Goleman’s latest book is Ecological Intelligence: How Knowing the Hidden Impacts of What We Buy Can Change Everything. The book argues that new information technologies will create “radical transparency,” allowing us to know the environmental, health, and social consequences of what we buy. As shoppers use point-of-purchase ecological comparisons to guide their purchases, market share will shift to support steady, incremental upgrades in how products are made – changing every thing for the better.

Today, that empire centers on one of the most innovative and environmentally sustainable factories in Bali. The factory walls, made of recyclable mud brick, are topped with thorny bougainvillea, rather than razor wire. John Hardy calls them a “sustainable solution to the international problem of security.” Workshop roofs are covered with creeping passion-fruit vines to insulate the interiors from the brutal equatorial sun. Their fruit makes for a handy snack. Lotus ponds punctuate factory floors. “If the fish die,” says Hardy, “we know something is wrong.” The compound is designed to be light on the ground. If the Hardys closed shop, the whole area could be back to rice paddies in three months’ time.