I’m always talking about sustainability, and as awesome as it is to ponder how it will save the planet and create a spiritual transcendence and all that good stuff that makes us feel warm and fuzzy inside, I thought it’d be smart to put a practical edge on the whole thing by taking a look at the actual markets that make up LOHAS (lifestyles of health and sustainability) and what type of numbers are behind them. This movement is growing fast and is creating incredible value in our economy. I believe it will gradually work it’s way into every imaginable vertical and serve to harmonize the economy into a holistic transcendence beyond capitalism. My friend Lee and I like to call it ecolism as I’ve mentioned in past posts. Here’s a breakdown of the current markets of the “sustainable economy”, what products and services they offer, and which ones are growing fastest.

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LOHAS – Lifestyles of Health and Sustainability

A holistic philosophy on products, services, businesses, organizations, and humanity as a whole that advocates growth and change through systems thinking. I recently found an amazing write up at the LOHAS website about how this philosophy will help the business culture of the future.

Here’s my favorite excerpt:

“For the last 250 years, we have been living in what Peter Senge calls the ‘industrial age bubble’, based on a ‘take, make, waste’ worldview. Behind this way of life has been a set of attitudes and beliefs about economics, wealth, and business. We tend to think of these beliefs as “common sense”, or even as objective natural law. But in fact, they are received knowledge, the inheritance of centuries of cultural, political, and philosophical tradition. Our way of business is based on learned behavior, not natural law.

With this worldview, we’ve created unprecedented wealth, knowledge and communication. And, we’ve created environmental toxicity, cheap throw away products, denatured industrially-produced food, and a culture of low self-esteem and spiritual poverty.”

So how do we change? How do we grow?
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