ZERONAUTS: BREAKING THE SUSTAINABILITY BARRIER by John Elkington, EarthScan, London; Routledge, New York, 2012
Author John Elkington is a founder of the global movement for corporate and investor responsibility, author of seventeen books; founder of the famed consultancy SustainAbility and currently co-founder of the investment firm Volans Ventures, based in London. As a serial innovator, Elkington templates words and phrases: sustainability, and now “zeronauts,” defined (p. 251) as “an inventor, innovator, entrepreneur, intraprenuer, investor, manager or educator who promotes wealth-creation while driving adverse environmental, social and economic impacts toward zero.” Elkington describes “zeronauts” as people who find, investigate and develop breakthrough solutions for the growing tensions between demography, consumerist lifestyles and sustainability, as well as political leaders and policy makers who help create regulatory frameworks and incentives needed to drive one-Earth solutions to scale.