EcoCommerce…

I wrote a book called EcoCommerce 101, copyrighted the word, wrote the definition for the word in Wikipedia, and called myself an EcoCommercist. Since 2010, a big part of my professional life has been EcoCommerce.

EcoCommerce

EcoCommerce is an integrated ecological-economical model that provides a means to account for and value land management activities that improves the condition of natural capital and values the output of ecoservices. EcoCommerce is more comprehensive than a compilation or organization of ecosystems service markets as it provides the framework to build an ecological intelligence system that allows the public arena of commerce to define sustainability.[1]

When I began writing EcoCommerce 101 in 2009 I was a learned and practicing agro-ecologist — that means I farmed and understood ecological principles. When I completed the book I was an economist — that means I understood human behavior relative to acquiring things with money, and understood money. I imagine that transitioning from an ecologist to an economist is much easier than transitioning to an ecologist from an economist. Much of economics is made up, but none of ecology is.

When I published EcoCommerce 101, half of the people thought I wrote an economics book and the other half thought I wrote an environmental book. Few understood the economic system was an offshoot from a single natural capital root. EcoCommerce transcended both systems.

I recognized natural capital as the nexus of the two systems, and that the natural capital unit (NCU) could represent the point of measurement, management, and valuation.

When I approached platform developers they recognized the NCU as the irreducible unit of measurement that could unbundle and re-bundle assets at the scale of the supply and demand — the key to unlocking blockchain and crypto-economic systems.

So 18 years after I recognized the path forward toward EcoCommerce and 13 after I began writing EcoCommerce 101 I can almost see the sea. Climbing is hard, descending can be treacherous.

Hopefully the world is ready to add an ecological dimension to the economy.

Tim Gieseke authored three books related to bringing EcoCommerce to fruition:

EcoCommerce 101: Adding an ecological dimension to the economy (2011)

Shared Governance for Sustainable Working Landscape (2016)

Collaborative Environmental Governance Frameworks: A Practical Guide (2019)