An enthusiastic crowd assembled when Seattle hosted Sustainable Industries' Economic Forum on September 17. The event highlighted the multi-sector economic development potential of sustainable industries with an expert panel of local business leaders and provided attendees some high-caliber networking time. At the event, we had the opportunity for some one-on-one time with keynote speaker Paul Hawken to pose a few questions about the future of print and paper from his perspective. Hawken is the author or co-author of a number of books including The Next Economy, Growing a Business, The Ecology of Commerce, Natural Capitalism: Creating the Next Industrial Revolution, and  Blessed Unrest, How the Largest Movement in the World Came into Being and Why No One Saw It Coming. WTT: As an author, voracious reader, and book lover, what is your take on the future of books, newspapers and other publications? Paul Hawken: They’re going to go away completely. Pretty soon people won’t be able to start their fires because there won’t be any paper. I think paper is done. Aren’t they worried about the e-reader? They should be. In terms of 99% of what we read in books, magazines, and newspapers, I think print is over. When I started writing there were 30,000 titles a year published, now there are 170K+ titles published a year now. There is more drek out there; books that don't deserve to be published. The same thing that happened to the music industry is happening to the publishing industry. I’m surprised there’s not more noise in the industry. I can’t believe they don’t see the writing on the wall. I think it’s over. Having said that, paper isn’t done for works of art, for books about art… We will need paper, we will need some books, we will need libraries, but libraries will change completely. We won’t lose rare books. I don’t think we’ll lose certain documents; libraries are keeping notes and speeches, keeping emails, and working on interesting ways to preserve digital information with technology that will make it readable for the long term. Those kind of papers and documents will become much more valuable and valued. Things on paper will become really valuable, they will be unique. WTT: How can we reward positive business practices and discourage negative ones? If a product causes or contributes to an unhealthy human behavior or environmental damage, should that business sector be made responsible for the public harm? Paul Hawken: To be responsible is the whole problem. Corporations are not people; they aren’t held responsible. I don’t know when the world will turn on that, as long as all the incentives are out of line. The thing will most affect it is higher energy costs. Once energy costs get high enough, the whole thing lines up; the incentives will line up. Then we will see the possibilities to innovate being taken up. WTT: What about printed solar films? Is that an alternative to fossil fuel? Paul Hawken: Photo voltaics are a huge answer to the problem. SEGs - solar energy generation systems - are 5 times more powerful than uranium. One kilogram of SEGs is worth 5 kilograms of uranium in terms of power. One square meter of land receives the energy equivalent to one barrel of oil in a year, in fact 70 minutes of sunshine across the surface of the world will provide enough power for the whole world for a year. It would take only 1% of the land surface to produce 10 times the energy we need right now. Look at Nanosolar, a company I'm connected with; we print solar film. In the time it takes to print 5 1/2 days worth of newsprint, you could print enough solar film to provide all the energy needed in the world. WTT: What is the print technology that you're using? Gravure, flexo, offset litho? Paul Hawken: <smiling silence> WTT: You're not going to tell us, are you? Paul Hawken: No Printed Solar Technology Nanosolar has several patents to produce solar film using printing technology, and an examination of the company's website turned up this video showing both the film production and the production of the solar panels. We turned to Frank Romano - keeper of all printing knowledge - and asked his expert opinion about the process used for the solar panels. His answer? "I see an impression cylinder and a plate cylinder; I am pretty sure it is a modified flexo unit. Most of the printed electronics folks use screen, flexo, or even gravure." . On to the event Seattle Mayor Greg Nickels, an earlier supporter of green ideas and the value of conservation and preservation, introduced key note speaker Paul Hawken, environmentalist, entrepreneur, and author. A "standing room only" crowd welcomed Hawken who spoke on a wide range of topics, from ice core analysis in Greenland to mining minerals from our waste stream to printed solar panels. Questions from the audience touched on a number of topics. For example, what is the roll of media? "Unfortunately, we are scientifically illiterate. Without the conceptual tools, it is hard for people to understand the problems and issues. Media can give people the tools to make their own decisions." A new wall has developed between editorial and advertising; in the past the two were separated with no influence on each other. Today we have the wrong kind of wall; advertising drives editorial and editorial never offends advertisers. A democracy only functions with good information and transparency; and that requires good - and strong - media. From the audience came the question; "If you were counseling a high school senior, what fields you recommend they explore to best help the world?" Laughing that he's often asked that question, Hawken suggested that young people should study the thing that lights them up. The whole world is open. By choosing something that you really don't like but is "what you should do," you'll never get the same result. He suggested that, unfortunately, students graduate thinking they've been educated only to find out what they don't know. The Panel Discussion Moderated by Erika Schmidt, President/COO, Frause, a panel discussion kicked off with a discussion of self-sufficiency. The panelists - Ash Awad, VP - Energy and Facility Services, McKinstry; Jill Bamburg, Co-Founder, Dean Emeritus, Bainbridge Graduate Institute; Bruce Herbert, AIF, CEO, Newground Social Investment; and Kelly Ogilvie, Founder, President and CEO of Blue Marble Energy - discussed three areas where the Pacific Northwest is particularly rich in resources. We are in the most bio-mass rich part of the US and we have resources from wood waste, food waste, and other waste products. In fact, we generate 98 billion tons of food waste alone. The impediment, a major constraint, has been getting capital investment to allow development of technology that will capture these wastes. For those who couldn't attend, see videos of the keynote, the Q&A that followed it, and the panel discussion at Sustainable Industries website.