The authors aim is to follow Brundtland's lead on the need for a rapid transition to sustainability. The authors bolster Brundtland's case for the transition, because they feel that the need for this transition is not yet adequately recognized. The authors then go on to suggest specifics of what is needed to achieve the transition. They leave to others the more important task, namely how to implement the transition; how to muster the political will for changes which will be painful, but essential.

They feel that understanding the necessity and general direction of the transition is a precondition for mustering the political will.

The conclusion is that economic activity cannot proceed any longer under the banner of "business as usual." Specifically it is no longer tenable to make economic growth, as conventionally nerceived and measured, the unquestioned objective of economic development policy. The old concept of growth, which we designate "throughput growth", with it- reliance on an ever increasing throughput of energy and other natural materals cannot be sustained, and must yield to an imaginative pursuit of economic ends that are less resource intensive.

The way we undervalue natural capital services and fail to account for natural asset degradation often means that the authors are impoverishing ourselves while imagining that our economies are growing. The new approach requires a concerted effort at remolding consumer's preferences, and steering wants in the direction of environmentally benign activities, while simultaneosly reducing throughput per unit of final product, including services.