The green invisible hand

Abstract

The idea behind the invisible hand is that when market participants pursue their own self‐interest constrained by sympathy for man and economic rivalry they satisfy the needs of others more effectually than if they intentionally tried to satisfy those needs. This pursuit of self‐interest drives the marketplace towards generation of wealth, and it has undoubtedly led to many technical and societal marvels, but limitations are evident because the material wealth has partly been developed at the expense of the natural and social wealth. To improve this unfortunate situation we need to fundamentally reengineer commerce. Some ideas are discussed here – an important one is the concept of money because an environmental equivalent of money is needed to make the invisible hand “green”.

Citation

Emblemsvåg, J. (2003), "The green invisible hand", Foresight, Vol. 5 No. 1, pp. 11-19. https://doi.org/10.1108/14636680310471253