The Environment Writer

Take one part social programming, one part environmental responsibility and one part corporate profit, mix into one programmatic title and serve up Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR), one of the most important concepts for competitiveness in today’s business climate. Each of these elements, also known by the catchy phrases “people, planet, profit” or “triple bottom line,” dramatically enhance the ability of the others to components to perform. Maintaining a CSR program, therefore, that focuses on integration of these components can have a sum benefit much greater than a focus on any one part alone.

Social Programming

If customers and employees are treated as mutually beneficial partners in a business relationship, profitability becomes much more sustainable over the long-term. Healthy, satisfied customers are loyal customers that will continue to return to the business. A safe, healthy and environmentally friendly workplace causes employees to take fewer sick days and stay with the company longer, allowing fewer work delays, decreased turnover and lowered training costs. By organizing and participating in social charity work, a business enhances reputation, name recognition, and essential public relations value.

Environmental Responsibility

Corporate environmental sensitivity ensures the health and safety of customers, employees, and it also maintains a sustainable supply of natural resources. Reducing toxins and petrochemicals may not only lower manufacturing costs but also reduce risk management and employee insurance costs. Increasing energy, water and material use efficiency in terms of water, energy and material se directly impacts the environmental footprint of a business. A improved environmental footprint alone has great marketing value, but it also allows for a reliable supply of resources or expanded operations based on the same resource flow. Ecological restoration projects can have significant marketable offset value and sometimes even can provide useful ecosystem services to business operations.

Corporate Profit

Ensuring social equity and environmental integrity have a direct impact on bottom line profits. Efficiency measures, resource use reduction, employee health and safety and CSR marketing initiatives can significantly reduce costs and improve brand value. Long-term business stability is sustained by preserving customer and supply chain viability through natural resource protection, customer loyalty and positive brand management opportunities. In turn, a more profitable business is able to spend more capital on social and environmental programs, which again cycles back into profitability.

The inseparable nature of CSR components creates positive and integrated feedback mechanisms that sustain global business, environment and society. A systemized approach to people, planet and profit is one of the most important tools that a business can use to succeed today.

To learn more about what an integrated Corporate Social Responsibility program that promotes operations efficiency and marketing for your business, visit The Green Den Consultancy or contact Daniel McDonell.

Picture: Cornell Sustainability Hub

My good friend Jon Flowers recently gave a presentation on sustainability in the Chicago area. He produced this list of terms and definitions to clarify some of the buzzwords that are out there. Of course, no list is comprehensive, but it is a great reference guide, with particularly well reasoned definitions.

Organic-

Organic foods are produced according to certain production standards. For crops, it means they were grown without the use of conventional pesticides, artificial fertilizers, human waste, or sewage sludge, and they were processed without ionizing radiation or food additives.

Free Range-

Historically means the raising of farm animals without fences, allowing the animals to graze on the land and maintain a diverse diet. Now is defined by the USDA only for meat poultry as poultry given “access to the outside”. Egg poultry, swine, and cattle do not have any officially recognized criteria for being defined as “free range.”

Native Vegetation-

Plants of a certain geographic habitat that were not transported to that habitat by man. Native plants are adept at surviving without human intervention (watering, shade, fertilizer). Examples include Illinois prairie grasses and Arizona cactuses.

Biodiversity-

A measurement of the variation of life forms within an ecosystem. Ecosystems with a high level of biodiversity are more apt to survive, as extinction of one species does not result in a gap in the food chain/web.

Community-based Economics-

The practice of encouraging consumers to buy locally made products. The goals of buying local are to encourage self sufficiency of a community, reduce transportation of goods and services, rejection of outside influences, promotion of personal investment in the community, and education of consumers.

Fair Trade-

The idea of giving disadvantaged producers in developing countries or smaller operations a fair chance on the world’s market, thereby supporting their sustainable methods of production. Fair trade products are usually identified with the International Fairtrade Certification Mark.

Global Warming -

Global Warming is the rise in the earth’s temperature resulting from an increase in heat-trapping gasesmainly carbon dioxide and methane) in the atmosphere. Fossil fuels used in the production of electricity may contribute to two-thirds of these gases found in the atmosphere.

Green-

Synonymous with sustainable.

Biofuel-

A fuel derived from living plant material that can be burned for energy.

Hybrid Automobile-

A vehicle that runs on a combination of electric power and gasoline or diesel fuel power. The electric power is supplied by a battery that may or may not be charged via a wall socket. Most commercial hybrids use the running fuel engine to recharge the battery and do not recharge from braking.

Flex uel Automobile-

A vehicle that runs on a combination of conventional gasoline and ethanol, from 0% ethanol to 85% ethanol. A flexfuel model is almost identical to gas-only models. Federal fuel efficiency ratings: http://www.fueleconomy.gov/Feg/findacar.htm

Sustainable-

Meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs.

Compact Fluorescent Light-

A small fluorescent light that operates by passing a current through mercury vapor, which gives off ultraviolet light that excites a phosphor coating on the inside of the bulb. The phosphor coating gives off light when excited. CFLs last longer and generate more light with less energy than conventional incandescent (current passed through a filament, which lights up with heat) bulbs. The mercury vapor contained in CFLs is toxic, and all CFLs should be disposed of properly.

Rainwater Harvesting-

The capture of rainwater for human use. Rain barrels (55 gallon drums connected to a residential roof drain) and cisterns (large underground storage tanks) are common storage devices used for harvesting.

Peak Oil-

The idea that world oil production has reached its peak or will in the very near future (US oil production peaked in 1970). Falling production will be accentuated by increases in demand from population growth, the industrialization of developing counties, and ever-shrinking new oil discoveries.

Offshore Drilling-

The drilling of oil wells near coast lines. Oil rigs are given an allowance of oil, drilling fluid, and metal cuttings they may discharge into the ocean. The allowance usually accumulates to about 90,000 tons of pollutants discharged into the ocean over the lifetime of one rig.

Clean Coal-

The process of removing carbon dioxide from the emissions of coal fired power plants (and other CO2 generating sites). Carbon capture and sequestration (CCS) is the most common clean coal technology discussed. There are no power plants in the world that currently capture and sequester their carbon dioxide, and the technology has been deemed infeasible until 2020.

Alternative Energy sources-

Usually refers to renewable energy sources that are not fossil fuel based. Examples include wind, hydro, tidal, solar, and geothermal energy.

Green Building-

The practice of constructing buildings that minimize impact to the environment. Practices include: employing high efficiency space conditioning systems and appliances that are commissioned before operation and maintained properly; designing buildings in concert with their environment; selecting sites that minimize automobile transport, land disturbance, and maintenance; employing fixtures, plumbing, and practices that reduce potable water use and sewage generation; ensuring a proper dwelling environment for inhabitants; and encouraging material, site, and resource reuse as much as possible.

Sustainable Development/New Urbanism-

The practice of constructing new places for human activity with goals of preserving natural functions and minimizing resource use. Trends have been to develop: on previously developed land if possible, near public transportation, with extensively planned communities, using mixed use practices, increasing building density, and encouraging walking and biking.

Composting-

The process of subjecting liquid and solid biodegradable waste to natural bacterial processes to remove all harmful bacteria in the waste and break down the complex molecules of the waste, and then using the finished product for a rich organic soil substitute.

LEED-

Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design. A certification issued by the United States Green Building Council (a non profit trade organization) to recognize environmentally friendly development. 

Brownfield-

A vacant plot of land that no one wants to buy because of real or perceived pollutant contamination.

Greenfield-

A plot of land that has not been previously disturbed by a soil grading.

Life Cycle-

The term used to evaluate the whole impact of a human development, activity, or trade good from development to decommissioning/destruction. Synonymous with footprint.

Grey Water-

Water that has been used by a human activity but is not contaminated with bacteria or pollutants that could be degraded by bacteria.

As we know, ‘sustainability’ is an ambiguous term without certain definition and agreement. One popular broad definition of sustainability was issued by the Bruntland Commission in 1989:

“meeting the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs.”

Note that the above definition leaves everything to do with the environment and ecology implied. We might argue that there must be environmental and ecosystem services available for ourselves and future generations to meet their needs, but this view is not necessarily shared universally.

For example, some believe that any degradation of natural resources can be replaced by technological advances and substitutions. According to this line of reasoning as our petroleum supplies decrease, we will find other equally viable forms of energy; as our freshwater resources decrease, we will invent new methods of desalination and purification; as our arable land productivity diminishes through overuse, we will genetically alter plants with higher yields and lower water needs to increase production. Below is a graph of idealized weak sustainability substitution in which there is a direct tradeoff between natural capital and human-made technological capital.

Of course the Natural Capital curve and the Human-Made Capital curve might fluctuate, but the point of this hypothetical scenario is that the Total Capital always remains at 100% (or greater if the curves fluctuated upwards). Thus, the human population has a minimum amount of capital and welfare standard as long as the environmental degradation is replaced by human substitutions and innovation.

Those who argue against such substitution possibilities often derogatorily call this idea of sustainable development ‘weak sustainability.’ However, this scenario actually does work reasonably well on micro-economic levels up to the national scale. A prime example is the Government Pension Fund of Norway. The state-owned Norwegian oil company, StatoilHydro, invests surplus profits from petroleum income into a pension portfolio now worth approximately USD 325 billion. The oil, a form of natural capital, could be used to increase supply and directly decrease fuel prices in Norway. Instead, Norway exports a large quantity of it and invests the profits to create human-made capital in the form of a large pension fund. This fund allows for long-lasting income for the population in exchange for a finite resource, actually increasing the total capital available for Norway above the original levels.

Weak sustainability and substitution are cleverly applied in the above Norwegian example, but its applications are extremely limited on a global level. The most obvious problems are the limiting factors of Critical Natural Capital (CNC) as well as the limited information on technological advances, substitutions and the extent of natural capital.

Below are two of the biggest problems with creating a ‘weak sustainability’ curve on a global level:

1. Critical Natural Capital – In ecological economics, one of the basic assumptions is that there is a minimal amount of natural capital that we need as a population to survive. No human-made substitution is feasible for this minimal amount because of the complex ecosystem services that provide life support to us. Included are the basics such as clean air to breathe and fresh water to drink. Once we have used natural resources to a point below the level of critical natural capital, human welfare begins to diminish.

2. Limited Information – The concept of limited information is a basic principal of traditional economics. It basically argues that as humans, we have limited information on substitution possibilities and economic trade-offs. We cannot accurately predict how long a new technology will take to create or how much it will cost, and the farther in the future we try to predict, the less accurate our estimates become. Finally, there are still limits to our scientific knowledge of the natural world, what it can provide for us, what its resiliency to human use is, and how much natural capital actually forms the critical natural capital. The ‘precautionary principle’, which will be explored in later posts, builds on the realization that we have limited knowledge and advises erring on the side of caution toward the environment and the economy because of these limits.

With critical natural capital included in the process, weak sustainability implemented on a global level is far more likely to turn out like the below graph:

In this graph, natural capital and human made capital also are in direct trade-off with each other until about 50 years on a hypothetical timeline has passed. Around that point, the total capital goes up slightly as the human made capital keeps increasing, but when the natural capital reaches the line of CNC where human capital can no longer be supported, total capital rapidly declines until it reaches zero. This graph may show an extreme case, but it appropriately displays the connection between critical natural capital and its effect on total capital if degraded.

Although there are some applications for weak sustainability theories, it  does not apply to a global scale of economic interaction -  especially when combined with the ecological economics concepts of limited critical natural capital and the inability to have continual and equal tradeoffs between natural and human-made capital. Although there will always be limited knowledge, we must begin to explore a more precautionary approach of ‘strong sustainability.’