By Jennifer King
Douglas Tompkins, who co-founded North Face and Esprit, had a vision while hiking in Patagonia. Already a multimillionaire, he was inspired to combine his love of the outdoors and his assets and become the second highest private land purchaser in the world. With a “buy low, sell never” approach, he started a journey towards mass sustainability. “He understood what Pablo Neruda, Chile’s Nobel laureate poet, meant in writing, ‘Anyone who hasn’t been in the Chilean forest doesn’t know this planet,’” recounts Edward Humes in the compelling new book Eco Barons: The Dreamers, Schemers, and Millionaires Who Are Saving Our Planet. Tompkins, who already had something of a reputation as an environmentalist — publicizing his green message in company catalogues, building urban parks and supporting conservation groups — went on to give up consumerism, leave Espirit, buy (and donate) large swathes of land in Chile and move south. He became, in Humes’ words, a “green sugar daddy.”
In Eco Barons, Humes tells the inspiring stories of “eco-preneurs” like Tompkins to show where a green vision can take us and what means we need to get there. Consider Roxanne Quimby, who co-founded Burt’s Bees. She started by selling beeswax candles at craft fairs in 1984 and went on to make sales of US$250 million by 2006. (Burt’s Bees is now owned by Clorox.) Although Quimby and Tompkins and many of the other people profiled — Ted Turner shows up — had sweet nest eggs to fund their endeavours, money wasn’t entirely the point.
Humes understands the overload of statistics that we’re presented with and puts faces and stories to those statistics. He humanizes the environmental movement by detailing the long, complex journeys that these successful business people have made and the different approaches they’ve taken — from the lone wolves to the community agitators. The result is a business book without the jargon.
I don’t, like Tompkins or Turner, have millions or even thousands of dollars to invest in conservation. I am the “use fewer Post-it notes” type. And, naturally, I take other steps. I drive a low-emissions car, I use cloth bags for groceries and consider the importance of a memo before I print it. What else can I do? No business book would be complete without an action plan. Humes passes on some common suggestions, along with one stats-based idea that surprised me: Lose 10 pounds. If Americans alone did so, they’d save 350 million gallons of jet fuel a year.
Eco Barons is entertaining and full of inspiring stories, but the examples set by the people Humes profiles are difficult to emulate. I can’t, say, take my helicopter to survey the land my money helped conserve. However, these eco barons set precedents for how I consume and provide me with an investment opportunity. By buying their products, I am investing in their vision and, my own small way, helping them achieve a greater green. U
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