Why turn to sustainablility?

A sustainable business, a truly sustainable business, does not exist right now. Why? Both the means and the funds are not available.

But that should not stop businesses from making the transition towards sustainability. The beginning processes might have a small upfront cost, but the amount a business will save greatly outweighs the initial costs. Simply changing the light bulbs in a company, and setting timers so lights automatically turn off or shut off so as to not run 24-7 can save a company hundreds.

Right there you have, say, $1,000 dollars that would have been spent that can not be used for other things. Often if a company is now moving down a sustainable path this money (again, that [b]would have been spent already[/b]) can be used for more costly changes which, you guessed it, saved even more money down the road.

Soon you have made changes that at the beginning seemed way to expensive. And where did the money come from? Sources that would have been spent already on things like utilities, materials, transportation, and packaging.

Of course these changes don't happen overnight, but everyone needs to start somewhere.

So why not turn towards sustainability? Eventually the systems will pay for themselves and the company will make more profit than it once was before the changes were implemented.

Seems like a win-win situation to me.

Community Involvement

When you hear the term community, what do you think of? Your neighborhood The school district? Anything in-between? How about the human-built environment in which we get our needs met? That's taken from Dr. Tueth's book. Yet for many Aquinas College sustainable business students community includes more than just our buildings, transportation and communication systems, retail businesses, service establishments, and the people who live around us.



What about the natural world? Where does our environment come in? That's why in sustainable business we go a step further to include the natural world. Why? Well why not! The natural world is, after all, the sole provider of our food, oxygen, natural beauty, accustomed to climate and many more benefits we as humans take for granted every day.



Expanding our general idea of community to include the natural world does much for us. It makes us look at the natural world as something to be included in our daily lives, a responsibility (if a steward) or our companion (if a kin). It makes us shift our priorities to extend past our personal lives but to care and consider others.

Guided by the Natural World

So we learned before that a sustainable business has no negatives. The natural world has no negatives. So therefore, we can say, that a SB is similar to the natural world. And to be sure a SB is indeed full of no negatives we can say a SB should be guided by the natural world.

But what does that mean? To be guided by the natural world?

Ever hear of the term biomimicry?

It is a combination of the two words biology and mimic. Mimicking biology.

People mimic those who they look up to, a sibling, parent, friend, idol. Why should our businesses be any different? By mimicking nature we see what has worked (and what hasn't worked) and base models off that.

Janine Benyus can explain biomimicry better than I can. Her book, titled Biomimicry, defines and describes cases being put in place inside laboratories and the world as we know it.

Visit her website here for more information

No Negatives In the Natural World

To this point I've discussed many things that make up a sustainable business, in terms of the three legs. Financial, social, and environmental achievement is key.

However I've yet to describe what a sustainable business would look like.

A sustainable business (now termed from here on out SB) takes it's cues and lessons from the natural world. Why? Well think about it. The natural world has no negatives with it.

BUT WAIT MICHELLE!

What about coal, gas, and oil? When there is an oil spill it hurts the environment. Yes, yes it does. But think, where are those materials located at? They are stored in the Earth's crust, pressurized, sequestered. Not available into the biosphere (the place there there is all life on Earth - above the crust and below the atmosphere). The components of oil, coal, and natural gas are only released through intense natural disasters (in which only small amounts would be released in comparison to the fossil fuels humans have brought out into the biosphere) and human manipulation.

So, back on track. The natural world has no negatives within it. Everything breaks down into food and nutrients for something else. The only energy source is the Sun, and is transformed into energy through photosynthesis, which (you guessed it) has no negatives at all.

Why then are humans so destructive? Why do our energy sources sway away from the sun to a source that holds a multitude of negatives like air pollution, soil deterioration, as well as being a finite source (meaning there's a limit to how much there is. Coal will not go on forever, unlike wind that does)

A SB has no negatives with it. Just like the natural world.

How does that happen though? Those will be my topics in the upcoming days, so stay tuned!

Triple Top Line or Triple Bottom Line?

By now the ideas relating to the three legs of sustainable business should be quite clear. Environmental, social, and financial success. But saying "three legs of sustainable business" doesn't sound quite... professional now does it? Then what does?

Consider first the term "bottom line". In accounting, the bottom line refers to the final amount of money a company makes after everything like taxes, charges, you name it, gets deducted. The last line then, the 'bottom' line says what's left in profit.

The bottom line isn't something that can be estimated or guessed, and it's not something that can be figured out in the beginning.  Only after the quarter (for instance) can the bottom line be configured.

What does that have to do with sustainable business?

Call it now the triple bottom line. Triple implies three, does it not? With this term, not only are finances an important end of period figure, but so are the aspects of the environment and social gains a company can have. Triple bottom lines gives single bottom line importance to all three aspects - just as it should be.

Then what's triple top line? A term used many times in William McDououbh and Michael Braungart's book Cradle to Cradle and often the talking point of many sustainable business classes at Aquinas College, triple top line takes the importance of the results of a quarter and puts the importance at the beginning. At the top. Make sense? No?

Triple top line calls environmental, social, and financial benefits and gains important. So important they need to be planned for at the beginning instead of an end of the line results. Planning top line advanced implies it will for sure happen (whatever 'it' needs to be) while bottom line implies the gains were an aftereffect and just happened to gain a benefit.

Make more sense now?

Business minded people are already familiar with the idea of the bottom line, so adding 'triple' to it isn't that difficult for them to understand. Triple top line however confused business minded people. I recommend using that term only after the positive benefits of the triple bottom line are shown before opening their minds to more subjective thoughts.

Something to Think About: Have Your Views Changed?

A little late in getting this post out to you for the weekend, sleep overtook me after a busy week of school. Regardless, I still have something I would like you to think about!

I have been posting for about 2 months now (give or take) and have skimmed over many topics - never going deep into any. However there has been enough general information that by now I'm sure you have formed your own opinions on the topics.

Think back to when you first started reading, what did you think then? How do you think now? Do you feel it has been a turn for the better or worse?

I know for me, when I started at Aquinas College, I wanted to go right into the sustainable business program. Freshmen year was filled with environmental classes and I loved it. Sophomore year though was the year the sustainable classes started. My mind was blown. So many new thoughts, ideas, suggestions, opinions, debates (you name it) were happening all around. Then I had Industrial Ecology. That, without competition, has been the most depressing class I had ever taken in my life (and probably will ever). In Industrial Ecology Dr. Tueth teaches you all about what's wrong in the world.

It goes deep.

It gets depressing.

But in the end?

You are more confident than ever that you want to continue so you can make a difference. Even a small one. My viewpoints and opinions constantly were changing week to week, class to class. A new word would be debated as to what it really meant. Kinship or Stewardship? Make or Create? (that's a big one... well... they are all big ones. But this one's even bigger) Those are the sets that stand out most in my mind, and how I felt about those terms were changed forever.

But enough about me. How have you changed in regards to sustainability thoughts and opinions? Let me know in the comments!

Current Topic Thursday: Fundamentals of Sustainable Business

This Thursday I want to share with you all not a news article, but a website page written in terms and ways as phrased in the book Fundamentals of Sustainable Business. I read this book and memorized the key points of each chapter for a class, but this isn't a book restrained to just the classroom.

Fundamentals of Sustainable Business

The main points, as seen when clicking the link above, are listed and explained. Each point is a chapter in Matthew Tueth's book, and will be the topics I plan on discussing in the near future.

I will note, Dr. Tueth uses the term Triple Top Line. If this is confusing, let me explain how it is not. A business deals with the bottom line - financial income. Triple refers to that financial segment, as well as environmental and social 'top' line. 'Top Line' refers to these being a priority at the beginning of a business's plan rather than an afterthought at the 'bottom' of  a business's report.

As always, if you have any questions please let me know in the comments.

Improving the Environmental Leg

The environmental leg of the three legged stool is, to some, the easiest and most obvious side thought of when it comes to sustainable business. This is, after all, the side immediately thought of when one thinks of sustainability.

So how does a business go about starting down the environmental leg path? Low hanging fruit. The easy steps come first - changing light bulbs, paper efficiency, turning off non-use lights when no one is around, change to water efficient plumbing (sinks, toilets, faucets) etc. These things are easy to do and very afforable for businesses.

But what to do with that saved money?

Put it in a new account labeled 'sustainable changes' or something like it.

The larger changes take money. They are expensive. A solar panel array, wind turbine, re-planting natural plants and reducing blacktop outside, heating and cooling system re-vamps, material selection, machine and electronics upgraded to lower using energy models. All those take more money than a pack of light bulbs.

Yet every penny saved in the beginning gets re-invested into larger changes, so in the future that once expensive turbine is now purchased with money that would have been spent already on previous expenses.

Eventually all these changes makes the business money because the costs that were once there and seen as fixed costs no longer exist.

See how easy that is?

But it's not an over-night change. Becoming sustainable takes time, effort, and money. Not all businesses can do that. So be wary of businesses that claim they are now sustainable when just last week the paper reported their failing in, say, energy use.

Improving the Financial Leg

Finances have always been the core reason behind a business. If there are no funds or income there is no business. Making money is important. But how companies go about making and/or saving money isn't always in the best interest of anyone outside the the top tier.

So what's done? In a general basis, employees have their wages slashed or cut completely and therefore laid off, short-cuts are taken, ethics are ignored, and the company does better for another quarter or so until the process starts again. Globalization also happens, but for what might seem like the wrong reasons. It's cheaper to build or manufacture across seas. Wages are cheaper there too.

But what about the positives of the financial leg? It's okay to make money. As I said, it's the reasons businesses exist. I plan on working for a business some day and get paid well doing a job I've prepared for while in college. I am not bashing companies for making these decisions, money is money. However, the above paragraph is what happens when just the financial benefits are the only concern. Decisions that affect the environment, and societies that the company influences need to be considered in financial decisions. This would better round out the finance side, in my opinion. Businesses need to start shifting away from looking solely at the bottom line, as scary as that would and will be for nearly all business owners.

Improving the Social Leg

Last Friday I asked you readers to think about what kind of social changes you could envision being changed, added, or whatever in your place of employment. What sort of things did you come up with?

On my part I looked over my college, Aquinas, as I am unemployed at the moment. Things AQ could do to improve the social leg of sustainability? Well, from a student's perspective classes could be held outdoors (weather permitting) and/or more guest speakers could come in and talk. I have had classes where both have happened, but the occasions are few and far between. It's been studied and recorded that humans work and feel better when in natural surroundings.

And talking with speakers who are living in the day to day world has happened too, just not in every class. And I don't mean just a Q&A about their job, how they got there, etc. etc. Talks about what they get out of working there - the social behaviors and attributes they've seen in the work place, even going as far as talking about social politics in the work place. Aspects that aren't discussed anywhere it seems, but very important.

Suppose company A has leisurely lunch breaks, outside working areas (or break areas) and an open floor plan.  Now suppose company B has a strict schedule, determined working places, and set hours for everything. Neither is better than the other, it's what you perfer. You wouldn't want to work at B when you longed for A (or vice versa) would you?

It's why potential college students tour campuses after all. Which area fits you best? That's the social leg of sustainability at work. What makes you comfortable and secure is what will make you produce you best work. Need to work from home? Great. Work better in an office? Fantastic. Find what works for you and the rest will follow.

Something to Think About: The Three Legs

By now you have a decent understanding of the core meanings behind the three legs of sustainability: financial, social, and environmental. What we haven't talked about yet in detail are the ethics associated with each leg.

So for this weekend think of possible scenarios where ethics can help OR hinder the progress of these three legs, in any way you can imagine.

Living Downstream

Today I want to share with you a book that discusses in great length what happens when one area is polluted, causing effects miles and miles down from the original pollution location.

This book is Living Downstream written by Sandra Steingraber.

It's a good read.

Steingraber explores in her book the cause and effects of pollutants and carcinogens (cancer causing) in our water systems and beyond. Her chapters are divided up as follows:

Trace Amounts
Silence
Time
Space

War
Animals
Earth
Air
Water
Fire
Our Bodies, Inscribed
Ecological Roots

If you are at all curious to know about what is in our waters, soil, plants, and animals that we both see and consume give this book a read. I promise you won't regret it.

It has been some time since I've read this piece of writing cover to cover, but I often refer to it when talking about how what someone does in one area affects another area.