
"It's too late to be right or righteous," says environmentalist Paul Hawken, who makes no bones about consulting for companies like Wal-Mart and Ford. Given the problems facing the earth, he said, he's willing to sit down with anyone sincere about addressing these issues. Hawken, founder of retailer Smith & Hawken and co-author of "Natural Capitalism: Creating the Next Industrial Revolution," believes companies should integrate biomimicry - the art of designing things by imitating how nature operates - into their products. Taking his own advice, he's launched a firm that will make cheap solar panels based in part on how the plant world converts sunlight into energy.
NEXT: Rebuilding America