Sustaining Local Economies

Every dollar spent at a farmers’ market guarantees the continued existence of farms. The loss of these farms would mean a risk of overdevelopment; the reduction of healthy food options, jobs and local dollars; and an increase in reliance on fossil fuels used to ship food long distances. It is suggested that 90 cents of every dollar spent on locally grown food remains in the local economy as opposed to 25 cents if spent on food that is shipped in. In an inspiring reversal of a century-old trend, there has been a rise in new farms—many small and many women-owned—as consciousness rises about the need for more meaningful connection to the sources of our food.

Planning for Change

Farmers’ markets can be agents of change beyond creating thriving local food systems. PFM’s strategic plan includes a number of sustainability efforts—one being a three-year waste-reduction program named Evergreen. PFM exceeded their first-year goal of a 50 percent diversion rate (from landfill to recycling/composting). With this robust program, PFM calculated waste, set attainable targets, created stations and signage, as well as education resources for vendors and shoppers.

All organizations face challenges when they embark on sustainability efforts. Recycling and composting standards change and vary from place to place, which means that the Evergreen program needed to be flexible to accommodate this uncertainty. One example: What is considered compostable in one jurisdiction might not be in another. Food packaging that claims to be compostable may not meet existing standards. “Greenwashing” is an ongoing problem, which makes it hard to validate products and services. And as with most nonprofits, budgets and staff are often limited, making it hard to do all that you want with a program like this. But as Anna Curtain, brainchild of Evergreen, says, “We try not to let the perfect get in the way of the good.”

Collaborating

Without doubt, these efforts require pooling knowledge and resources. PFM collaborated with many entities—too numerous to list. It may take a village to raise a child, but it takes a great staff to use the village to create a vigorous commons. They took advantage of a Mayor’s grant to fund the planning and execution of the Evergreen program and sought the expertise of an event greening company to help them measure and predict waste. Adapting an existing model of a farmer’s market recycling station from another organization allowed them to put their energy into tailoring features specific to their needs and our local community.

Fostering Goodness

It is said that shopping at a farmer’s market creates ten times the interactions than at a typical grocery store. These connections that develop among and between shoppers and vendors satisfy a craving that people have to connect in more authentic ways than today’s world often allows. Musicians entertain, chefs inspire, farmers teach. Portland Farmers Market has created programs that range from greater access for low-income individuals to buy market produce, a market-friendly bike station, recipe station, and kids’ cooking events, to name a few. And many food purveyors like picklers, chocolatiers, popsicliers and bakers have had their start at the market. Over the years, 50 such vendors then blossomed into bricks-and-mortar businesses. There is an ongoing effort to nourish these budding “foodpreneurs.”

Evergreen booth: Photo by Allison Jones.

Save the date! November 4, 2010 8 a.m. – 5 p.m.

A one-day tour of the San Joaquin Valley that will challenge your perceptions about what agriculture is and what it could become.

In October, when the cotton is harvested and farms throughout the state of California are at the height of activity, The Sustainable Cotton Project offers a one-day tour traveling a central loop through the San Joaquin Valley. Participants gain a behind-the-scenes look at the many sides of
cotton production.

Come and see conventional cotton cultivation, the Sustainable Cotton Projects Cleaner Cotton program and learn about the different approaches to sustainability in cotton. A gin tour and a visit with a local doctor are included.

For details and to sign up for a tour, contact Marcia Gibbs, SCP program director, (530) 756 8518 ext. 34 or via e-mail at Marcia@sustainablecotton.org.

Registration deadline: Oct. 1, 2010.

Find out more about the Sustainable Cotton Project.

In 1999, the Monterey Bay Aquarium launched Seafood Watch in response to depleting fish stocks and habitat destruction on the West Coast of the United States. The initiative was positioned as a consumer-awareness campaign and featured a wallet-sized pocket guide listing the best fish to purchase at markets and restaurants. Several supporting informational pieces were developed, creating a brand experience stressing ease of usability and understanding. We modeled the design program after consumer retailers such as The Gap (product focused, positive, people-friendly). The strategy was to attract and recruit mainstream audiences – offering them an opportunity to make a simple, informed choice when purchasing seafood.

Developing the Seafood Watch program was an opportunity to redefine what a contemporary conservation brand could achieve. What began as a local consumer-awareness campaign has grown to include partnerships with major institutions and businesses across the U.S.

The overwhelming success of the program is changing the way individuals, corporations and government agencies understand and interact with ocean environments. In an unprecedented policy shift, the Target Corporation—one of the largest retailers in the United States—has announced the elimination of all farmed salmon products from its stores.

The Seafood Watch Pocket Guide design was featured in The New York Times Magazine Best 100 Ideas issue, has been featured on several national media outlets and is endorsed by renowned chefs and national retailers. More than 36 million Pocket Guides have been distributed nationwide since 1999. Updated regional pocket guides are now available on the Aquarium’s site.

Design lessons from the Seafood Watch Program:

• Simple is difficult. The tone and delivery of information is a critical component to the success or failure of a branding initiative. When speaking to a broad audience, edit down to the core message. Clarity promotes confidence and empowers the reader to make informed choices.

• Green as a “category” has been too narrowly focused. Invention and inspiration take a back seat to eco-styling and sameness positioning, a strategy that limits designers’ goals. Emerging sustainable initiatives have an opportunity to impact broader, mainstream audiences. Labels alienate, while empowerment and success lie in transparency and commitment.

“IBM has used environmental, social, and governance programs to establish its  presence in new markets. For example, the company uses its Small and Medium Enterprise (SME) Toolkit to develop a track record with local stakeholders, including government officials and  nongovernmental organizations (NGOs). In partnership with the World Bank’s International Finance Corporation, India’s ICICI Bank, Banco Real (Brazil), and Dun & Bradstreet Singapore, IBM is using the service to provide free Web-based resources on business management to small  and midsize enterprises in developing economies. Overall, there are 30 SME Toolkit sites, in 16 languages. Helping to build such businesses not only improves IBM’s reputation and relationships in new markets but also helps it to develop relationships with companies that could  become future customers.”

Filled with such real-life examples and well-organized data, this report is a great resource for businesses looking for quantifiable reasons to choose the socially responsible path.

Thumbnail image via McKinsey Quarterly.

Dutch product designer Debbie Wijskamp creates chests of drawers, vases, and shelves out of one material: recycled paper pulp. She didn’t always rely on this sustainable yet unusual product. As a student at ArtEZ, the Institute of the Arts in Arnhem, in the Netherlands, Wijskamp explored a full spectrum of materials, including polystyrene, stainless steel, and rubber. With them, she made prototypes for everything from pendant lamps and deconstructed lunch boxes to coat hangers and wall tiles. It wasn’t until Wijskamp began to more deeply consider the implications of “handmade” that she realized she was no longer interested in working with new, unsustainable, or non-local materials—no matter the end result.

Inspired by contemporary environmental design theorists and practitioners such as Victor Papanek, William McDonough, and Tony Fry, Wijskamp immediately turned to paper— discarded newspapers, specifically—to embark on a zero-waste quest for a truly handmade product line. Collecting old newspapers from family and friends, Wijskamp turned her kitchen into a pulp lab, running her small blender overtime to produce the watery sluice required for construction. Many newspapers and much mess later, Wijskamp had built her very first cabinet.

The intricate process of mold-making, slicing, and pulp-pasting means that no part of the structure is foreign—all of it is built from waste. “Designing my own building materials gives me a lot of freedom,” explains Wijskamp. This also means freedom from a cookie-cutter aesthetic, since each piece is unique: Some cabinets are tall, others are squat; some have drawers, others are akin to shelving units. Wijskamp has also designed a line of decorative paper urns, plates, vases, and other vessels, in which the textured paper is reminiscent of stoneware or antique pewter tableware.

Enthusiastic reception of the work has ranged from awe to disbelief, since clients can’t believe the functional, sturdy pieces are made entirely from waste. Now that she’s more adept with building from pulp, Wijskamp has reclaimed her kitchen: Today she collects readymade paper pulp from a recycling plant in Arnhem, and is learning how intervening in the recycling process at different stages can unveil new possibilities. Luckily the discovery process goes both ways: “They only make new paper from the waste,” she explained. “They had no idea some crazy girl could make cabinets from it.”

This event echoes internationally and has the aim of fostering reflections on how to design, produce and consume goods in alignment with the modern requirement of saving the planet’s future. Since the 80’s, this challenge has become a goal on the agenda of the World Environment and Development Commission of the UN.

In this context, the Brazilian Design Biennial 2010 – Curitiba will promote exhibits, seminars, discussion panels, workshops, and educational, interactive and cultural parallel actions. This year’s edition innovates in the sense that it doesn’t have a single venue, but happens in a variety of places in Curitiba. The program includes both traditional exhibit areas, such as museums and universities, and public spaces with high transit of pedestrians, such as parks and the XV de Novembro Street, the oldest pedestrian-only street in the country.

The initiative goes beyond the usual exhibit space and overflows out to the city. The organizers expect 250,000 visitors not only from the design and professional communities, but from the general community as well. Children, the elderly and the disabled will be provided the required infra-structure to enjoy the event safely and autonomously and rely on the help of trained guides and adapted content. Moreover, 500,000 internet users are expected to browse through the virtual exhibits and elect the product highlight of the Brazilian Design Biennial 2010 – Curitiba.

Take the “green silo” versus integrated sustainability topic, for one. Within a recent Inspired Economist post by Emili DeMasi about green MBA programs, specifically, lies what I see as a broader truth. In most cases, brands and organizations — like colleges –  are displaying their green label, rather than actually integrating sustainability throughout.

Just as was the big point in “Don’t Think Pink,” the book I co-authored on marketing to women, I could now write a book called “Don’t Think Green.” With both titles, and upon first bookstore glance, readers might think: “Well, that’s counter-intuitive. Why’s a sustainability (marketing to women) expert writing about NOT thinking green (pink)?” Because these are cultural transitions, not just static situations that will never change.

Think about it: Most businesses have gone from seeing women as this separate, oddly “new” or “emerging” market (!) to understanding that they are the market for the most part. Now companies are a lot better at transparently reaching them. Women expect that brands will serve their needs and ways of buying without a pink or “for women” label.

We now seem to be reaching that same historic point in the sustainability realm, whereby the consumers most brands want to reach are savvy to “greenwash”( a la special packaging or corporate reports that talk, but don’t necessarily walk sustainability). Instead, these folks may soon expect sustainability from brands, and from all angles (product design and marketing to facilities, fleet management and community relations, etc).

That being the case, rather than helping a brand, hypervisible “look at me” green marketing may actually hurt it. If you need to shout about it, will your customers believe you are taking steps to fully integrate sustainability throughout your corporation? Maybe not. A squeaky green wheel does, initially, help call attention to your company’s shift and let sustainably minded consumers know they’ve been heard. Still, at some point the wise brand oils that wheel, stops the shouting and makes sustainability a fluid and integral part of their every function.

Universities can’t teach all the traditional MBA classes and then offer a sustainability seminar on the side. It doesn’t make sense. In the same way, brands can’t do everything else the way they always have, but slap a green label on it. It reminds me of the early days of marketing active sports to women, where a snowboard or bike might be painted a pastel color and tagged “for women,” without any real design change. Don’t let the green version of this happen to you!

Whether for an MBA program or on a brand, green labels may “feel” like a step toward sustainability by those who cleverly thought them up. However, they can distract from and potentially delay more intentional and committed integration of true sustainability.

Why give prospective students or consumers anything to be suspicious of? Instead, truly serve the rising and serious green expectations of all your stakeholders, and leave the “we’re so green” label behind.

Andrea Learned is founder and president of Learned On, LLC, a consultancy focused on sustainable organizational and consumer behavior. The original version of this post appeared on Andrea’s “Learned On” blog and is reprinted with permission.

Image CC licensed by Flickr users Jeff Keen and Plutor.

Over two days, this summit will synergise optimal strategies and best practices from across three key industries and will proceed by offering three specific break-out sessions for each of the following sectors:

• Electronic Goods
• Consumer Goods
• Industrial Goods

The event will culminate in a round table discussion to facilitate industry collaboration and explore and merge ideas for the future.

Hammer 1.0 was a rock. Hammer 2.0 was a rock attached to a piece of wood, and the caveman that came up with that one must have been pretty pleased; he was the first ergonomicist.

Today we have tons of tools featuring a handle of one material and a head made of another, but there’s an ecological problem with this design: The two things can wear out at different rates. In my lifetime I’ve thrown away scores of toothbrushes because the bristles were spent, but I’ve never thrown one away because the handle wore out.

Full Circle is a company that “closely monitor[s] the environmental and social impact of our products,” and their Laid Back Dish Brush features a removeable brush head so you needn’t toss the whole thing out, but can keep buying replaceable heads as you need them. Here’s to hoping they start doing toothbrushes.