Environmental issues were once regarded as irrelevant to economic activity, but today they are dramatically rewriting the rules for business, investors, and consumers. Around the world, innovative responses to climate change and other environmental problems are affecting more than $100 billion in annual capital flows as pioneering entrepreneurs, organizations, and governments take steps to create the Earth's first sustainable global economy. This volume examines new technologies and advances from around the world that show promise as a means to create a sustainable global economy and stop the depletion of natural resources and the environment. Featuring chapters on renewable energy, innovations in clean production, commons resources, trade policy, finance for sustainability, new economic yardsticks, and many other topics, [this book] is [a] global-level publication to showcase a wide range of diverse innovations and to demonstrate their near-term potential to put whole societies on a sustainable path. Common to these innovations is a rethinking of key economic assumptions and business practices to create economies that meet people's needs while protecting the planet. -- From back cover.