The inner products of work are perhaps more vital than the outer ones.
Work that enriches skills, self-esteem, mutual respect, being of value to our community, and connection with all of creation is work that nurtures and sustains both us and the world we dream into existence.
Feeding our souls is as important as feeding our bodies.
FREE HOMES , 2007
How to use CLT structures to get us out of the housing debt-trap and eliminate home financing costs in 25 years.
FINANCE-FREE HOUSING , 2006
Using Factor-10 economics to reduce overall housing costs by 80-90% in 20 years.
THE ECONOMICS OF WHOLENESS, 2002
A summary of main concepts from Learning to Count What Really Counts.
LEARNING TO COUNT WHAT REALLY COUNTS: The Economics of Wholeness, 2002.
Values, the sacred, and economics rarely inhabit the same worlds. Yet put together with systems thinking, ecology and energy, they are the essential elements of obtaining multiple order-of-magnitude improvements in economics. Here is how to restore wholeness and sustainability to our economics and culture, while making the whole world a success.
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The following articles are the roots, stretching back more than 25 years, of what is called "Factor 10 Economics" now moving rapidly into implementation worldwide. Lovins & Hawken's Natural Capitalism states, "The governments of Austria, the Netherlands, and Norway have publicly committed to pursuing Factor Four efficiencies. The same approach has been endorsed by the European Union as the new paradigm for sustainable development. Austria, Sweden, and OECD environment ministers have urged the adoption of Factor Ten goals, as have the World Business Council for Sustainable Development and the United Nations Environment Program (UNEP). Leading corporations such as Dow Europe and Mitsubishi Electric see it as a powerful strategy to gain a competitive advantage. Among all major industrial nations, the United States probably has the least familiarity with and understanding of these ideas."
Community ownership of housing, as in a Community Housing Trust (CLT), can reduce housing costs by 85% in 20 years, while giving residents virtually the complete "bundle of rights" of individual ownership.
IMPROVING HOUSING AFFORDABILITY, 2006
The only real cause of housing unaffordability is our passive acceptance of government policy causing income disparity and allowing corporate profiteering on housing finance and energy operating costs. Here are systemic changes - within local community control - that can cut housing costs by 50-75% - across the board. For more detail on what we're doing on housing affordability locally, check out the action options and resources on <www.neahcasa.org>
TWO FOR ONE, 2006
Report on a pilot project for creating flex-housing out of generic 3-bedroom ranch houses - cutting water and energy use by 75%, while creating richer community.
COSMIC ECONOMICS, 1974
Growth, fueled by fossil fuels, operates on an "inversion" of values and successful practices from a sustainable society. What's now called a "Carbon Tax" originated in this article long ago, which warned of all the failure-shortcuts we're now trying, such as ethanol fuels that are not net energy producing.
BUDDHIST ECONOMICS, by E.F. Schumacher, 1966.
Schumacher's essay on the different kinds of economics which arise from different value systems was a profound breakthrough for me in understanding how to create a society worth living for. Here it is reprinted from my 1973 Environmental Design Primer. It appeared several years before, in Resurgence.
A revisitation of my 1994 study of long-rotation forestry. In the interim, the professional forestry community has begun to substantiate my conclusions that long-rotation forestry has vast economic and social advantages over present forestry practices.
FORECLOSING OUR FUTURE: Truth and Consequences in Economics, 2002.
The core mechanism of our economics is future discounting or "present net value accounting". In real life, it causes major loss of economic productivity compared to longer term thinking. The integrative approach of Factor-10 economics, in contrast, produces far more economic productivity and financial return. Actions taken under PNV thinking often destroys the more productive long-term options, giving the appearance of "best value."
LIVING LIGHTLY, 1973.
Excerpts from my seminal 1973 monograph that rashly claimed, and then showed how, we could reduce energy use by 90% and end up with a better quality of life in the process. Actual implementation since then shows this figure was indeed conservative! Includes a report on the Ouroboros self-reliant demonstration house, confirming these potentials, that we built in 1973 with 150 totally untrained pre-architecture students at the University of Minnesota.
HIDDEN COSTS OF HOUSING, RAIN Magazine, March 1984
Top award winning entry in the 1981 California Affordable Housing Competition. Major costs over a person's or a building's life? Turns out to be financing and energy - nothing else close. Durability is the major lever. A cluster of alternatives to reduce housing costs by that same amazing 90%.
IMPROVING THE ECONOMIC VALUE OF COASTAL PUBLIC FOREST LANDS, 1994
A study of Oregon coastal forests showing that long rotations (240 yrs) would double timber yields, provide nine times the net timber revenues and 20-30 times the present total forest value. Timber turns out to be only a small player in both economic and total values.
VITALITY AND AFFORDABILITY OF HIGHER EDUCATION, 1993
Reconfiguration of higher education to release faculty time locked into a pre-Gutenberg lecturing system. Separation of resource access and accreditation; global availability of videotaped lectures; a network to connect research needs, evaluation of learning resources, etc. Savings here run from 50% on a small college system to the multi-digits with global resource availability.
TRANSFORMING TOURISM, 1993
A narrative of how the transformation in a slice of our society occurs - personally and institutionally.
AMAZON MARRIED STUDENT HOUSING, 1994
A case study done for the students at the University of Oregon wanting to extend the life of existing student housing rather than replacing it. Same story here, but dealing with actual existing buildings. Ability to avoid financing costs through incremental replacement / upgrading is key issue that offsets the costs of working on existing buildings. The "outdated" buildings have been moved to a new site, and now continue to provide quality affordable housing!
BAMBERTON, 1993
A brief review of a new Eco-City in the planning in Canada, suggesting some possibilities for obtaining even greater value.
ROCKY MOUNTAIN INSTITUTE, WUPPERTAL INSTITUTE
Amory Lovins from the Rocky Mountain Institute, and researchers at the Wuppertal Institute in Germany are in the forefront of applying this concept of systems efficiency to industrial processes and to specific energy and resource issues. Amory and L. Hunter Lovins and Paul Hawken published Natural Capitalism in the US in 1999. an earlier version, co-authored by Ernst von Weizsäcker and theLovins, called Factor Four, has been published in Germany and England.
These order-of-magnitude improvement in institutional effectiveness are, however, a one-shot opportunity. To harvest them without dealing first with growth and greed will leave us in a few years with more people, less time, and without these resources available to support a transition to sustainability. Many proponents also appear blind to the fact that there is a limit to easy efficiency improvements. There is the usual bell-shaped curve...we're in the big-and-easy middle bulge. They will soon get much harder to obtain.
Contact Wuppertal Institute at PO Box 100 480, D-42004 Wuppertal, Germany -Tel:49-202-2492-152, or E-mail: info@wupperinst.org
Contact Rocky Mountain Institute at www.rmi.org