In Business, Creating Sustainable Enterprises & Communities

IN BUSINESS WORLD

In Business, March/April, 2004, Vol. 26, No. 2, p. 4

CANADIAN “DESIGN FOR SUSTAINABILITY” BUSINESS CASE STUDIES
Ten case studies of small and medium sized enterprises have recently been published by a Canadian network of “Design for Sustainability” organizations. The case studies feature firms from a variety of sectors from across Canada demonstrating leadership and innovation in sustainable design. The cases

were written by MBAs and Masters of Environmental Studies students at York University in Toronto. The students were part of a new Design for Sustainability initiative that includes the Business and Sustainability Program at the Schulich School of Business at York University, as well as Canadian Business for Social Responsibility, the Design Exchange, Five Winds International, Pollution Probe, Environment Canada and other partners.
The purpose of the Design for Sustainability collaboration is to document and disseminate examples of best practice by businesses of designing sustainability into their products, services, processes and business models. For further information, contact Kevin McKague at kmckague@schulich.yorku.ca. A report on the case studies and companies featured will appear in the next issue of In Business.

IMPACT OF RAINFOREST ACTION NETWORK
Rainforest Action Network (RAN) “is one of the most effective environmental nonprofits, responsible for changing the way many huge corporations do business,” reports Progressive Investor, an information service of Sustainable Business.com. Because of RAN's efforts, companies like Kinko's and Home Depot have stopped buying paper and wood products sourced from endangered forests. Its latest accomplishment involves Citigroup which has long been criticized for investing in environmentally destructive projects such as natural gas pipelines that run through rainforests.
Because of RAN's involvement, Citigroup has announced a policy that commits the world's largest bank to protect endangered ecosystems and address the issue of climate change. Notes Progressive Investor; “Citigroup is the first multinational bank to prohibit investment in any extractive industry (e.g., oil and gas, mining, logging) in primary tropical forests and place severe restrictions on destructive investment in all endangered ecosystems worldwide.” The Corporation's “New Environmental Initiatives” is said to contain the finance industry's first illegal logging policy. RAN has issued a challenge to the top 12 U.S. banks to “meet or beat” the terms of Citigroup's policy.

GREEN POLICY TRANSFORMS COLLEGE CAMPUS IN LOS ANGELES
When the Los Angeles Community College District embarked on a massive, 10-year, $2.22 billion modernization program two years ago, it decided to invest in a sustainable building program that concentrated on energy efficiency, recyclable and nontoxic materials. This program, reports Lynn Corum, is designed to transform its nine campuses into sustainable, green environments for students, faculty and communities. “The investment will produce life-cycle cost savings of perhaps $20 million,” explains Corum.
Money for the modernization came from two ballot measures approved by L.A. voters in 2001 and 2003. Funding has produced “an amazing building effort” based on energy efficiency and sustainable building standards developed by the U.S. Green Building Council.
The modernization includes 48 new buildings which will be designed to qualify for the Green Building Council's Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) certification. Another 75 older buildings will be renovated to meet and exceed California's Title 24 energy efficiency building standards. Many of the new buildings will be powered by solar systems. In total, 453 projects will be completed by the end of the decade, with most work completed by 2008.
Larry Eisenberg, executive director of Facilities Planning & Development at LACCD, said the district's Board of Trustees had several goals when it adopted the sustainable buildings policy: Reduce campus energy use; Include a teaching mission; and Transform the marketplace.
The district will have the opportunity to teach staff and students about the sustainable elements going into the buildings as they are being constructed, tailoring programs based on what is built at each campus. Students will be hired for assessment teams to audit and catalog the sustainable assets on each campus to preserve them. Maintaining the sustainable program as a teaching mission means students will naturally take what they've learned home with them, said Eisenberg, thereby extending the mission out into the community as well.
The college district hopes to set an industry standard with its procurement of equipment and furniture utilizing recycled and reusable material. LACCD'S leadership in sustainability has already served as a role model for the University of California which also adopted a sustainability policy for its campuses in late 2003.
Once LACCD's building program is completed and the 48 buildings are LEED certified by about 2010, California will have quadrupled the number of LEED buildings in the state, strengthening its lead in the nation's sustainable building movement. Right now, 35 states have LEED buildings, most just one or two. Pennsylvania comes closest to California with 11 LEED buildings, adds Corum.

FROM BURNING RIVER IMAGE TO SUSTAINABLE BUSINESS DEVELOPMENT
Not too long ago, the images that were projected from Ohio's Cuyahoga River region showed a burning river from tremendous amounts of oil contaminants. Today, a vastly different image is projected, reports the Cleveland Plain Dealer, as the Cuyahoga Valley Initiative envisions a region that benefits as its industries “reuse and profit from waste, communities link with the river, and the valley itself stands as a national destination.”
Cuyahoga County planners have divided their region into eight segments, from its northern link with Lake Erie to its southern link with the Cuyahoga Valley National Park. The planners are offering green building codes, architectural guidance and software “that links land use with planning tools and potential collaborators.” The county commissioners invested $375,000 in the initiative in 2001 and another $200,000 this year. The Joyce Foundation in Chicago, which supports projects helping the Great Lakes Region, has put $90,000 into the initiative. (Web site for the Cuyahoga Valley Initiative is: www.cuyahogavalley.net.)

WORLD BANK PROPOSES TO RESTRICT OIL AND COAL PROJECTS TO PROTECT ENVIRONMENT
Reacting to a report for the World Bank proposing restrictions on its investment in oil and coal projects, on one side groups argue that mineral and oil projects in the developing world pollute and foster corruption. On the other side are mining companies and political leaders of many poor countries who maintain that exploiting natural resources can boost people out of poverty. “There's a misconception or misinformation campaign inside the bank that this is just about some environmental groups that are trying to push an agenda,” said Jon Sohn, an analyst with Friends of the Earth... “With people like Archbishop Desmond Tutu of South Africa speaking out, they're finding this is a global issue.”
In the report drafted by Emil Salim, former environmental minister from Indonesia appointed by James D. Wolfensohn, the World Bank's president, the critical study found that mining and oil projects could contribute to development only if certain environmental and social conditions were met. Specifically Dr. Salim argued that, in order to fulfill its commitment to sustainable development, the World Bank had an obligation to promote clean energy by ending its financing of coal and oil projects. Twenty of the world's major banks have agreed to uphold the environmental and social standards set by the World Bank's International Finance Corporation under an agreement called the Equator Principles.

MAKING A COMMUNITY SELF-SUFFICIENT IN ENERGY
A study commissioned by the
University of Minnesota at Morris (UMM) to evaluate local alternative energy potential has determined that biogas produced by a manure anaerobic digester has the power to supply 50 percent of the energy needed to run the UMM campus. A dairy 12 miles from Morris, Minnesota is expanding its herd to more than 9,000 animals, which will generate up to 10 million cubic feet of manure annually, says Ed Larson, Morris city manager. The methane gas from the digester could be economically pumped from the dairy into the city of Morris, notes the study.
“The technology is there because it's being done other places,” explains Larson. His city is trying to acquire funds to verify the plan's feasibility, which he believes is “viable.” Concludes the city manager: “We've been told by the legislature that cities need to be creative and innovative. We are trying to do that and establish revenue streams to offset (state) cuts to local government aid,” adds a news report by the Agricultural Utilization Research Institute.

LINKING SMALL FARMS TO COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT
A project funded by the Southern Rural Development Center in Ruston, Louisiana is working with local farmers, community leaders and technical assistance providers to determine the benefits in developing local markets for produce grown in Northern Louisiana and creating value-added activities such as processing and agritourism. According to Elizabeth Higgins of the Louisiana Tech University Center, the project has three components:
1) Development of a database of small farmers who are currently engaged in, or are interested in direct marketing, value-added processing, or agritourism; 2) Three focus groups of farmers in order to get input as to the barriers and opportunities that they perceive in marketing or processing in the region; and 3) Development of a committee of stakeholders in the region who are committed to working to improve the incomes of small and limited resource farmers or who are interested in developing local processing or enhanced marketing of locally-grown agricultural products. This committee will represent the diverse groups.

FIRMS IN JAPAN AND CHINA GUARANTEE RECYCLING SERVICES
According to the electronic newsletter, Japan for Sustainability, the Yamagen Company in Japan - now offers a line of furniture with a guarantee that it will be recycled. The company has come to be involved in a wide range of business activities that include manufacturing building materials and processing both industrial and domestic waste biomass. Meanwhile, Dowa Mining Co. is launching a recycling enterprise in China by establishing a joint venture which will launch a precious metal recycling business together with processing of used electronic products.

CAMPUS DINING SERVICES OFFER MORE SUSTAINABILITY
A report in the Minnesota Sustainable Communities Network last month tells us that two large food service companies used by colleges, corporate campuses, hospitals, etc. are making available: organic and locally-grown produce; meats/seafoods with reduced antibiotics; fair-trade coffee; products grown without cruelty to animals; and vegetarian and vegan options. On some campuses, these companies are also educating their diners about their food (i.e., bios of local farmers), composting food waste, and provide reusable mugs, biodegradable disposables, etc. Editor Philipp Muessig of the Minnesota Office of Environmental Assistance lists these sources for more information: the Community Food Security Coalition's web page at: http://foodsecurity.org/farm_to_college.html; www.nextstep.state.mn.us.