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    Nature's Fortune: How Business and Society Thrive by Investing in Nature

    Nature's Fortune: How Business and Society Thrive by Investing in Nature

    4.5 2

    by Mark R. Tercek, Jonathan S. Adams


    eBook

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    $17.99

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      ISBN-13: 9780465046966
    • Publisher: Basic Books
    • Publication date: 04/09/2013
    • Sold by: Hachette Digital, Inc.
    • Format: eBook
    • Pages: 272
    • File size: 332 KB

    Mark R. Tercek is president and CEO of the Nature Conservancy. Tercek was previously a managing director and Partner at Goldman Sachs, where he led various business units and later was tapped to build and lead the firm's environmental strategy. He lives in Washington, DC.

    Jonathan S. Adams is a science writer and conservation biologist. The author of The Myth of Wild Africa, The Future of the Wild, and co-editor of Precious Heritage, he lives in Rockville, Maryland.

    All proceeds from Nature's Fortune benefit The Nature Conservancy.

    Table of Contents

    A Note to Readers ix

    Introduction xi

    1 Maybe It's Not Chinatown After All 1

    2 Not a Drop to Drink 19

    3 Let Floodplains Be Floodplains 37

    4 The New Fishing 59

    5 Feeding the World-and Saving It 81

    6 The Million-Dollar Mile 105

    7 Investing in the Future in the Face of Climate Change 127

    8 Town and Country 147

    9 The Business Case for Nature 165

    Conclusion 189

    Acknowledgments 199

    Works Cited 203

    Index 223

    What People are Saying About This

    From the Publisher

    Publishers Weekly
    “The authors convincingly argue that corporate responsibility is not only the right ethical tactic, but the right business move....According to this savvy book, both environmentalists and business executives need to understand ‘how nature contributes to economic and ecological well-being.’”

    Luis Alberto Moreno, President, Inter-American Development Bank
    “Nature has long been recognized as a source of wealth, but we have yet to give natural capital the proper weight in economic decision making. In this timely book, Mark Tercek argues persuasively that investing in conservation and sustainable use can yield huge dividends for both people and the environment.”

    Stewart Brand, author of Whole Earth Discipline
    “In the 1970s environmentalists and business despised each other. In this century they are often close partners. The change was brought about by leaders like Mark Tercek. His book shows how prosperity is as dependent on clean rivers as on strong bridges (both are infrastructure). GMO crops can be as welcome as restoring wildlands, since they both contribute to a healthier planet.”

    David Quammen, author of Spillover and The Song of the Dodo
    “The cause of conservation in the twenty-first century desperately needs sharp, sophisticated, practical minds from the world of commerce. Mark Tercek’s is clearly among the best of them.”

    John Fahey, Chairman and CEO, National Geographic Society
    “Mark Tercek argues with refreshing clarity and persuasiveness that we must recognize the substantial economic value in our scarce natural resources. I agree wholeheartedly that the ultimate allocation and use of these resources must be market-based, backed by wise regulation. Tercek makes his point with wonderful real-life examples and prodigious logic.”

    Henry M. Paulson, Jr., former chief executive of Goldman Sachs and Treasury secretary, and chairman of the Paulson Institute
    “Mark Tercek knows business and he knows the environment. We have worked together on both. This book shows us how we can bring them together to the benefit of nature and our economy.”

    Morton Schapiro, Professor of Economics and President, Northwestern University
    “This is an important book for environmentalists, investment bankers, and everyone else. It presents a compelling case that investing in nature is a great deal—not just morally but economically as well. It is in all of our enlightened self-interest to take this book very seriously.”

    Bill McKibben, Schumann Distinguished Scholar, Middlebury College, and author of Eaarth
    “There are probably more important reasons to protect the natural world, but as this book makes clear, it’s economic folly to keep wasting our one sweet planet. It’s worth infinitely more than economists have traditionally taught—infinitely more!”

    Edward O. Wilson, Harvard University Research Professor, Emeritus, and author of The Social Conquest of Earth
    “In Nature’s Fortune, Mark Tercek and Jonathan Adams expertly articulate the interdependence of our economy and nature’s economy, and the practiced ways both can be saved in perpetuity.”

    Walter Isaacson, President and CEO, The Aspen Institute, and author of Steve Jobs
    “This is a critically important book that comes at just the right moment. The business community is coming to understand the value—and the necessity—of protecting the environment. Now, the environmental community needs to talk about nature using the language of business: assets, risks, and innovation. Nature’s Fortune is the guidebook that can move environmentalism to this next level.”

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    What is nature worth? The answer to this question—which traditionally has been framed in environmental terms—is revolutionizing the way we do business.

    In Nature's Fortune, Mark Tercek, CEO of The Nature Conservancy and former investment banker, and science writer Jonathan Adams argue that nature is not only the foundation of human well-being, but also the smartest commercial investment any business or government can make. The forests, floodplains, and oyster reefs often seen simply as raw materials or as obstacles to be cleared in the name of progress are, instead, as important to our future prosperity as technology or law or business innovation.

    Who invests in nature, and why? What rates of return can it produce? When is protecting nature a good investment? With stories from the South Pacific to the California coast, from the Andes to the Gulf of Mexico and even to New York City, Nature's Fortune shows how viewing nature as green infrastructure allows for breakthroughs not only in conservation—protecting water supplies; enhancing the health of fisheries; making cities more sustainable, livable and safe; and dealing with unavoidable climate change—but in economic progress, as well. Organizations obviously depend on the environment for key resources—water, trees, and land. But they can also reap substantial commercial benefits in the form of risk mitigation, cost reduction, new investment opportunities, and the protection of assets. Once leaders learn how to account for nature in financial terms, they can incorporate that value into the organization's decisions and activities, just as habitually as they consider cost, revenue, and ROI. Such a rethinking of “natural capital”—nature as a quantifiable asset—can not only increase profitability, but provide crucial protection against the kinds of climate change-driven phenomena—like devastating drought and hundred-year floods—that are no longer the stuff of speculation.

    A must-read for business leaders, CEOs, investors, and environmentalists alike, Nature's Fortune offers an essential guide to the world's economic—and environmental—well-being.

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    Publishers Weekly
    Environmentalists think businesspeople are irresponsible. Businesspeople think environmentalists are impractical and naive. Can’t we all just get along? We certainly can, says Nature Conservancy CEO Tercek, formerly a managing director at Goldman Sachs. The organization, which pursues conservation in all 50 states and 35 countries, has given Tercek the impetus to ask: how can environmentalists and businesses work together to produce conservation measures that make sense? First, they need to work with governments to enact strong and effective policies, and with individuals, who need to make their voices heard as voters and consumers. Tercek, along with science writer and conservation biologist Adams, covers a broad spectrum of environmental needs and challenges (water usage and consumption, preventing overfishing, reef restoration, climate change, urban conservation, population growth), as well as companies that have an ideal mix of environmental footprint and global brand. The authors convincingly argue that corporate responsibility is not only the right ethical tactic, but the right business move; making an investment in the environment now will help companies obtain the necessary resources in the future, and it will also have a positive effect on their bottom lines. According to this savvy book, both environmentalists and business executives need to understand “how nature contributes to economic and ecological well-being.” Agent: Lisa Adams, the Garamond Agency. (Apr.)
    From the Publisher
    Alan Weisman, author of The World Without Us and Countdown: Our Last, Best Hope on Earth
    “In this encouraging, intelligent book that comes none too soon, Mark Tercek and Jonathan Adams show that the corporate world ultimately can't flourish unless the natural world does, too. Through stories equally compelling to entrepreneurs or environmentalists, CEOs or scientists, we see how Nature's Fortune and our own are inextricable. If we conserve and nurture our planet's gifts like any other crucial asset or investment, we profit—or, we squander them at our own peril. Happily, this book shows why we needn't, ever.”

    Chris Anderson, TED Curator
    “This book makes plain as day why we need to stop taking nature's gifts for granted. Its thoughtful solutions can underpin conservation goals with a powerful business logic. From an alarming premise, we are given reason to hope.”

    Winner of the 2014 Green Prize for Sustainable Literature Award in the category of Business.

    Publishers Weekly
    “The authors convincingly argue that corporate responsibility is not only the right ethical tactic, but the right business move....According to this savvy book, both environmentalists and business executives need to understand ‘how nature contributes to economic and ecological well-being.'”

    Kirkus Reviews
    “A hopeful message that a sensible marriage of business and environmental interests is in the cards, which until now has mostly been trumped by shortsightedness.”

    William Jefferson Clinton, 42nd President of the United States of America
    “By breaking conservation down into dollars and cents, Mark Tercek shows that economic growth and environmental sustainability are not mutually exclusive goals. Nature's Fortune takes a pragmatic approach to an important issue, and turns the conversation from ideology to arithmetic.”

    Ted Turner, Chairman, Turner Enterprises, Inc.
    “In Nature's Fortune, Mark Tercek tackles the environment with a banker's eye and an outdoorsman's heart. He makes a clear case for why protecting nature is the smartest investment we can make.”

    Helene Gayle, President and CEO, CARE USA
    “Nature is essential for both our human as well as our economic well-being. As someone who has lived in both worlds, Mark Tercek is well positioned to take us on a guided tour of the intersection between business and the environment. With clear examples, this timely book provides a road map for smart investments and new alliances to build a sustainable and prosperous future for people and planet. Bravo!”

    Luis Alberto Moreno, President, Inter-American Development Bank
    “Nature has long been recognized as a source of wealth, but we have yet to give natural capital the proper weight in economic decision making. In this timely book, Mark Tercek argues persuasively that investing in conservation and sustainable use can yield huge dividends for both people and the environment.”

    Stewart Brand, author of Whole Earth Discipline
    “In the 1970s environmentalists and business despised each other. In this century they are often close partners. The change was brought about by leaders like Mark Tercek. His book shows how prosperity is as dependent on clean rivers as on strong bridges (both are infrastructure). GMO crops can be as welcome as restoring wildlands, since they both contribute to a healthier planet.”

    David Quammen, author of Spillover and The Song of the Dodo
    “The cause of conservation in the twenty-first century desperately needs sharp, sophisticated, practical minds from the world of commerce. Mark Tercek's is clearly among the best of them.”

    John Fahey, Chairman and CEO, National Geographic Society
    “Mark Tercek argues with refreshing clarity and persuasiveness that we must recognize the substantial economic value in our scarce natural resources. I agree wholeheartedly that the ultimate allocation and use of these resources must be market-based, backed by wise regulation. Tercek makes his point with wonderful real-life examples and prodigious logic.”

    Henry M. Paulson, Jr., former chief executive of Goldman Sachs and Treasury secretary, and chairman of the Paulson Institute
    “Mark Tercek knows business and he knows the environment. We have worked together on both. This book shows us how we can bring them together to the benefit of nature and our economy.”

    Morton Schapiro, Professor of Economics and President, Northwestern University
    “This is an important book for environmentalists, investment bankers, and everyone else. It presents a compelling case that investing in nature is a great deal—not just morally but economically as well. It is in all of our enlightened self-interest to take this book very seriously.”

    Bill McKibben, Schumann Distinguished Scholar, Middlebury College, and author of Eaarth
    “There are probably more important reasons to protect the natural world, but as this book makes clear, it's economic folly to keep wasting our one sweet planet. It's worth infinitely more than economists have traditionally taught—infinitely more!”

    Edward O. Wilson, Harvard University Research Professor, Emeritus, and author of The Social Conquest of Earth
    “In Nature's Fortune, Mark Tercek and Jonathan Adams expertly articulate the interdependence of our economy and nature's economy, and the practiced ways both can be saved in perpetuity.”

    Daniel Yergin, Pulitzer Prize–winning author of The Quest: Energy, Security, and the Remaking of the Modern World
    “Mark Tercek presents a timely argument for ‘valuing' nature that will be meaningful as much to business as to environmentalists. He demonstrates how this can work and why it is important, whether with water and forests high in the Andes, the floodplains of the Mississippi, fisheries off the California coast, or even in the dense centers of major cities. The result is a compelling ‘business case' for investment in nature that is also an agenda for action—and cooperation.”

    Marshall Goldsmith, bestselling author of What Got You Here Won't Get You There, MOJO, and Succession
    “In this telling work, Nature's Fortune, Mark Tercek reveals how an investment banker becomes a conservationist and brings two seemingly incompatible worlds together with amazing grace and immense success.”

    Andrew N. Liveris, Chairman and CEO, The Dow Chemical Company
    “If ever business and nature are going to realize their full potential to grow together, it will come about from the vision and perspectives that are contained in the pages of this book. A case like this could only be made by an author who has led passionately on both sides of the equation.

    Kirkus Reviews
    Nature Conservancy president Tercek and science writer Adams explore the possibilities of the environmental movement joining with the business community to tap nature's capital, to the betterment of both. Can activities that produce good environmental outcomes also produce good commercial results? Can the businessperson's fundamental concerns square with the time-honored environmentalist's belief in the natural world's inherent value? The authors claim that there is plenty of common ground, and they provide a number of examples to make the point: Where would Coca-Cola be without a clean and plentiful supply of fresh water? This constitutes an opportunity to save habitats that "act as giant sponges," from the high grasslands of Ecuador to the flood plains of the Mississippi River. The fishing industry can avoid the tragedy of the commons through easements, markets for trapped fish, communal fisheries and catch shares. McDonald's has changed its purchasing policies to avoid alignment with the plunderers of the rain forest. Protecting coral reefs and planting drought-tolerant trees increases productivity while avoiding environmental degradation. Green urbanism is looking at the city system as a whole, providing green space and creating a framework for ecologically sensitive development. The authors call for long-term vision, particularly when it comes to our youth, who need encouragement and incentives to get outside and burnish their innate biophilia and sense of place. Occasionally, the authors' optimism that business will see the long-term light may not convince skeptics appalled by the rush to frack and more deep-sea drilling, but there is no denying the opportunities available in the big picture. A hopeful message that a sensible marriage of business and environmental interests is in the cards, which until now has mostly been trumped by shortsightedness.

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