Some Principles of Green Business and Sustainability

Sustainability can be defined as: "Humanity’s investment in a system of living, projected to be viable on an ongoing basis that provides quality of life for all individuals of sentient species and conserves natural ecosystems.”

Natural Capitalism
(these ideas are from an article at The Rocky Mountain Institute, http://www.rmi.org/

Companies Can Profit From the Principles of Natural Capitalism

The previously mentioned core principles form the backdrop for Natural Capitalism, a new and rapidly spreading business model that harnesses environmental performance as an engine of competitive advantage. Our activities are increasingly based on this thesis, detailed in the book Natural Capitalism: Creating the Next Industrial Revolution (www.naturalcapitalism.org).

Here's the thesis.

Previous industrial revolutions made people vastly more productive when low per-capita output was limiting progress in exploiting a seemingly boundless natural world. Today we face a different pattern of scarcity: abundant people and labor-saving machines, but diminishing natural capital.

Natural Capital refers to the earth's natural resources and the ecological systems that provide vital life-support services to society and all living things. These services are of immense economic value; some are literally priceless, since they have no known substitutes. Yet current business practices typically fail to take into account the value of these assets — which is rising with their scarcity. As a result, natural capital is being degraded and liquidated by the very wasteful use of resources such as energy, materials, water, fiber, and topsoil.

The next industrial revolution, like the previous ones, will be a response to changing patterns of scarcity. It will create upheaval, but more importantly, it will create opportunities.

Natural Capitalism is a new business model that enables companies to fully realize these opportunities.

Green Building

In the last ten years or so, the DOE, EPA, and private researchers have invested enormous resources into our long-term greenhouse gas, global warming, and dependence on foreign oil issues. Since the US is by far the largest consumer of energy and since buildings are the largest users of this energy, much of this effort has been focused on research and development of green building technologies. While much progress has been made and most new public buildings in our metropolitan areas meet new standards for energy and resource efficiency, currently only about 1% of residential construction employs these technologies to any appreciable extent. Given that residential energy use is a large percentage of the total, much work remains to be done.

Doing Well by Doing Good
(another Rocky Mountain Institute idea, I believe)

For me, it isn't about just making money. So many social and environmental atrocities have been committed in the pursuit of profit. For me, it really is about the triple bottom line of attempting to improve our quality of life without sacrificing our relationship with nature and enhancing our economic stability in the process. My efforts are based on the belief that ultimately, everything we do has an effect on everything else and, in turn, on ourselves.