, dam more rivers and produce more toxic and radioactive waste, we are creating a vast industrial machine, not for living in, but for dying in."

"We have to recognize that every event and manifestation of nature is "design"; that to live within the laws of nature means to express our human intention as an interdependent species, aware and grateful that we are at the mercy of sacred forces larger than ourselves, and that we must obey these laws in order to honor the sacred in each other and in all things. We must come to peace with and accept our place in the natural world. "

To learn more about this modern visionary American hero who is changing the world by design, visit his architectural and consulting websites: http://www.mcdonough.com.

A Window on Evolutionary Project Opportunities

Non-Profits

The Fund for Global Awakening
Imagine a team of talented media savvy experts who rather than placing their copywriting, photography, directing and marketing talents in the service of advertising the next dot com or hot new consumer product have chosen to focus instead on co-creating television and radio spots that inspire deep connection in all who see or hear them.

That's one of the exciting and uplifting projects of The Fund for Global Awakening. Check out the rest of their activities and the team of creative people devoting their lives to communicating on higher ground at http://www.ffga.org

The Buckminster Fuller Institute
Bucky Fuller was a brilliant modern day DiVinci with one of the most fertile imaginations that ever graced the earth. His hundreds of inventions include the geodesic dome, a dymaxion car and the world game. His basic thesis was that we live in an abundant world and have more than enough of everything to make it work for everyone without polluting or destroying anything. His ideas inspired and sparked evolutionary thought among my generation.

Now the Buckminster Fuller Institute, the repository of his life's work is preparing to launch a compelling world-class website to bring his ideas to this and future generations on the web. Please visit http://www.bfi.org often and watch the site's evolution into a compelling and fun portal into the mind and life's work of a true genius.

Private For-Profit

The Spirit Channel, a private for-profit venture, will function as a multi-dimensional "branded" enterprise offering information, data, guidance, entertainment, products and services related to spirituality and health - all via the Internet, traditional media and in three dimensional locations (1st opening in London, England, Fall 2000).

The Spirit Channel has been created as a holistic lifestyle enterprise that is its own universal "brand" at the forefront of a profound global and societal shift. That shift is towards a new "Holistic Approach" to living. As such an enterprise, THE SPIRIT CHANNEL caters its outlook, style, services, and products to an integrated and multicultural approach to spirituality, physical health and mental well being.

The Spirit Channel's founder, Isaac Burton Tigrett, has demonstrated his ability to attract media interest and build "brand's" around culturally-based ventures. He is the creator of the Hard Rock Cafe and the House of Blues. Web Address: http://www.spiritchannel.com

Corbin Motors
A one person electric car that looks like a shoe, is non-polluting and gets 30-60 miles on a $.75 charge? Dream or Reality? If you guessed reality, you're right. That's the Sparrow, a DOT approved three wheel vehicle that's registered as a motorcycle allowing you to use the car pool lane on the freeway and pay less for insurance than an auto. For 87% of commuters in the US, this innovative green vehicle priced at $13,000 and its future four passenger model, The Merlin, with an estimated selling price of $20,000 provide the growing market for non-polluting transportation with two exciting new entries.

For investment and dealership opportunities visit the company's website at http://www.corbinmotors.com

Ethical Shopper.com makes shopping for socially responsible products a breeze. The new website offers a wide array of products screened for environmental, business and social impact. In our time pressed world its great to have an independent green seal of approval on products that allows us to make intelligent choices without the research time normally required to make the right buying decision. You'll find their website at: http://www.ethicalshopper.com

Publicly Traded Companies

Gaiam: (GAIA: NASDAQ)
Gaiam produces and sells goods, services and information to customers who value the environment, a sustainable economy, healthy lifestyles and personal development. The industry they serve is named LOHAS, an acronym for Lifestyles of Health and Sustainability, and encompasses the values of a sustainable economy, healthy living, alternative healthcare, personal development and ecological lifestyles. The LOHAS industry is growing at a fast pace, with some estimates showing the support of 50 million consumers. The industry is largely composed of baby boomers who are looking for alternatives to the mass-produced products normally offered, advertised and marketed to them.  http://www.gaiam.com

ZapWorld.(ZAPP-NASDAQ) = Zero Air Pollution and is a public company that provides electric bikes, scooters and other eco- transportation vehicles worldwide. First introduced in 1998, ZAP has delivered more than 20,000 of the electric scooters to commuters and thrill-seekers all over the world. They like the ZAPPY because it uses quiet, clean electric power and folds for easy carrying or storage. To learn more you can visit their website at http://www.zapworld.com

Afterword

The two passionate writers whose work follows express the larger visions beyond the field of business into very the soul of evolution. Scientist David Suzuki's heartfelt Declaration of Interdependence and the sense of bold hopeful energy reflected in New Civilization Network founder Flemming Funch's, We Are The New Civilization, are helping lay the foundation of the conscious evolution movement taking place in this historical and transformational moment. Enjoy!

"Declaration of Interdependence" by The David Suzuki Foundation

This we know:

We are the earth, through the plants and animals that nourish us.

We are the rains and the oceans that flow through our veins.

We are the breath of the forests of the land, and the plants of the sea.

We are human animals, related to all other life as descendants of the firstborn cell.

We share with these kin a common history, written in our genes.

We share a common present, filled with uncertainty.

And we share a common future, as yet untold.

We humans are but one of thirty million species weaving the thin layer of life enveloping the world.

The stability of communities of living things depends upon this diversity.

Linked in that web, we are interconnected-using, cleansing, sharing and replenishing the fundamental elements of life.

Our home, planet Earth, is finite; all life shares its resources and the energy from the sun, and therefore has limits to growth.

For the first time, we have touched those limits.

When we compromise the air, the water, the soil and the variety of life, we steal from the endless future to serve the fleeting present.

We may deny these things, but we cannot change them.

This we believe:

Humans have become so numerous and our tools so powerful that we have driven fellow creatures to extinction, dammed the great rivers, torn down ancient forests, poisoned the earth, rain and wind, and ripped holes in the sky.

Our science has brought pain as well as joy; our comfort is paid for the by the suffering of millions.

We are learning from our mistakes, we are mourning our vanished kin, and we now build a new politics of hope.

We respect and uphold the absolute need for clean air, water and soil.

We see that economic activities that benefit the few while shrinking the inheritance of many are wrong.

And since environmental degradation erodes biological capital forever, full ecological and social cost must enter all equations of development.

We are one brief generation in the long march of time; the future is not ours to erase.

So where knowledge is limited, we will remember all those who will walk after us, and err on the side of caution.

This we resolve:

All this that we know and believe must now become the foundation of the way we live.

At this turning point in our relationship with Earth, we work for an evolution: from dominance to partnership; from fragmentation to connection; from insecurity, to interdependence.

Contact: The David Suzuki Foundation
219-2211 West Fourth Ave.
Vancouver BC V6K 4S2
Phone: (604) 732-4228, Fax: (604) 732-0752
http://www.davidsuzuki.org

"We are the New Civilization" by Flemming Funch

We are here.

We are waking up now, out of the past, to dream a bigger dream.

We are friends and equals, we are diverse and unique, and we're united for something bigger than our differences.

We believe in freedom and cooperation, abundance and harmony.

We are a culture emerging, a renaissance of the essence of humanity.

We find our own guidance, and we discern our own truth.

We go in many directions, and yet we refuse to disperse.

We have many names, we speak many languages.

We are local, we are global.

We are in all regions of the world, we're everywhere in the air.

We are universe being aware of itself, we are the wave of evolution.

We are in every child's eyes, we face the unknown with wonder and excitement.

We are messengers from the future, living in the present.

We come from silence, and we speak our truth.

We cannot be quieted, because our voice is within everyone.

We have no enemies, no boundaries can hold us.

We respect the cycles and expressions of nature, because we are nature.

We don't play to win, we play to live and learn.

We act out of inspiration, love and integrity.

We explore, we discover, we feel, and we laugh.

We are building a world that works for everyone.

We endeavor to live our lives to their fullest potential.

We are independent, self-sufficient and responsible.

We relate to each other in peace, with compassion and respect, we unite in community.

We celebrate the wholeness within and around us all.

We dance to the rhythm of creation.

We weave the threads of the new times.

We are the new civilization.

http://www.newciv.org

Jeff Hutner is an Ojai, California based evolutionary business writer and consultant, master networker musician, and the founding editor of New Paradigm Digest, a window on emerging culture. He is currently completing two books, one on living in the moment from which these quotes are taken and a second of evolutionary wisdom for business. In April, he will embark on a trip around the US to conduct video interviews with "Practical Visionaries" from many disciplines. Email: tehg1@earthlink.net.

Visit Jeff Hutner at:
www.practicaldreamers.org

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